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# Opening Remarks
- URL: https://www.rebindclassics.com/pride-and-prejudice-opening-remarks/
- Published: 2026-01-02T00:01:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:28:35.000Z
- Description: Stein reads chapter one as a study in power: Mrs. Bennet can't act until her husband does, but she can make his life miserable.
- Author: Andrew Wessels
- Tags: Sadie Stein on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, #video

Sadie Stein takes the first chapter of Jane Austen's *Pride and Prejudice* as a piece of stagecraft, starting with the line everyone knows. The first spoken words go to Mrs. Bennet, and Stein reads that as deliberate: Austen is establishing her as a force to be reckoned with and a driver of action. In a few pages we get five daughters, Bingley renting Netherfield, an income of 4,000 pounds, and a married couple with nothing in common, which Stein doesn't think is accidental.

The turn is her point about power. Society says the women can't do anything until Mr. Bennet calls on the newcomer, so Mrs. Bennet is stuck waiting on her husband; what she can do is make his life miserable. Stein also flags Austen's method with dialogue, a quick braid of quotation, indirect speech and narration, and leaves you with a question for the chapters ahead: who actually holds the power in this family, and what markers of status has Austen already dropped?

## Transcript

"It's a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Right away, Austen's narrator is setting the scene. This is a book about marriage, and just as much, it's a book about community. Zoom in on one family, the Bennets. The first line goes to Mrs. Bennet. Austen is establishing her as a force to be reckoned with and a driver of action.

Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are the only characters we fully meet in this first chapter, and we immediately learn who they are. She is ambitious and obsessed with marriage and class. He is detached and somewhat passive. It's a short chapter, but look at how much crucial information we've already learned. This is an insular community. The Bennets have five daughters. Lizzy is her father's favorite. Jane is the beauty. Lydia is high-spirited. Bingley is renting Netherfield Park. The Lucases are a big deal locally. £4,000 is a major income, and an eligible bachelor like this is a major catch.

More than this, we've learned that this is a married couple with nothing in common. The entire story will play out against the background of their relatively unhappy marriage, and I don't think that's accidental. This short scene is all about power dynamics. Who is in charge, who makes decisions, and why? Mrs. Bennet can't do anything until her husband acts, but she has the power to make his life miserable.

It's also about rules. Society dictates that the women in the family can't do anything until Mr. Bennet calls on the newcomer. Mr. Bingley is basically expected, sight unseen, to change everyone's lives. Notice Austen's assured style. She sketches each character deftly in just a few lines, and you very quickly get a sense of the witty, omniscient narrator who is quick to pass judgment and at times feels almost like a Greek chorus, ironically conveying the feelings of the entire community.

Take a second to notice as you read how Austen handles dialogue: a characteristic combination of quotation; what's called indirect speech, describing what the character has said; and narration. The result moves along very quickly and allows characters and narrator to develop simultaneously.

Here are a few things to keep in mind going forward. Who do you think holds the power in this family, and why? What sense have you gotten of where they are on the social scale? What different markers of status has Austen already dropped? What does the larger family dynamic seem to be? I think we're about to find out.