Every reader of the novel Pride and Prejudice, whether beginner or veteran, has certain expectations and apprehensions based on its incredible popularity and fame. The same can be said for the media, whose recent overuse of the famous opening phrase, "It is a truth universally acknowledged," can be found repeated in the opening of many news articles, magazines or blogs announcing some credible link or doubt. to Jane Austen's characters or plot. Interestingly, it has become the meme du jour passed down and reused by those who want to appear informed, but sadly miss the point. It is questionable whether the profound truths of Pride and Prejudice can be reduced to simple universally recognized jokes. If the novel were so easy to understand we wouldn't care and, after nearly two hundred years, it would have been lost to obscurity! What you can expect, however, is much more; a compelling plot that makes you think and reevaluate the characters every step along the way, witty, sharp, and funny dialogue that others long to emulate but can never quite achieve, and a love story that could reign supreme throughout 'eternity. With all these expectations ahead of us, who couldn't be a little intimidated? Supposedly a romance novel, a novel that many romance readers feel called to read: _Pride and Prejudice_Other examples of Austen's use of irony abound in the novel. “Many pages of Pride and Prejudice can be read as pure poetry of wit, like [Alexander] Pope without couplets,” writes Reuben A. Brower in “Light and Bright and Sparkling: Irony and Fiction in Pride and Prejudice.” “The triumph of the novel, whatever its limitations, lies in combining this poetry of wit,” the critic concludes, “with the dramatic structure of fiction.” -------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------“It is a universally recognized truth, that one Single man possessing a good fortune, must be looking for a wife. " - An excerpt from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice This is the opening line of Pride and Prejudice and represents one of the famous lines in literature. The quote is significant in the context of the novel because Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters represent dependent young women that they must marry well to remain respectable, or even to advance up the social ladder The phrase therefore is also confirmation of Austen's belief that women in her society were very dependent on marriage and this has progressed to such an extent that women have so. ended up considering all rich bachelors as prey..