Examine the treatment of irony in Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813) is a novel containing heavy ironies and it is peppered with ideological arguments. In its moral concerns, Pride and Prejudice has many affinities with 18th century literature, which valued reason, order and common sense, and liked to laugh at the folly of those who did not aspire to these values. However in this novel Austen also explores the ironies of society and the fickleness of public opinion, and she accomplishes this by using an ironic narrator, and ironic characters. In doing this she allows her characters to say one thing whilst meaning ano…