<P> Through their interactions and their critiques of each other, Darcy and Elizabeth come to recognise their own faults and work to correct them . Elizabeth meditates on her own mistakes thoroughly in chapter 36: </P> <P> "How despicably have I acted!" she cried; "I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable distrust . How humiliating is this discovery! yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind . But vanity, not love, has been my folly . Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned . Till this moment I never knew myself ." </P> <P> Other characters rarely exhibit this depth of self - reflection--or at least are not given the space within the novel for this sort of development . Tanner notes that Mrs. Bennet in particular, "has a very limited view of the requirements of that performance; lacking any introspective tendencies she is incapable of appreciating the feelings of others and is only aware of material objects ." Mrs. Bennet's behaviour reflects the society in which she lives, as she knows that her daughters will not succeed if they don't get married: "The business of her life was to get her daughters married: its solace was visiting and news ." This proves that Mrs. Bennet is only aware of "material objects" and not of her own feelings and emotions . </P> <P> Pride and Prejudice, like most of Austen's other works, employs the narrative technique of free indirect speech, which has been defined as "the free representation of a character's speech, by which one means, not words actually spoken by a character, but the words that typify the character's thoughts, or the way the character would think or speak, if she thought or spoke". Austen creates her characters with fully developed personalities and unique voices . Though Darcy and Elizabeth are very alike, they are also considerably different . By using narrative that adopts the tone and vocabulary of a particular character (in this case, Elizabeth), Austen invites the reader to follow events from Elizabeth's viewpoint, sharing her prejudices and misapprehensions . "The learning curve, while undergone by both protagonists, is disclosed to us solely through Elizabeth's point of view and her free indirect speech is essential...for it is through it that we remain caught, if not stuck, within Elizabeth's misprisions ." The few times the reader is allowed to gain further knowledge of another character's feelings, is through the letters exchanged in this novel . Darcy's first letter to Elizabeth is an example of this as through his letter, the reader and Elizabeth are both given knowledge of Wickham's true character . Austen is known to use irony throughout the novel especially from viewpoint of the character of Elizabeth Bennet . She conveys the "oppressive rules of femininity that actually dominate her life and work, and are covered by her beautifully carved trojan horse of ironic distance .". Beginning with a historical investigation of the development of a particular literary form and then transitioning into empirical verifications, it reveals Free Indirect Discourse as a tool that emerged over time as practical means for addressing the physical distinctness of minds . Seen in this way, Free Indirect Discourse is a distinctly literary response to an environmental concern, providing a scientific justification that does not reduce literature to a mechanical extension of biology, but takes its value to be its own original form . </P>

Where does pride and prejudice take place in the book