Pride and Prejudice

The 19th century book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin is an excellent reflection of the quote “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but a more useful life than spent doing nothing”, as once said by George Benard Shaw. The story itself is one of foolish misunderstandings, judgments, and the consequences of such mistakes. Elizabeth Bennet, one of the five daughters of her family makes these kinds of decisions, particularly with her stubborn nature. This is one such case when she meets Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, quickly branding him as arrogant and prideful. In the world of eighteen hundred England, a family always hopes to marry their daughters off to wealthy husbands. With willful and independent Elizabeth, however, this will not be simple. Through series of events and their results, Elizabeth begins to realize that first impressions are not what they really seem to be. In the end, the reader is surprised with the conclusion of Elizabeth’s marriage to Mr. Darcy.

There are numerous interpretations to the quote “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but a more useful life than spent doing nothing”. For example, when people make mistakes, they learn from it whereas from doing nothing at all, nothing is gained towards knowledge. In addition, it is more honorable to make mistakes rather than doing nothing because it takes a certain amount of bravery to make mistakes and admit to them. In Pride and Prejudice, there are several events where a character has made a mistake, but he/she realizes that before it is too late and overcomes his/her error. Meanwhile, the main theme revolves around the consequences of the mistake from first impressions.

One of the major events that reflect this quote is how Elizabeth Bennet first judges Mr. Darcy. She considers him extremely prideful, and her attitude in talking to him reflects her thought of him. Adding to this is the story of Mr. Darcy from a new yet well-liked acquaintance, which further increases Elizabeth’s dislike of him. However, it turns out that this story is one-sided, and the other side of it, after Elizabeth learns of it, begins to change her opinion. She also realizes her mistake in that. After several more encounters, which are quite unlike the first few ones, Mr. Darcy asks Elizabeth to marry him, which she accepts. In this, she accepts her mistake with dignity, and did the right thing to make up for it. It also turned out to be quite useful, as she learned from this mistake in terms of making judgments