Pride and Prejudice Essay

This is an unrevised version of the essay. Sorry! I don't have another version.

Sometimes at the moment of reading a novel, we can feel that the author reflects our own feelings; in fact, we can easily imagine our own life printed in the book. It is the case of Jane Austen’s novels, in which she presents us human relationships through either a very natural or critical view: showing its virtues and defects.

One of her most distinguished novels is Pride and Prejudice. In this novel Jane Austen’s critic eye portrayed the English countryside society of the late 18th century. Mainly, the story is centered in one family, the Bennets. They lived in Longbourn very near Netherfield Park where a “single man of large fortune” arrived. This young bachelor called Charles Bingley is a “good-looking and gentlemanlike”; he arrived with his two sisters, the husband of the eldest one, and his best friend, Mr. Darcy, an intelligent, wealthy and reserved man. After their arrival, their new neighbors invited them to a ball at the Assembly Rooms.

During the ball Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley immediately like each other; in contrast Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet reject each other, in fact when Charles tell Darcy that Elizabeth was “very pretty and agreeable”, he answered coldly “she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.” Nevertheless, both the Bingleys and the Bennets established a close relationship, as Charles and Jane were visibly attracted. Charles’ sisters liked Jane but considered Elizabeth very proud and impertinent; they considered Mrs. Bennet and her youngest daughters tedious as well as with no manners.

On the other hand, Mr. Darcy started to develop some interest towards Elizabeth, but she still had her prejudice against him which was increased by Mr. Wickham, a handsome young officer, who told Elizabeth that he was the son of a trusted steward of Darcy’s father, and Darcy, envious of his father’s feelings towards Wickham, didn’t fulfill his father’s wish.

Due to the Bennets had a small fortune and no male heir, the fortune will be inherited by Mr. Bennet’s cousin, William Collins who arrived at Longbourn state .The arrival of Collins had just one goal: to persuade one of the daughters to marry him. First he chose Jane, but, according to Mrs. Bennet, she was “likely to be very soon engaged,” so he changed from Jane to Elizabeth, who rejected his proposal right away. Finally, he proposed to Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s best friend, and she accepted resigned.

After a while, Elizabeth went to visit Mr. and Mrs. Collins at Huntsford, where she found out that Darcy was also in the neighborhood; but her prejudices remained the same, since she supposed that Darcy caused Bingley departure from Netherfield living Jane with her heart broken. Therefore, her surprise was such that when Darcy suddenly told her that he loved her: “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” Then he added that he liked her against his will, against his reason, and even against his character. This ‘queer’ proposal led

to an instant rejection by Elizabeth who explained all the reasons she had for reject him. Before Mr. Darcy’s departure, he left a letter to Elizabeth explaining all the misunderstandings that made her prejudices grew up. After reading the letter, Elizabeth’s feelings changed drastically and now she felt very ashamed about her prejudices against Mr. Darcy. When Elizabeth was in a way feeling attracted by Darcy, Lydia her youngest sister escaped with Mr. Wickham causing a big scandal. The Bennets were devastated, now they had a daughter in disgrace. But Darcy found the couple and persuaded Wickham to marry Lydia “by paying off a thousand pounds of his debts, buying him an army commission, and setting another thousand pounds to Lydia.” When Darcy proposed Elizabeth a second time, she was surely in love with him, she accepted gladly. At the end of the novel, Jane and Bingley were engaged, just as Darcy and Elizabeth.

When Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, she presented us clear images of what she saw around her: a society very much concerned about money, social classes, marriage, and courtship. Her “sharp powers of observation” (Punter 77) showed several topics very well developed such as social classes. This topic played a major role in the novel since Jane Austen presented us the upper class divided into the wealthy ones and the less wealthy. So people of higher status are very proud of themselves and do not like to socialize with the rest of the people (lower class). But Jane Austen’s characterization of social classes is under the eye of irony; actually irony is the instrument to perceive the world. Therefore, (Pitol 16) she mocked of higher