Pride and Prejudice - Volume 1 Development of Elizabeth Bennet

Jane Austen's classic comedy of manners novel "Pride and Prejudice" depicts the life of protagonist main character Elizabeth Bennet. Using her typical "light and bright, and sparkling" tone, Austen uses themes of love, reputation and class to highlight the development of Elizabeth's character in the first volume of the novel. Set in rural England during the Napoleonic Wars the writer shows how setting, in both time and place, has an impact on the main character.

The opening sentence of the novel establishes Austen's central figure point of the advantageous marriage, a fundamental social value of Regency England:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Echoed throughout the novel, these lines have a subtle, unstated significance, hiding the truth of the matter; that a single woman must be in want of a husband, especially a wealthy one. This can be clearly seen throughout the opening chapter which consists almost entirely of dialogue, with Austen using the manner in which characters express themselves to reveal their traits and attitudes.

From this it is established that Elizabeth, the second oldest of five sisters, is her fathers favourite with "something