Elizabeth Bennet: Headstrong to Humble

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Recommended: Pride and prejudice literary criticism

Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s personality is expressed throughout Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with an intelligent and headstrong flair. She is incomparable to the women of her time, who mostly suffered from ignorance, blindly accepting that marrying for wealth and security would lead to happiness and success. What separates Elizabeth from these other women is that Elizabeth is a firm believer in independence as well as marrying for love, and it is this that reflects Elizabeth’s intelligence. This intelligence however, does not shelter her from having a prejudiced nature. Elizabeth is the representation of prejudice in the novel (while the counterpart of pride is characterized by Mr. Darcy). Though Elizabeth has several admirable traits, her biggest personality downfall is that she falls prey to being crippling prejudiced when dealing with other people.
Elizabeth Bennet prides herself on being able to recognize personalities and understand them with relative ease. She expresses this ability several times throughout the novel with several people. The two people Elizabeth misinterpret most are Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham. She is especially prejudiced towards Mr. Darcy; she considers him to have a very proud and arrogant character. She comes to this conclusion around the first time she ever sees Mr. Darcy, even though she never holds a conversation with him or considers any other possibilities for his seemingly rude actions. She allows this first impression to pollute her and her opinions of Mr. Darcy. This opinion of hers is heightened even more when she meets Mr. Wickham for the first time. Elizabeth immediately recognizes the charm and good nature of Mr. Wickham which leads her to trusting him and believing his lies about Darc...

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...ibly marry Darcy, it is completely understood that she is in love with him and desires to be with him, which eventually takes place at the end of the story.
Elizabeth’s role in Pride and Prejudice contains one of the largest lessons found in the book. The reader is able to see the fault of a prejudice nature and the folly it can lead to, but then see that nature be delivered to one that is not prejudice. Elizabeth’s growth draws a beautiful picture of admitting one’s faults and also waiting for true love. Elizabeth Bennet’s character truly allows the story to take a lovely form with depth and contrast to compare to others in the story.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane, and Carol Howard. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print.
Caggiano, Courtney. “A Lesson From Elizabeth Bennet.” Darlingmagazine.org. N.p., 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2014.

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