Fiction of Jane Austen’s period treated its characters as moral exemplars, as well as imaginary human beings. One quality that distinguishes Austen’s work from her contemporaries is that she allows her “exemplary” characters to have flaws. In what ways is Elizabeth Bennet exemplary, and in what ways is she flawed? Compare her to other characters in Pride and Prejudice as you develop your answer.
. While Austen created these characters for our amusement, each one represents something she wishes to comment on about her bourgeois society. Pride and Prejudice was considered to be a modern piece of literature for the time it was written and to this day we are still able to empathise with the characters in Austen’s novel. Pride and Prejudice is
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She will not ‘settle’ for anything less than true love and happiness. This is a rather modern viewpoint for the time considering that marrying well is considered a woman’s duty, especially those of the upper class. The standard view on marriage at the time is foregrounded in the first sentence of the novel. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Austen, p1.) Elizabeth does not want to marry for fortune she wishes to marry for love. In the novel Elizabeth receives 3 proposals. The first from Mr Collins whom she finds ( ) and declines. The second and the third from mr Darcy who proposes to her once, she declines as she ( ) and after ( ) he proposes for a second time and Elizabeth …show more content…
Elizabeth is certainly the person in the novel who holds most of the prejudice. The idea of prejudice and naivety is shown in the novel first when she meets Mr. Darcy and secondly when she meets Mr. Wickham. Austen’s powerful and masterful art of shifting our allegiances is clearly seen in her depiction of Mr Wickham and Mr Darcy. We are positioned to be pro the former and against the later until the turning point later in the story when Elizabeth’s eyes are opened to their real character. Elizabeth first believes Mr. Darcy to be “very disagreeable” after he insults her at the ball at Netherfield. Elizabeth also is easily blown away by Wickham’s charms and takes everything he says in its exactness. Later in the novel it becomes apparent that Mr. Darcy is more good character than is first believed when he saves the Bennet’s reputation from being perpetually tarnished. The reputation of the Bennet’s is saved when Darcy rushes to their aid after Wickham elopes with Lydia. Darcy forces them to marry to save the family embarrassment and pays for the wedding. Mrs Gardiner explains this to Elizabeth in a letter. Elizabeth instantly feels foolish for having judged Mr Darcy in such a manner. ``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
In her novel, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen used the character of Elizabeth Bennet to epitomize the harmonious balance between reason and emotion in a woman, making her a truly admirable and attractive character.
Mr. Darcy is a character who represents moral ambiguity throughout most of the novel. His wealthy social status can make him be discriminatory and be patronizing to those who he believes are inferior to him, however, those characteristics slowly fade away as he becomes more acquainted with Lizzy in the final chapters. He is prideful yet noble and honorable to those who have a chance to know him personally. Mr. Darcy’s character allows for Jane Austen to reveal the effects pride can have on
As a retaliation Elizabeth stuns Darcy by refusing his proposal very harshly stating "I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry." This shows the extent of her prejudice against Darcy as she says that even from the beginning she disliked him. She condemns him for his arrogant manner in which he proposed his actions to separate Jane and Bingley and his actions of unfairness on Wickham. He accepts these accusations without apology, even with contempt. However, he flinches when she accuses him of not behaving like a gentleman and when Elizabeth finishes her denunciation of him, Darcy angrily departs.
It is evident that Austen did not like the general role that women took on in the early nineteenth century, with no financial independence and an expectation to serve the rest of their lives being a good wife and mother with only the accomplishments such as music and art, to excite them. I have first decided to comment on the relationship between Mr and Mrs Bennet. Mr Bennet clearly regrets his marriage to Mrs Bennet and realises that he was really only attracted to her beauty and wealth, rather than her personality. This runs parallel to the relationship between Lydia and Mr Wickham.
...ews of these ideologies. While Elizabeth does accept many of the norms of the period she also challenges the purpose for marriage and has an outspoken mind. Her confident personality doesn’t allow the fact that she has less wealth than many others and is constantly being scorned at to interfere with her happiness. She doesn’t permit the social expectations of her times to hinder her strong beliefs and fate in life. Pride and Prejudice is so vastly different to most other novels during the early 19th century that Jane Austen must have held some very alternative views. The heroine Elizabeth challenges the most social expectations of that time and she ends up the happiest of all the characters. This theme must have opened Romantic readers minds, perhaps to the way society should be and this I believe is why this novel is one of the great classics of English literature.
Pride and Prejudice is set in the small English town of Longbourn. When a rich, single man moves into the Bennets’ neighborhood, he is immediately considered as a possibly husband by all the single women in the neighborhood, Possibly the most hopeful of the mothers is Mrs. Bennet, mother of Jane, Elizabeth, Kitty, Lydia, and Mary Bennet. With all five of her daughters unmarried and her husband’s fortune entailed to a distant relative, Mrs. Bennet is desperate for her girls to marry well. During a ball hosted by Bingley, he and Jane develop strong feelings for eachother. At the same time, Elizabeth and Bingley’s close friend, Darcy, form very bad relations. Their attitudes toward each other only grow worse with the entrance of Wickham, whose militia is stationed in town. Elizabeth and Wickham meet, and Wickham tells Elizabeth stories of how Darcy ruined his life. At this point Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy is very poor, and it becomes even lower when she learns that Darcy is the one that encouraged Bingley to leave town, consequently breaking her sister’s heart. Over time, Darcy develops strong feelings for Elizabeth. When he finally tells her how he feels and proposes to her, however, he is met by anger and rejection. Shortly after, Elizabet...
Elizabeth Bennet fits many of these traditional bildungsroman characteristics. She begins the novel as a clever, but somewhat immature protagonist. While she initially revels in her powers of discernment, she later learns that she has allowed prejudice and her own pride to blind herself to reality. Her ‘education’ and ‘maturity’ are the main focus of the novel. Sadly, her journey to self-realization is often ignored in favor of focusing the attention on the romance between her and Mr. Darcy.
Elizabeth Bennet is the second oldest in a family of five girls and no boys. Her family is what some people might call a dysfunctional one. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have opposite and clashing personalities but at the same time they share a likeness. Mr. Bennet is not a social man and does not communicate with his family much. He is often found through out the novel hiding away in his library with a book. While on the other hand Mrs. Bennet is very social, does not shut her mouth and has probably read very few books in her life. She is portrayed as a modern day airhead who runs her life to please onlookers. No matter how opposite they sound they do have one joining quality. Mr. And Mrs. Bennet are both far from being good parents and successful authority figures. That is where Elizabeth's problems begin.
...Bennet up as the protagonist whose unusual actions place her outside the social pale and who does not fit any of the four main female stereotypes, it can be suggested that Austen does to an extent challenge the idea of women being subsidiary to men. However, the ultimate concern of the majority of characters is marriage and how they can achieve a good one. Structurally the novel ends with marriage and this is seen as the resolution as the females are completed by marriage. For example, Lydia Bennet is only seen as a restored woman after she marries Mr. Wickham and as a reader this is the end of her story- her marriage resolves her journey. It is in this that, despite the appearance of strong characters such as Lizzie, Austen does not challenge traditional female roles as the conclusion of the novel centres around the characters reaching fulfilment through marriage.
Through these characters, the reader learns about Mrs Bennet’s biggest concern; to marry off all her daughters. The themes of the novel are mostly related to the title, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, there is an element of personal pride amongst the characters and also prejudice, particularly with Darcy and Elizabeth. The first chapter brings in the reader into the world of social class importance, marriage and women’s role in the 19th century, which is satirized by Austen.
The reader is first acquainted with Mr. Darcy's arrogance at the Meryton Ball. Speaking of Elizabeth Bennet, he so snobbishly says that she was, " tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me" (Austen 9). His feelings of superiority to the people of the town lend Mr. Darcy to be judged as a man with a repulsive and cruel personality. The women, who had found him dashingly attractive at first glance, deemed him a man unworthy of marriage because he offered no positive qualities other than wealth. Not only did Darcy refuse to dance with Elizabeth, but he makes it clear that no woman in the room was worthy or met his standards of a suitable partner stating that, " there is not another woman in this room, whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with" (Austen 8). In the beginning of the novel, Mr. Darcy is only concerned with the wealth and social standing of the people in the town. Because of their lesser social rank, he feels they are un-deserving of his presence and refuses to communicate with them. As the novel progressed, however, Darcy became more and more accepting of the Bennet family. Growing most fond of Elizabeth Bennet, the straightforward, clever daughter, he finally breaks and confesses his true feelings of love for her. "In vain...
The plot of the novel follows traditional plot guidelines; although there are many small conflicts, there is one central conflict that sets the scene for the novel. The novel is about an embarrassing; mismatched couple and their five daughters. The novel begins with Mrs. Bennet, telling her daughters of the importance of marrying well. During this time a wealthy man, Charles Bingley, moves close to Netherfield, where the Bennets’ reside. The Bennet girls struggle to capture his attention, and Jane, who judges no one, is the daughter who manages to win his heart, until Mr. Bingley abruptly leaves town. Mr. Bingley is often accompanied by Fitzwilliam Darcy, who is a very proud man. Elizabeth Bennet, who is proud of herself, and Mr. Darcy are not fond of one another from the start, these two characters pose the central conflict in the novel. As the novel progresses, Elizabeth receives a marriage proposal from her cousin, Mr. Collins, and turns him down. Mr. Collins then proposes to Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s bestfriend, who accepts. Elizabeth then leaves home to stay with, the Collins’ who live near Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy’s aunt. While this is going on, Mr. Darcy realizes he has feelings for Elizabeth and proposes to her, this is the climax of the novel. She is astonished by his actions, and turns him flat down. She explains that she feels he is arrogant, and feels he stood in the way of Jane and Mr. Bingley marrying, and also feels he is a cruel man, especially in his treating of Mr. Wickham, she is expressing her prejudice towards him. He leaves and they part very angry with each other. Mr. Darcy then writes Elizabeth a letter, explaining his feelings, defending his actions, and reveling the true nature of Mr. Wickham. During this time Elizabeth returns home still baffled about the letter Mr....
The main protagonist of the story, Elizabeth Bennet (nicknamed both Lizzy and Eliza), is the second daughter in the Bennet family. Second only to her elder sister in beauty, Elizabeth’s figure is said to be “light and pleasing,” with “dark eyes,” and “intelligent…expression” (24). At 20 years old, she is still creating her place in society. Known for her wit and playful nature, “Elizabeth is the soul of Pride and Prejudice, [she] reveals in her own person the very title qualities that she spots so easily” (“Pride and Prejudice”) in others. Her insightfulness often leads her to jump to conclusions and think herself above social demand. These tendencies lead her to be prejudice towards others; this is an essential characteristic of her role
It has been argued that the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, is the core of the novel. This is not a hard case to persuade someone of. Austen spends most of the story detailing their progression. Moreover, theirs is one of the more exciting plot lines (aside from Lydia’s imprudent marriage to Wickham). We follow Darcy and Elizabeth from their first disastrous meeting until their engagement. Before their union, though, there is an apparent change in the both characters. The change is incited by each other, but there is a greater force also acting upon them. Nature alleviates the tensions and confusions the pair feels of one another and of society. This opposition between Darcy
The roles of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice are contrasted between a father who cares about what’s inside of people and a mother who only worries about vanity and appearance. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s parental guidance is unique to their personalities. Because of their two opposing personas, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s ideas of marriage are contradictory for their daughters; Mr. Bennet believes in a loving respectful marriage whereas Mrs. Bennet values a marriage which concerns wealth and social status. Their aspirations for Lydia, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Elizabeth mirror their conflicting ideologies. Mr. Bennet seems to have a quiet deep love for his daughters while, on the contrary, Mrs. Bennet’s love is over-acted and conditional. Both parents help to shape their daughters’ characteristics and beliefs: Lydia reflecting Mrs. Bennet’s flighty and excessive behavior while Elizabeth inherits Mr. Bennet’s pensive and reflective temperament. Looking past their dissimilar personality traits and contradicting convictions, both parents hold the family together and play an integral role in the household structure.