Pride And Prejudice Comparative Essay

When both the narrator and Mr. Darcy begin to realize the inevitability importance of passion over logic to reach happiness, they make the attempts to change their mindset and through the poem’s last tone shift, it is clear that the relation between Darcy’s choices and the poem’s ending coincide. Marking the beginning of the tone shift, the poem begins to sound epiphanic and loving instead of judgemental as the narrator exclaims, “No- yet still stedfast, still unchangeable” (Keats 9). In the great conflict between emotions and reason, Austen and Keats make their literary characters accept reality as both men finally succumb to their love despite the unchanging social standards. Thus, Darcy parallels the surrendering tone in the poem by comprehending

Darcy. “‘My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” (Austen 350). This first proposal speaks volumes as Darcy makes a statement opposing his own mindfulness; being a man who holds in high esteem his ability to deduce a person by a first glance, Darcy ultimately swallows his pride when confronted for his affections for Elizabeth. Darcy displays his attempts to douse his passionate feelings with what he believes to be rational as he knows the inferiority of Elizabeth’s connections; however, his attempts failed in vain as love will not submit. Likewise to the tenderness of Darcy’s nature, using a display of diction, the narrator gives the poem life and warmth by describing his desire to be “Pillow’d upon” (Keats 10) his “fair love’s ripening breast” (Keats 10). The diction, notably the words pillow’d, fair, and ripening, are chosen to have soft and caressing connotations. The warm enveloping pillow, the beauty of a fair maiden, and the bursting tenderness of a lover’s breast all create a euphony that is otherwise absent in the rest of the poem and this same sweet sound is heard when Darcy refers to

The initial conventional tone of the poem describing the certainty in the star’s life mimics the generalized societal standard for an accomplished woman that Darcy is expected to marry; however, the tone promptly becomes contemplative as an understanding that the general ideal may be faulty arises. Furthermore, Pride and Prejudice and Bright Star both take on a disapproving tone when reflecting on the dreariness of life if one solely follows logic. Notably, both literary works end in a self-consciousness about how logic must always surrender to love as the admiring tone of both men express the power passion has over one’s mind. Although both pieces of literature are works of fiction, they undoubtedly highlight a real rivalry between the decisions to follow their heart or what they have been taught all their lives. These seemingly fictional stories are perspectives on reality that emulate the hardships when opposing traditionally concrete ideologies. Thus, not everyone will have the luxury of following their heart; however, both Bright Star and Pride and Prejudice remind the reader that only thinking analytically is not beneficial to one’s happiness as joy is not