Jane Austen has presented the world with one of the greatest masterpieces of the times of ladies and gentlemen. The story can be correlated with the modern world as the author has shown the most common problems in societies that stay unsolved these days. For instance, the story proposes to the reader a love line that does not have stability, and the book usually has an unpredictable turn of events. The main characters are Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, and throughout the book, the relationship between these two characters is being developed (Austen 18). The author proposes that people usually meet obstacles in creating relationships, and I believe that this is true as individuals always need to receive social acceptance, which might contradict love intentions. I will elaborate on the author’s message by providing relevant quotes from the book.
It is important to understand the representatives of pride and prejudice as this division may allow readers to understand the characters’ mindsets and get a better vision of the story. For instance, Elizabeth Bennet, who is the daughter of Mr. Bennet, is a common representative of prejudice as she is smart and can prove her point of view (Austen 51). However, Fitzwilliam Darcy is intelligent and calm, making him closer to the pride group. His temper is not expressive, and during the book, the character admires the strong mind of his lover Elizabeth.
The story introduces the readers to such characters as Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, and the author tries to show through the example of this family that there should be a balance between pride and prejudice types of people. While Mrs. Bennet is an active woman who wants her daughters to be married in the nearest future, Ms. Bennet is a humoristic person who loves his daughters without constantly thinking about their marital statuses. Mrs. Bennet is prejudiced in the story as she is always interested in others’ lives: “Mrs. Bennet’s eyes sparkled with pleasure, and she was eagerly calling out, while her daughter read.” (Austen 67). Controversially, Mr. Bennet is a pride character of the story who does not think about potential problems and resolves them only when they appear.
I believe that Jane Austen has presented different personalities in the book to show that individuals complement other people and opposites attract depending on the character type. Moreover, characters with difficult and harsh tempers might make readers tired, and the interest in the story may be lost. Consequently, the author aims to divide the people from the story into two specific groups to catch the reader’s attention and maintain their interest until the last page of the book.
As Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are the main characters of the story who are representatives of pride and prejudice, they can explain the purpose of Austen’s writing. Austen states: “This pride needs to be performed, indeed, by Elizabeth’s salutary rejection of his proposal of marriage; but the novel shows the social discomfort that it produces to be of less consequence than the great goof that Darcy’s power allows him to do” (19). The author mentions that people for several centuries were not able to rely only on their feelings, but social status played a significant role. Consequently, the reader can see the conflict forming that does not allow the characters to develop their relationships. “Elizabeth’s witty refusal to be awed by Darcy as a man is so attractive, so entertaining, that it is hard to feel that its is fundamentally wrong,” said Austen to show how people sacrificed their feeling to maintain status (20). Mismatch in characters and social identities raised a conflict which is elaborated throughout the story.
In conclusion, Jane Austen managed to represent the actions of the nineteenth century by correlating problems with modern times. People of different mindsets of pride and prejudice have to give up such things as love to meet the expectations of the surrounding society. Moreover, they have to follow family traditions to reduce the risk of disturbing the pedigree and save future generations from the problem with the level of social status.
Work Cited
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Broadview Press Ltd., 1817.
