Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, was written in perspective of the time era Jane Austen grew up in. At a young age, Austen was subjected to this very conformed society, where a suited woman was married into a family for money/estates. In an article written about Austen’s life, “Jane Austen and the Province of Womanhood,” by Alison Sulloway, a precise background of why Jane Austen wrote pride and prejudice is conveyed, and how it pertains to her life. In this article, she explains how Austen was fully knowledgeable by her teen years on the value of women and their role in society. She stated that women referred to their feelings as “female incarceration”, as if they felt “imprisoned.” Jane Austen also discussed her family life, and how her

Pride and Prejudice is a novel with a romantic yet ironic story. This completes Jane Austen’s masterpiece. The novel is about women in society and marriage. Austen uses sarcasm as the tone of the novel to make the story ironic. The tone is sarcastic because of the way Elizabeth Bennet is portrayed, the relationship between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, and the situations her characters are in.

While moral Jane remains an invalid, captive at the Bingleys, her satirical sister Elizabeth walks two miles along muddy roads to help nurse her…While Jane remains at home, lovesick but uncomplaining, Elizabeth accompanies the Gardiners on a walking tour of Derbyshire. Jane’s docility, gentleness, and benevolence are remarkable, for she suffers silently throughout the entire plot… (Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, 65)

Fitting with the common theme between the two novels of the judgment of others, each heroine falls victim to a horrible misjudgment of the character of another. After discovering that the engagement between her brother and her friend Isabella has been broken, Catherine finds she has grossly misjudged her friend’s character, and thinks, “She was ashamed of Isabella, ashamed of ever having loved her” (Northanger 150). Elizabeth, on the other hand, finds her attachment the Wickham wholly inappropriate after receiving her letter from Mr. Darcy. After digesting the shocking contents of the letter, Elizabeth “grew absolutely ashamed of herself.—Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd” (Pride 156). And indeed, as suggested by Elizabeth’s mention of Darcy, this misjudgment goes on to affect each girl’s attachment to her future husband.

Even though, Elizabeth is very smart she is too quick to let her opinions stop her from understanding the people around her. She also lets her emotions cloud her judgment, especially when her friend Charlotte Lucas decides to marry Mr. Collins. She states, “And to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem, was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen”(87). About halfway through the book, Elizabeth realizes ‘“How despicably have I acted!” she cried. “I, who have prided myself on my discernment... Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment, I never knew myself”’. She sees that her clouded judgment has misled her in seeing the true nature of Darcy and Wickham. Towards the end Elizabeth and Darcy are finally together and she reveals to him that she was being rude towards him at the beginning and he tells her that he was attracted to her because of her ‘liveliness ’, she tells him “You may as well call it impertinence at once. It was very little less”. In observing this evolution Austen shows us that we need to put our pride

In addition, Elizabeth’s early judgment of Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst cause her to sever future opportunities of amiability with the two by declaring that she could never like them (25).

    "Like all true literary classics, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is still capable of engaging us, both emotionally and intellectually" (Twayne back flap) through its characters and themes. This essay illustrates how Jane Austen uses the characterization of the major characters and irony to portray the theme of societal frailties and vices because of a flawed humanity. Austen writes about the appearance vs. the reality of the characters, the disinclination to believe other characters, the desire to judge others, and the tendency to take people on first impressions.

She instead uses the main protagonist, Elizabeth as an outsource for her views on the time she was living in. Elizabeth starts off complying to patriarchy and then proceeding to work against it when Bingley seemingly left Jane, but then she falls in love with Darcy who at first, epitomized patriarchy. “She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her. His understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have answered all her wishes. It was an union that must have been to the advantage of both: by her ease and liveliness, his mind might have been softened, his manners improved; and from his judgement, information, and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of greater importance” (Austen 278). She did not agree with men having all power, she even rejected multiple people that were men that any girl conforming to patriarchy would jump at the opportunity to marry, just for monetary value and a rise in social status. Yet she chose love over arrangement. Elizabeth had a rather different look on courtship than most women of the time. She did not believe in arrangement of a marriage based off of anything but genuine love. Courtship, however, was a powerplay for both men and women. “Elizabeth says that "It is not in my power to accept" an invitation (211), and, "I do not know anybody who seems more to enjoy the power of doing what he likes than Mr. Darcy," (183) and her friend Charlotte reflects that "all her friend's dislike [of Darcy] would vanish, if she could suppose him to be in her power." (181) Courtship as power play is the subject of all Austen's novels; playing with--or against--power is the substance of them. And through irony, by pointing to the limits of definitive and assertive language, Jane Austen suggests a powerful and pleasurable relation women in patriarchy may have to discursive authority” (Brownstein). Arrangement of

At first Elizabeth is interested in him, and she thinks he is interested in her too and would like to keep seeing him. Mr. Darcy explains to Elizabeth about what jerk he is and how self centered he is. Elizabeth is still kind of interested in him, after all her first impression of him was a very positive one. She starts to compare between Mr. Darcy and MR.

Although Elizabeth’s decision to decline Mr. Collins’ offer was not affected by social pressure, her society nevertheless has a strong influence on her. She based her judgment of both Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy with respect to her society. People at Meryton adores Mr. Wickham for his appearance and personality. As the speaker says, “His appearance was greatly in his favour… The introduction was followed up on his side by a happy readiness of conversation… and the whole party were still standing and talking together very agreeably (69).” Her affection for him gets her better judgment to the extent that she believes everything he says. She even criticized herself later on to be fooled by vanity. The society sees Mr. Wickham as a man with

When Elizabeth flatly turns down his marriage proposal, it startles Darcy into realizing just how arrogant and assuming he has been. Soon, there is reconciliation between Darcy and Elizabeth where each admits how much they have changed as a result of their earlier encounters. An example of this is when Lady Catherine visits to insure the marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth. She came in order to prevent it, but when Darcy hears the manner in which Elizabeth answered Lady Catherine, he realizes that Elizabeth regards him differently. He saw that her attitude of him had changed which prompted him to make his marriage proposal. Thus, we can now see that Darcy and Elizabeth both have balance in their relationship because they are able to reflect against each other and each is capable of undergoing a change. In the end, Darcy is willing to marry into a family with three silly daughters, an embarrassing mother and is willing to make Wickham his brother-in-law .It may be that he is more easygoing about other people's faults because he is now aware of his own.

Mr. Bennet denies but he secretly goes without telling anyone. The Bennetts are then invited to a ball at the Bingleys mansion. This being where the Bennett sisters and their primary love interests will first meet. At this ball though things don't go exactly as planned in regards to Elizabeth. Charles Bingley instructs Fitzwilliam Darcy to ask Elizabeth to dance. In response Fitzwilliam calls Elizabeth tolerable and says that Jane is the only beautiful girl at the ball. This is overheard by Elizabeth and sparks her first impression of Fitzwilliam. Which at this point she sees him as a rude, arrogant, and proud member of the Upper class who doesn't like to dance with females of a lower social status. Although initially Elizabeth does find Fitzwilliam to be tall and handsome. This leads Elizabeth to have a dislike of Fitzwilliam which then will make way for her current attitude towards him during this point in the novel. Throughout a series of events Darcy’s idea of Elizabeth changes into the polar opposite of his idea of her at the beginning of the novel. Elizabeth’s idea of Darcy changes much more slowly throughout the novel at one point turning down a proposal from Darcy toward the beginning of the second half

By way of context, the dialogue between Darcy and Elizabeth takes place following Miss Bingley's attempt to show up Elizabeth's ill breeding by parading around the room in front of Mr Darcy. In Miss

Elizabeth's prejudice against Darcy is fuelled when she hears from Wickham that Darcy has treated him wrongly. Elizabeth accepts Wickham's story without exploring it fully because she believes that he is a gentleman and so is trustworthy. This is another example of how first impressions can be wrong, as Wickham is not a gentleman as Elizabeth first thought and has not told Elizabeth the whole truth about why Darcy treated him wrongly. When Elizabeth finds out the vital information that Wickham has not mentioned her opinion of both Wickham and Darcy changes dramatically. This is a crucial point in the novel as this is when Elizabeth realises how easily she has formed prejudices and opinions about people that are wrong.

Elizabeth’s pride causes her to be reserved and drives her to prove that she is different from her boisterous younger sisters who take any opportunity to dance with a male (Austen, 26). Elizabeth’s aloofness further hinders her from developing a relationship with Darcy. Darcy continues to be enamored by Elizabeth’s charm and he does not stop pursuing her even though excessive pride causes Elizabeth to discourage him from her. In response to Elizabeth’s conceit Darcy who is generally polite does however become rude and haughty to Elizabeth as a defense mechanism. As a result of Elizabeth’s haughtiness, Darcy’s positive character is stymied and can only reveal itself in the middle of the novel (Nardin, 6).