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Jane Austen 's Pride And Prejudice

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Shaped by its light-humored wit as well as heartfelt cast of characters, Pride and Prejudice explores the classic yet distinctive narrative of the two divergent characters Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Set towards the end of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century in England, Jane Austen offers a profound insight into the social manners and behaviors expected of individuals in this time. In Elizabeth’s endeavor for independence in the face of her expectation as a female to marry, she must also unravel a series of miscommunications that strive to prevent her from realizing Mr. Darcy’s innate goodness. With a focus on her characters’ responses to the various conflicts that arise throughout the novel, Austen analyzes the …show more content…

Collins, a family cousin, who will upon Mr. Bennet’s death, inherit the family lands leaving the Bennet daughters without a home or money” (Telgen 285). This financial plight emphasizes the societal background of the time period in which women heavily rely on males, along with the reality that the Bennet daughters must marry if they are to support and house the family. In fact, Austen also reinforces the central role of this specific setting to her work, in which she begins her 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 5). Already, the audience is made aware that meaningful social connections, relationships, and marriage, are especially essential to the society that Elizabeth Bennet and her family, reside in. However, in this setting, many females marry under the idea of pragmatism in which they marry to secure a comfortable and financial future that heavily contrasts with Elizabeth’s own idealism of marriage as romantic and individual (Pride and Prejudice). In fact, Austen stresses the pragmatic outlook of many of the characters in her work in the scene in which she introduces Darcy, where he “drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year”

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