Pride And Prejudice Character Analysis

Judging by reality and fiction, there is not a single person to exist that has been purely evil or purely good. Yet it is in human nature to judge others as good or evil. Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice was quick to judge Fitzwilliam Darcy, the second central character of the novel, harshly based on her false assumptions of the arrogance of the wealthy. His initial egocentrism, due to his belief in a structured social hierarchy, caused her to form a prejudiced opinion of him. Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Fitzwilliam Darcy is shown to exhibit both good and evil qualities, although not always apparent to the narrator, Elizabeth. Jane Austen’s portrayal of Mr. Darcy as a morally ambiguous character uncovers the significance of class in English society during the late seventeenth century.

Mr. Darcy is seen risking his honor to help Elizabeth’s family with the eloping of Mr. Wickham and Lydia. Mr. Darcy remarks, “’I am grieved, indeed,’ cried Darcy: ‘grieved and shocked. But it is all, all too late now’” (Austen 269). In this part of the story Elizabeth sees Mr. Darcy with more of a sense of empathy to where she can understand his disgust with the previous good Mr. Wickham, turned scandal. Now Elizabeth sees Mr. Darcy as a man of Integrity that can display his emotion to those he wishes to pursue. This process of prospective has changed the prejudice of Elizabeth towards Mr. Darcy. A person’s demeanor is all a matter of understanding as well as prospective through other peoples’ lives.

In Jane Austen's book, Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet is frantic, single minded, and she inconsistently believes what she hears. Elizabeth is prejudiced, reserved, and has a firm belief in her “abilities” of “discernment.” The opposition of Mrs. Bennet and Elizabeth’s personalities brings out Elizabeth's prejudice. The illumination of the motif, Prejudice, is central to the book so that it can contrast with the motif, Pride, through out the book. Mrs. Bennet is a foil character to Elizabeth. Whenever Elizabeth and her mother are together it becomes blatantly obvious how different they are from each other. Simply at the dinner table, Elizabeth is quiet and her mother is usually talking non-stop about marriage. Throughout the book, Mrs. Bennet's

Elizabeth then forms prejudices against both Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham. She immediately looks poorly upon Mr. Darcy, but very highly on Mr. Wickham, who she believes to be too handsome and trustworthy-looking to lie. With this, she also looks down on Charlotte for marrying for money, but believes it’s okay for Mr. Wickham to as “a man in distressed circumstances has not time for all those elegant decorums which other people may observe” (Austen 115). This is not only evidence of her prejudice, but shows the difference on how males and females are viewed, for what is okay for one to do may not be for the other.

    Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is an authentic character, allowing readers to identify, sympathize, and grow with her. Unfortunately, Austen does not create a match for Elizabeth who is her equal in terms of characterization. Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth's sometime adversary, beloved, and, finally, husband, is not so carefully crafted as she, for his character is somewhat undefined, made up of only mystery, inconsistency, and conventionality.

Mr. Darcy, later, places Elizabeth into the same category he labeled her family in. Unfortunately, when Mr. Darcy does label Elizabeth so cruelly and treat her with none other than disrespect, he begins to fall in love with Elizabeth’s spitfire of an attitude. Elizabeth confronts Mr. Darcy about his bloating ego when, in turn, he responds “where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation” (Austen 118). Darcy begins to stand up for himself against Elizabeth’s jabs at his egotistical pigheadedness. He becomes a tad less presumptuous and more understanding that he has not exactly been the most grateful of young Elizabeth’s attention.

Mr. Wickham almost succeeds in persuading Elizabeth of the malicious personality of his ex-friend. Consequently, Mr. Darcy goes to extreme lengths to save the Bennet family from public ridicule. Catherine de Bourgh also does her best to keep the two lovers apart; going so far as to insulting Elizabeth in her own home at the dead of night. Nevertheless, Mr. Darcy goes against his aunt’s wishes and marries Elizabeth proving that love can cross deep social

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is set during the Regency Period in England. During this period, interactions between people were incredibly proper and etiquette was one of the most important rules to abide by in society. Elizabeth Bennet, one of the main characters in the novel, follows those rules as much as she can while simultaneously bending them to her will. Throughout the book, the reader watches as Lizzy encounters new situations and people whose character she must assess to her liking. While Elizabeth’s family is eager to have her married to someone of a high status who can take care of her, Lizzy prefers to marry for love. She finds this a difficult task as she makes quick assumptions about people she meets and thus forms opinions

Darcy. When Elizabeth and Darcy first meet, they are quick to make judgements about each, not only that but they are harsh judgements. (Butler, 234). Darcy, upon meeting the Bennets, tells Mr. Bingley that Elizabeth is “tolerable” (Austen, 7). Elizabeth overhears this which causes her to make her own impressions of Mr. Darcy himself. Once these impressions are made, they continue to act on them throughout the book. Elizabeth soon realizes that she is quick to judge when she talks to Jane about Darcy (Butler, 234). She tells her sister, “...I meant to be uncommonly clever in taking so decided a dislike to him, without any reason” (Austen,

Elizabeth, the novel’s protagonist, meets Mr. Darcy at a public ball. Almost immediately, she finds his character revolting. Mr. Darcy is extremely haughty and pretentious, and he hardly associates with anyone at the ball. Alternatively, when Elizabeth meets Mr. Wickham, he appears to be her ideal husband. He is handsome, charming, and polite. These first impressions are predominantly superficial. However, they reveal Elizabeth’s prejudices toward each of the characters. She that assumes Mr. Darcy is rude and obnoxious, while Mr. Wickham is a wonderful man, and she does not readily change her mind about either one of them.

Jane Austen was a brilliant author from the Victorian period. The comedic satire books he wrote were nothing less than genius. Her perception of human character is outstanding and it is very prevalent in his material. Specifically speaking, the characters in his piece, “Pride and Prejudice”, were extremely complex in both action and thought. Whether she purposely developed the characters that way or unconsciously wrote about them using her own understanding of human character, the characters are undoubtedly masterfully layered. The following paragraphs will discuss over the personas of various characters like Miss Bennet, Mr. Bennet, and Elizabeth to list a few. To support Austen’s genius in understanding character, there will be instances where her work is compared to that of Oscar Wilde’s, an outstanding playwright whose character’s complexity is comparable to Austen’s. To sum it up, certain characters in Pride and Prejudice are really complex and in order to explore their depth of thought, direct comparisons to characters in Lady Windermere’s Fan will be made,

Elizabeth believes in happiness when marrying a person, and her approach to marriage is considerably courageous, making this a huge juxtaposition in both the novel and reality. Elizabeth immediately refuses Mr. Collins’ proposal, fully knowing he would provide financial security to not only herself, but her family as well; and undoubtedly proves she would rather be poor than be unhappy in a marriage. Elizabeth’s response to Mr. Collins is very daring; as mentioned before, women in the early 1900s were very vulnerable towards men; since they would mostly provide for their wives and keep them socially stable. Elizabeth was fully aware of her throwing away an opportunity to live away from her family; especially her foolish mother, Mrs. Bennet, and to live independently for her own happiness. A male character who supports Elizabeth, Mr. Bennet; clearly understands his daughter and even goes far enough to mention her would not speak to her if she agrees to marry Mr. Collins. Mr. Bennet having been with his wife for 23 years, married primarily for social security; and finds himself in an unsatisfying marriage with little to no respect for Mrs. Bennet. Through the novel, Mr. Darcy, a man of great fortune proposes to Elizabeth in the most insulting way, mentioning her social class, and her family’s behavior. Elizabeth, beyond outraged at his proposal, already despises him for not only being the reason of her sister Jane’s unhappiness but also due to the lies Wickham told her about; making her undeniably decline the proposal. Her rejection to the second proposal in a row; seemingly adds to her attitude regarding marriage; and her views towards it. Throughout the end of the novel, Elizabeth discovers the truth about Wickham’s lies over Mr. Darcy’s letter, and develops feeling for him due to multiple incidents.

She believed he was very proud and notices his cold and vain personality; her opinion being based on the conversation she overheard. “[Darcy] declined being introduced to any other lady, and spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party. His character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world” (Austen 11). Elizabeth’s dislike began when Darcy criticized her physical appearance to Mr. Bingley when saying, “[s]he is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men” (Austen 12). Elizabeth, furthermore, after hearing his opinion, believes that Darcy is rude and arrogant. However, Darcy is not the person that Elizabeth thinks he is. He turns out to be nice, caring, loyal, and most importantly, the love of her life. Thus, this showed how Elizabeth is judgmental and that her prejudice against Darcy was a great fault. Elizabeth realizes her foolishness for trusting her first impressions and by saying “how despicably have I acted... I, who have prided myself on my discernment! - I, who have valued myself on my abilities...” (Austen

Because of these grounds, she harbors ill feeling against him. The first two reasons are related to her family. She is conscious about how her family looks outside in order to think herself that her family members are not attractive in her point of view. For example, her father, Mr. Bennet doesn’t really care of his family and, Mrs. Bennet always thinks of her daughters’ success through their marriage well, her sisters, except Jane who is the oldest sister, are likely to be constant public embarrassment. Elizabeth is forced to live with them; within the family circle she may show genuine affection, but outside that circle she is on the defensive. Elizabeth's anxiety over what Darcy must think is the reason for her hostility towards him; were she indifferent, as Darcy is indifferent to public opinion, she would not be so upset. This makes her have a prejudice against

The novel Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813. Signet Classics published Jane Austen’s book in 1980. The story takes place in early 19th century England. Important settings are Longbourn: the Bennets’ estate, Netherfield Park: the estate of Mr. Bingley; Rosings Park: the estate of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and Pemberley: Mr. Darcy’s estate. Major characters in this comically toned romance include Elizabeth and Jane Bennet, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley, and Mr. Wickham. Elizabeth is the protagonist while the pride and prejudice of social classes can be seen as the antagonist. Mr. Darcy, aside from Elizabeth Bennet herself, undergoes one of the most drastically dynamic character changes of the novel.