Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre: Love and Characterization

“Jane’s relationship with Rochester in the early part of the novel is based not on love but control, manipulation and secrecy. She does well to escape”

In today 's society, marriage is a significant bond that must be on the basis of love and understanding. Marriage is a relationship described as more for love and emotion rather than convenience or money. Through the experience of Lydia and Wickham, Charlotte and Collins, and Elizabeth and Darcy, Austen criticizes marriages based on infatuation, convenience and money, and emphasizes that marriage can only be successful if they are founded on mutual love.

Thesis: Throughout the text of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen challenges gender and social norms in the Georgian Era through the development of Elizabeth Bennet as she interacts with characters in the novel.

Rochester. The two fall in love, and as a result, both Jane and Mr. Rochester discover many things about themselves through soul-searching conversations with each other. Jane’s quest turns from desiring a change in her life to a journey of self-knowledge and self-discovery.

We first encounter this relationship between Jane and Rochester during their first dramatic meeting. She encounters him when he falls off his horse and she is required to give him assistance. Jane’s first impression of his face is that ‘He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow’. This may portray the dimness in his face awaiting to be enlightened by a woman which, in this case Jane. Further on in this chapter, unaware of who he is, on her return home, Jane is amazed to discover that the gentleman she assisted in the road was her employer, Mr. Edward Rochester. Jane’s future relationship with Rochester is most clearly set out in their first meeting. Although without any money, reserved and socially dependent, Jane is not

     Jane's search continues at Thornfield. She has now matured into a young adult, and finds her life as agoverness rather dull and limited. She lacks a sense of fufillment and finds limited affection from Adele and Mrs.Fairfax. When Jane first encounters Mr. Rochester, the focus of her life shifts. Jane becomes nervous about exposing her hidden feelings for Mr.Rochester as she is unsure about his feelings towards her. She shields her inner feelings from Mr. Rochesters manipulative way of conversation. Jane secretly loves Mr. Rochester but feels that she physically lacks the qualities to act upon her feelings. This is evident during when Jane looks into the mirror at Thornfield and describes herself. She is furthur discouraged by Mr. Rochester's shceme with Blanche Ingram. It comes to Jane as a surprise when Mr. Rochester begs of her love and marriage.

Love is a word that cannot be given one simple definition. Love is a different thing to different people. Love has extreme powers. It has started great wars, and it can cause people to do unbelievable things. Jane Austen has a very clear opinion on love and personal relationships, and she makes various statements about these personal relationships throughout her novel Pride and Prejudice. In Pride and Prejudice, two sisters who come from a somewhat disrespected family embark on separate journeys where they find true love. Jane, the eldest sister of the Bennet family, develops a romance with a charming rich man named Bingley. Elizabeth, the main character of the story develops feelings of hatred toward a rich snobbish man named Darcy, a man she ends up marrying. Additionally, Austen adds side romances to the novel, depicting very different relationships. While relationships are quite different today, Austen’s theme that love trumps all still exists.

After finishing chapter 27, I feel that Jane is making the right choice. Yes she may be tormented and saddened right now but if she stayed she would have had to deal with the mental guilt of only being a mistress. Jane is a religious woman, and has morals she is obligated to withhold; these morals would be pointless if she had stayed there, she would have eventually become angry with herself for living a lie.

In some novels, women either have a trivial role or contribute to the overall meaning of the work. In some fashion, women have an obvious or underlying hand in the grand scheme of the storyline. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is centered around the character of Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth’s character in itself is the embodiment of independence and non-conformity. In every aspect and trait of Elizabeth’s being, she constantly goes against the grain of what society perceives to be proper and correct. Through the use of Elizabeth’s appearance, adherence to social status, and concept of marriage, Jane Austen paints a character that has enough strong-will to challenge the strict social rules.

Rochester reminds me of a teenage boy falling in love instead of a full grown man. He just keeps trying to poke at Jane until he is absolutely sure that she is in love with him. Jane also acts like a teenage girl, but with the way she was raised almost completely isolated away from men, it is understandable that she does not have well defined flirting skills. Mr. Rochester I think has spent so much of his life either being too young to love, being married to a mad woman, or keeping mistresses that he does not understand his feelings for Jane, which leads to the strange situations like when he dresses up like a gypsy. With him acting like a teenage boy he also seemed to gain the need to be around Jane all the time. I felt almost bad for him, when Jane told him that she would not seen him, during their courtship, unless it was at night and he called for her like he did when she was just a governess. He got so frustrated with her, when she told him that. I feel worse for Jane. Mrs. Fairfax made her feel like Mr. Rochester was just using her and that broke my heart. I want to see the good in people and believe that men would never do something like that, but I know it happens. Mrs. Fairfax made a good point when she suggested, without really saying it, that he was using her because she was young. It broke my heart when I read that Jane started to tear up. I wanted to cry with her and yell at Mrs. Fairfax that Mr. Rochester would never do

First impressions are often made off of the visual appearance of a person (Bar, et al. 269). They often have a great impact on the way one interacts with others. Typically the effects of first impressions are negative, in the sense that they may cause one to jump to conclusions. Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen incorporated first impressions heavily among the characters and how it had later affected them.

Jane Austen is prone to creating characters that depend upon this sort of discussion. Throughout the novel, Pride and Prejudice, we are often given character analyses through the dialogue among other characters, rather than an author’s direct description. Through these dialogues, readers are able to portray each character through the opinions and attitudes of other characters within the story.

This is different in Jane Eyre as she is pleased with her position in society, she doesn’t judge or put down those of a lower status due to knowing what it is like. An example of this is where she takes the positon of a teacher and she feels as though she has “taken a step which is sinking her instead of raising her in the scale of social existence.” She then mentions that she must not forget that these “coarsely-clad little peasants are flesh and blood as good as the scions of gentlest genealogy.” As readers of Charlotte Bronte 's story we are naturally prepared to offer her our affection and admiration for the duration of the book, as a teller of her own story she has to reveal with the becoming modesty what will make her loveable and admirable. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane allows us as readers to witness her remarkable skill at shaping characters into unique individuals through the most commonplace actions and events. These are prime examples of why and how these female authors are able to write successful novels.

The Regency Period in England was an extravagant era often associated with prominent social, political, economic, and artistic advancements. It took place in the early 1800’s and was a time of much elegance and aristocracy. Movies and books set in this time period all seem to highlight the elegance and romance that was prevalent at the time. Famous Regency Era literary works, such as Pride and Prejudice, portray young English women getting their happily-ever-after endings with their true loves. Unfortunately, such endings did not actually happen to real women of the era because they lived very austere and vapid lives. They hardly had a choice in many of their lives’ decisions and had little to no career options. These women were raised

Moreover, Jane is dominant, assertive and lives according to her values. Though Jane is nothing more than an impoverished governess, she can retort to her haughty employer Rochester: "Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? - You think wrong!" And there are no deceit between Jane and Mr. Rochester; rather they converse as almost equals even though they are of different classes and Mr. Rochester is over twenty years Jane's superior in age. In many ways, Mr. Rochester speaks to Jane rudely and sharply; he is commanding in nature and often very diminutive toward her although never in a nasty manner. She criticizes him though, that he is no superior for age or experience but rather because she is a paided governess in his charge. When asked if she feels he is handsome, she blurts without even thinking