P&P Lit Analysis

P&P Lit Analysis

Literary Analysis
In Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”, she uses Elizabeth’s rejection of a proposal of marriage from Mr. Darcy in order to better portray the character and attitudes of the two characters. This story is about a family of five young women growing up in a world focused on a family's social class and economic standing. Mr. Bennet, who has no male heirs, must leave his house to his closest male relative, an annoying cousin named Mr. Collins. This leaves his daughters in a bad position. They must find good suitors in order to be financially secure later in life, but without any fortune to their names, it will not be easy. The two oldest girls, Jane and Elizabeth, are the main female characters of the story, Elizabeth in particular. They are intelligent, mature and well-behaved women; their younger sisters are flirtatious and obnoxious. The story follows Elizabeth and Jane as they find, lose and refuse suitors. The pride and prejudice referred to in the title of this novel prepare the reader for the character flaws of the main characters, Elizabeth and Darcy. Elizabeth’s prejudice and Darcy’s pride prevent the two from recognizing and admitting their love for one another.
Elizabeth’s prejudice gets in the way of her love for Darcy because of the way he treats her in the beginning of the book. She’s a very independent person who knows what she wants in life and she isn’t easily swayed by others. She goes against the characteristics that the women of her time had. Elizabeth’s judgments about other characters’ dispositions are accurate about half of the time. While she is correct about Mr. Collins and how self-serving he is and about Lady Catherine de Bourgh and how proud and snobbish she is, her first impressions of Wickham and Darcy are wrong.  Wickham is first thought to be a gentleman by all.  His good looks and his easy manner fool almost everyone, and Elizabeth believes without question what he tells her about Darcy. Elizabeth's first...

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