Essay on "Pride and Prejudice an Analysis"

/>The earliest problem comes by way of Elizabeth's refusal of Mr. Collins' proposal. Mr. Collins is a clergyman who thinks himself very wise and talks too much. Elizabeth is like her father in that they are both amused by him but do not consider him to be very attractive. When he asks Elizabeth to marry him and she refuses, Mrs. Bennet becomes upset because in her eyes Mr. Collins is a respectable man mainly because he has money. Elizabeth views him as arrogant and full of himself, which is why she rejects him, but her mother cannot understand her daughter and thinks she is being silly for rejecting a man such as him.

The fact that Elizabeth is more like her father than her mother does not help matters. Mr. Bennet has a humorous and intelligent nature and possesses some wit. Elizabeth is the same and so Mrs. Bennet finds her to be a difficult case when it comes to marrying. When Mr. Collins suggests to Mrs. Bennet that he might like to marry Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet is pleased because "she might soon have two daughters married" (Austen 75). Her pleasure is not derived from her daughters' happiness but from her own attainment of her goal, which is simply to see them all married off to someone who is wealthy. So when Elizabeth refuses Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet is slightly offended: "Elizabeth could not but smile at such a conclusion of such a beginning, but Mrs. Bennet, who had persuaded herself that her husband regarded the affair as she wished, was excessively disappointed" (Austin 112). Mr. Bennet, of course, sides with Elizabeth and finds Mr. Collins to be a great fool and whole-heartedly approves of her rejection of him. Mrs. Bennet is all alone in her grief.

The youngest daughter, Lydia, is a much different case, however. Lydia, unlike Elizabeth, is not very clever. She is romantic and impulsive and spoiled by her mother Mrs. Bennet, who has a special fondness for her since she is the youngest. Being the youngest and the most impulsive, however, she is easily seduced by Mr. Wickham, who spreads a pack of lies regarding Mr. Darcy and disrupts the courtship of Mr.… READ MORE