Term Paper on "Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen"

Term Paper 6 pages (1687 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Elizabeth Bennet is seen as "strong and intelligent, however at the same time, she can be viewed as bewitching. To the reader, it appears that Elizabeth's has strength of character and moral integrity, great intelligence, and an attractive personality. On the other hand, she is misunderstood since she refused to marry Darcy's first marriage proposal. During this time period, women were seen and not heard, which caused a lot of drama for her.

Furthermore, Jane was misunderstood because she supported Elizabeth in her decisions, which was not common when someone went against society at that time period. Therefore, they were two misunderstand women that went against society's standards.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is an intelligent, stubborn, and free-spirited character that the reader likes but the other female characters do not like Eher because her independence questioned decorum.

Jane Austen is showing here that one of the best characteristics that a woman can have, a free will that is unconventional, gives her the reputation of a conceited and ill-mannered country girl. This occurs because of the sick expectations and restrictions placed upon women in her society. Not a single character that is liked by the reader agrees with these criticisms of Elizabeth, and that is not because of coincidence. This very feminist view of the injustices done to Elizabeth is affirmed by Jane Austen's haughty portrayals of all of the character's that were responsible for the wrongs done to her, especially the way she depicts Miss Bingley and Lady Catherine de Bourgh"(Pride and prejudice).

Due to her independence, Darcy sees and feels that Elizabeth as."..sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention...disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking and thinking for [men's] approbation alone"(pride and prejudice and Ghent 185). From there, she also goes against society by rejecting Mr. Collin's proposal because she does not think that "marriage was the only honorable provision for a well-educated woman..."(pride and prejudice and Lauber 45). She also does not believe in marriage of convenience, which is unheard of in that society.

When Mr. Collins says arrogantly to Elizabeth that, "My situation in life, my connections with the family of De Bourgh" (Austen 82), are reasons that she should accept his offer because "in spite of your manifold attractions, it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made you"(Austen 83), she politely refused him. "I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible"(Austen 83). Unlike Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth would never violate her principle and her integrity and throw away her talents by marrying Mr. Collins, a conceited, narrow-minded, and pompous fool. In one sense, she is a non-conformist because "she looks to nature rather than society or traditional authority for the basis of her judgments"(pride and prejudice and Litz 65).

As the audience, we have to remember that she is not really rebelling against society, she is just being herself, which does leave her misunderstood by the present society.

Furthermore she is not like her mother who is not lady like, however this does leave her misunderstood. "For heaven's sake, madam, speak lower.- what advantage can it be to you to offend Mr. Darcy?-You will never recommend yourself to his friends by so doing"(Austen 76). "When Darcy proposed to her the first time, she was able "to conjure up a polite refusal of his impolite offer"(Horwitz 49). Elizabeth demonstrates that she has great restraint even under tremendous pressure" (pride and prejudice).

Another reason why Elizabeth is misunderstood is because her initial prejudices against Darcy are rooted in the pride of her distorted perception of reality. She needs to think that Darcy is bad so that she can give Wickham the benefit of the doubt when he told her about Darcy's breach of agreement without hearing Darcy's side of the story. "How abominable!...If from no better motive that he should not have been too proud to be dishonest (pride and prejudice).

Her prejudice renders her incapable of judging the merits of Darcy and the short-comings of Mr. Wickham. "Socially acceptable and commonly accepted rules of social behavior provide a morally acceptable standard of social behavior"(Nardin 14), but Elizabeth's independent character causes her to distort her perception of moral propriety, leading her to misjudge Wickham and Darcy. Minor rules of propriety governing matters of fashion or convenience may sometimes be violated, but rules connected with moral principles cannot. Elizabeth misperceives Darcy's [awkward](Nardin 49) and [cold](Nardin 49) demeanor, but polite manners as [ungracious, selfish and rude](Nardin 49). "Your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of...your selfish disdain of the feeling of others..."(pride and prejudice and Austen 97).

Since she is misunderstood by society, Elizabeth will find happiness because she learns to recognize her faults which is not taught by her surroundings. The fact that she did not follow the norm helped her to be happy unlike characters like Lady Catherine and Ms. Bingley who will never find happiness because they do not learn from experience.

Elizabeth becomes more of a lady than Lady Catherine. Elizabeth triumphs over Lady Catherine, She pits her "inherent sense of the values of humanity against the Lady Catherine's pretensions of rank"(Ghent 185). Lady Catherine's defeat was brought about by her arrogance. Her display of egotism not only failed to dissuade Elizabeth from marrying Darcy, but led Darcy to propose the second time; "It taught me to hope...as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before"(pride and prejudice and Austen 275).

By following her path, Elizabeth found wisdom as well as happiness. With this new wisdom, she revaluated her thoughts about Darcy once she received his thoughtful letter that filled truth. By being misunderstood by society, she was able to learn from her mistakes.

This letter causes Elizabeth to reevaluate her feelings about Darcy. She returns home and acts coldly toward Wickham. The militia is leaving town, which makes the younger, rather man-crazy Bennet girls distraught. Lydia manages to obtain permission from her father to spend the summer with an old colonel in Brighton, where Wickham's regiment will be stationed. With the arrival of June, Elizabeth goes on another journey, this time with the Gardiners, who are relatives of the Bennets. The trip takes her to the North and eventually to the neighborhood of Pemberley, Darcy's estate. She visits Pemberley, after making sure that Darcy is away, and delights in the building and grounds, while hearing from Darcy's servants that he is a wonderful, generous master. Suddenly, Darcy arrives and behaves cordially toward her. Making no mention of his proposal, he entertains the Gardiners and invites Elizabeth to meet his sister" (Pride and Prejudice).

When she goes to visit Darcy, her wisdom and pride are at a new level, which still makes her misunderstood because no body in the society can grow that much. It takes a big person to admit when they are wrong, which is something that people in this novel could learn. As it can be seen from the following quote Elizabeth has grown from her mistakes when she finally accepts Darcy proposal for marriage.

Elizabeth was much too embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, "You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever." Elizabeth feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand, that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her… READ MORE

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