A Review of The Book 'Pride and Prejudice'

The book Pride and Prejudice is narrated by a third person, this narrator is an all knowing narrator. This narrator has all access to the emotions and feelings that the characters have. Pride and Prejudice takes place in rural England in the early 19th century. The main conflict in the book is Elizabeth Bennet and her struggle to find a respectable husband. Elizabeth Bennet’s biggest obstacle with finding a husband is her lack of social convention and her lack of self-awareness. Another large thing that stands in Elizabeths way from being happily married is her mother and her mothers lack of social convention. Elizabeth’s happiness is threatened because she has her mother who is pushing her towards the wrong man for her, her mother doesn’t understand her and doesn’t understand the type of marriage she wants to pressure. The other problem with Elizabeth’s journey to finding a husband is that there is Mr.Collins who wants her to take a marriage that would not satisfy her. Finally there is the group of people that are trying to keep Elizabeth from marrying Darcy. With all these options from everyone it’s confuses her and makes her head foggy, pushing her away from being happy.

The resolution is when even though Lady be Bourah attempts to prevent Elizabeth from marrying Darcy. Elizabeth doesn’t let Lady be Bourah change her mind like she has done in previously in the book. Elizabeth stands up for herself. Darcy for a second time asks Elizabeth to marry him and she accepts his offer for marriage.

The tone set in the book is critical. A very critical tone in the book is the attitude towards pretensions about social class. When Lydia says “ I occupied a higher social class position than Jane because I am a married women are Jane is not”. What Lydia said is her judging Jane of not getting a husband making her not as high up on the social class because she isn’t married.

A major character in the book is Elizabeth Bennet. She is the second oldest daughter of the Bennet sisters. She is highly intelligent and witty and is poised in social situations. Since Elizabeth is so honest about society it allows her to see past all the cruel behavior from people around her. As the title says prejudice it is the word used to describe Elizabeth, she make judgements of the people and situations around her without actually knowing the situation or people. She almost always says the opposite of what she really means. Darcy at one point in the book had said some rude comments to her and because she is so judgemental she said “Mr. Darcy is all pointless”(Austen 27). She said that because she didn’t know him she just judged him. What she said about Darcy changes throughout the book because it opens her up and makes her realize her mistakes she had made before about Mr. Darcy before even really knowing him after one rude remark.

One theme of Pride and Prejudice is marriage. In the book they talk about marriage and the purpose of marriage in many ways. Marriage in this book is more of a business agreement than anything else. Women shouldn’t marry for love but more for her and her family to gain financial security. Marriage is such a strong theme because it shows how much it controls people in this time period. Mr and Mrs Bennet. Mr and Mrs Bennet's marriage isn’t perfect whatsoever, they barely even speak to one another. Mr Bennet had said in the book “ I see the woman I married as annoyance’’(Austen 15) Mrs Bennet is trying to find her daughter and good suitor but her plan . What is standing in her way is her lack of social graces. Even someone like Mrs Bennet who is married to a high class man gets looked down upon because she isn’t as high class as others. Even how the girls mother comes off could ruin possible suitors for a young woman. Marriage is such an important thing to people during this time period it didn’t matter if you loved the person or not if it was a good agreement for your family you married them.Charlotte tells Elizabeth “I am getting old and I need to obtain a marriage for financial reasons’’(Austen 238). We should care because this shows us as I just said how important it was for women to marry and how it was also very unfair because you couldn’t marry who you loved but what was best for the family.

In the book Pride and Prejudice it starts with the Bennet sisters, all sisters are unmarried. The oldest is Jane than Elizabeth and Mary and Kitty and Lydia. The father of the girls Mr Bennet gets invited to a ball and at this ball Mr. Bingley is there. Right away he is taken away by Jane and spends almost all night dancing with her. Mr Bingley had a friend there with him, his friends name was Mr Darcy. Mr Darcy was not enjoying his time and when asked to dance with Elizabeth he in a harsh and rude tone declined the offer. Elizabeth is well known of judging people and situations very quickly without even knowing the person or what it situations are about and because Darcy was so rude to her she quickly judged him. As the story moves along and Jane and Mr. Bingley's relationship moves forward as well. Jane even takes a visit to the Bingley mansion. Darcy becomes very attracted to Elizabeth and her charm and he intelligous and kindness. When Jane is at the mansion she happens to get sick and can’t return home until she is better. Elizabeth is there taking can of Jane while she is sick in the Netherlands. Mr Bingley's sister Miss Bingley is pursuing Mr Darcy but as Elizabeth is there Miss Bingley notices Mr Daarcy take a very large interest in Elizabeth. Once Jane is well enough to return home, Elizabeth and her return home. Once they get home they notice there is a man staying with them and his man’s name was Mr Collins. Mr Collins is the man to stand to inherit Mr Bennet's property. Soon after being at the Bennet home he makes a proposal to Elizabeth but she turns him down. Once Elizabeth turns him down it hurts his pride. Elizabeth's poor friend ends up marrying Mr Collins for financial purposes. Many people don’t like Elizabeth because of the reason Darcy likes her and is supposed to be with Miss Bingley. While Elizabeth is visiting her friend at Mr. Collins she runs into Darcy and Darcy proposes to her. She turned him down telling him she things he is not a kind person and doesn’t enjoy his company. She is also mad at him for pushing Bingley away from Jane. Darcy writes a letter to Elizabeth explaining why he did what he did. He says he didn’t think their relationship was serious. After this letter it made Elizabeth rethink about how she feels toward Darcy. The youngest of the sisters gets permission from her father to spend the summer in an old colonel. While staying there Lydia gets married to Wickham and didn’t tell anyone until after the wedding. Darcy then tells Elizabeth that his feelings have not changed since spring. Darcy then again asks Elizabeth to marry her and this time she happily takes his offer of marriage. Jane and Elizabeth both end up married. Jane to Mr Bingley and Elizabeth to Darcy.

The book Pride and Prejudice I would recommend to someone who likes romance and stories from the 19th century. I like this book because I love romance books because I like the feeling I get and I enjoy seeing how the characters change throughout the book. For example Elizabeth changes her views throughout the book. At the start she didn’t like Darcy and didn’t think anything good of him but after she got to know him and that he is really a good guy it made her realize her judgment was incorrect. Seeing people grow and see how that connection with someone can change your views. If you aren’t someone who likes romance it’s also a very good book for the ones who like older time based books. This book is very old based with marriage and how it is basically a business agreement instead of real love. If you are someone who gets offended by how women used to be treated then you would not like this book.