"Pride and Prejudice": Depiction of Nature in Romanticism

Return to nature is an age when George III leaded Great Britain. In this age there was a war between French and Britain and that war gave impact to the social condition at the time. There were many people did not have job, the tax became bigger, the condition of the kingdom was not good. That social condition gave inspirations to the author at the time to write their poets or their novels. Besides, the social condition also made some author left the city and go to village to find their peace and started write again. So did Jane Austen, a novelist that produced some great novels. She went to Winchester and lived happily there with her family and wrote stories there.

One of her great novels is Pride and Prejudice. Therefore, how was the social condition at the time inspired Jane Austen to wrote Pride and Prejudice? First, I will tell the story line of Pride and Prejudice a bit. Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen’s novel and in 2005 Joe Wright, directed a movie with the same title and the story was based on this novel. Although I never read this novel, but by watched the movie that produced in 2005, I could see how the story was. Pride and Prejudice gave us a story about a family with 5 daughters who lived in a small village without peerage, they were not rich, and they lived with nature that surrounded their house. Which, their mother was so ambitious to marry all of her daughters with a man who rich and has authority, so her mother does not need to worry about her daughters’ life. That family is Bennet family, with Jane as their first daughter, Elizabeth their second daughter, Marry, Kitty, and Lydia as the youngest one. Can you imagine how to save their life when the condition was not good and you have to raise 5 daughters? The story was started when Mr. Bingley with his friend Mr. Darcy and his sister moved near by Bennet’s family house. Mrs. Bennet heard about Mr. Bingley life who was rich and handsome, so she decided to arrange her first daughter, Jane, to meet Mr. Bingley at a party.

And it was success, Jane met Mr. Bingley and because of her beauty and her good manner, Mr. Bingley fell in love with her. But, unfortunately, his sister did not like it, because she thought Bennet Family could not be their family due to their background life. Mr. Darcy met Elizabeth at the time, he was fell in love with her, but he tried to remind himself about who is Elizabeth and he knew he should not fell for her. Different thing happened to Elizabeth, he hate Mr. Darcy. By the time pass, Mr. Bingley, his sister, and Mr. Darcy left that village and it made Jane depressed since she thought Mr. Bingley love her. Elizabeth knew it, and she asked Jane to go to London because there was a hope that Jane might meet Mr. Bingley there. Then, one day, Elizabeth met Mr. Darcy at Lady Catherine who actually Mr. Darcy’s aunt. She met him there when he visited her friend who married with Mr. Collins (a man that purposed him once). Then she went to a cathedral to heard preaching, but there she knew something that made her disappointed of Mr. Darcy. Since that day, she hate Mr. Darcy more than the first time he decided to hate him. Thus, one day Mr. Darcy did many things that made Bennet Family’s life went better. Elizabeth realized that she was wrong about Mr. Darcy and she realized that she love Mr. Darcy for a long time. Then, Elizabeth accepted Mr. Darcy and they lived happily. That is the story line of Pride and Prejudice. We know, writers usually make a story or poetry based on the condition of the age. Now, how was the situation at the age related with Pride and Prejudice?

Jane Austen was a great novelist at this era. Her style in writing a story was great even it make people understand her story well. Her story plot mostly talk about how important marriage for women at the time is. Since women must ensure their economic and social life. We can see this situation in Pride and Prejudice movie from how Mrs. Bennet tried her best to make her daughters married a great men who has great economic and social life. We also can see that all Bennet’s daughters were excited when Mr. Bingley moved to house near by them and tried to attracted Mr. Bingley’s attention. It shows that at the time married a man who has great social and economic life is an important thing. Besides, we also can see how excited Bennet’s daughter and Mrs. Bennet were when some soldiers stayed for a while near their house. Some of Mrs. Bennet’s daughter were trying to attracted soldier’s attention. It does not only about how important marriage at the time, we also can conclude that Jane Austen took a romantic story about love as her main story. Since in the age when she became a novelist romanticism was one of the most genre. We can see the romanticism in Pride and Prejudice movie from Jane and Mr. Bingley’s love story which has some troubles also Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s love story. Their relationship did not go well at first. Jane and Mr. Bingley’s relationship was not good at first because Mr. Bingley’s sister did not like Jane since Jane is a poor girl and Mr. Darcy thought Jane did not like Mr. Bingley for real, so he separated Mr. Bingley and Jane. Thus, at the end, Mr. Bingley went back to Jane and they had their happy relationship. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s relationship was not good at first, either. Their love story started with hate but finally they could had their happy relationship.

Besides about romanticism, Jane Austen also added nature aspect in this story. Since she was a novelist from Return to Nature era, mostly her story shown nature to us, especially in its place. First, we can see from Bennet’s family house. Their house was located in a small village with nature around it. Even, Mr. Bennet had some livestock, such as pig, and others. Besides Bennet’s family house, Mr. Darcy’s house also surrounded by nature. We can see the trees, and pond in front of his house, it looked so natural. Also, at the last movie, we can see the place where Mr. Darcy met Elizabeth and told his feeling to Elizabeth for the second time, the place was so natural. Mostly, this story took place in a place that surrounded by nature. That is all my analysis about Pride and Prejudice from Jane Austen and how Pride and Prejudice related to Return to Nature. From this analysis, I can conclude that the social condition of an era will give big impact to author’s works. Also, I could see how the condition in this age well from the movie. I do apologize if I made some mistakes. Thank you so much for your kind attention.