Pride and Prejudice: World-Famous Female Characters

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was written in 1813 during a time where it was seen out of the norm for a woman to be earning money from being an author. It was shocking when the anonymous author of Sense and Sensibility was discovered as a woman. Pride and Prejudice is mostly about a group sisters finding the one, falling in love and getting married.

The beginning of this book starts with Mrs. Bennet worrying and also annoying her husband with the fact of why her five daughters aren't married yet. Mr. Bingley a young, rich suitor moves into the neighborhood and draws an interest to the oldest of the five, Jane. They all attend a welcome ball and get a chance to meet each other. Bingley’s friend, Mr. Darcy, does not approve of Jane and wants to have control over his friend’s decisions. Jane starts to like Bingley too, but doesn’t want to rush into things and keeps her feelings on the down low. Mr. Darcy starts to fall for Elizabeth, the second Bennet daughter and the main character in the book, however she dislikes him for his rude and cocky ish demeanor. A weird love situation starts to occur as another gentleman appears, Mr. Collins, who also falls in love with Lizzy as well. Lizzy isn’t very fond of either one especially Collins who she sees as a complete fool. Mr. Collins proposes to which Lizzy obviously rejects the offer. Lizzy’s friend Charlotte Lucas was desperate to be married already and decided she wanted Collins to propose to her, so she went after him and they get married. Lizzy and Jane’s other sisters go after officers in the military. Lizzy’s sister Lydia meets a gentleman named Mr. Wickham and runs off and marries him. Mr. Darcy finds out that Mr. Wickham and his family have a lot of debt and helps him with that so him and Lydia can be together. Once Lizzy finds out what Mr. Darcy did to help out her family, she falls in love with him. They both get married at the end. This book’s major theme is marriage. The main characters of the book are all meeting one another, falling in love, and getting married. This theme is a big part of the story because in the nineteenth century women’s only option was marriage.

Elizabeth Bennet is one of the main characters in Pride and Prejudice. She is also one of the most well known female characters in English literature. Elizabeth, like her other sisters, is looking for someone to marry, even though she thinks that road will lead to unhappiness. She is very intelligent and the most sensible out of the five Bennet girls. She is well-read and quick witted, however she has a sharp tongue and makes hasty judgements which can get her into some trouble. She overcomes many obstacles when it comes to finding the one to spend the rest of her life with. Elizabeth doesn’t really have a motivation in this book. The character does gradually change throughout the book, but the author doesn’t make it clear if she has a motivation. She does have many strengths such as her wit, cleverness, and her loyalness. She is also very good at reading situations, like when Mr. Collins goes up to Mr. Darcy and tries to talk to him, she can always tell what is going on. She also has a strong sense of humor which not everybody understands. She uses her humor to make fun of Mr. Collins but also it can lead to misunderstandings between her and Mr. Darcy. Her character is very believable and can relate to you even if the book was written in the eighteen hundreds. She has a sense of humor to which people find funny and she can be quick to judge, like everyone can be sometimes.

Mr. Darcy is also another one of the main characters in the book. He becomes Elizabeth’s other half later on in the book. He is a snobby landowner, who doesn’t really like talking to other people. He is also very wealthy, and has more money than pretty much everyone around him which can make people think that he is better than everyone else. This is exactly what Elizabeth thinks of him, a prideful man who only cares about money. Mr. Darcy’s motivation is his pride. He always creates a stern atmosphere for everyone he socializes with. I don’t think he means to act like he’s on a high horse, but that’s how he was raised to be. We don’t actually see his growth like we do in Elizabeth’s character however he does tell us how he has changed. He has many strengths such as being wealthy, intelligent, and being able to overcome his pride. His wealth and intelligence can help out his friends such as paying off Mr. Wickham’s debts so Lydia and Wickham could be together. His character is believable and adds a plotline to the story. While he is very prideful at the beginning, the reader gets to know him better throughout and start to like him.

“But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness.”

(6.12) This quote is referring to when Mr. Darcy started to develop a crush on Lizzy. He is realizing that he likes everything about her, her intelligence, looks and her personality. Darcy at first meeting her didn’t find her that attractive, but after getting to know her more he realized how “perfect” she is for him. This story is about marriage and learning to love each other for who they are. They both are willing to work together on their marriage and on their families, which makes them perfect partners. Some people might say they don’t see them meant to be together, but they are life partners because they are willing to work and change as a team.

Indeed, Jane, you ought to believe me. No one who has ever seen you together can doubt his affection. Miss Bingley, I am sure, cannot. She is not such a simpleton. Could she have seen half as much love in Mr. Darcy for herself, she would have ordered her wedding clothes. But the case is this: We are not rich enough or grand enough for them' (21.18) This quote is about how Jane doubts that Bingley loves her. Lizzy tries to convince her that he does love her and Miss Bingley is just trying to keep them apart. This quote relates to the start of the book when Bingley and Jane meet and fall for each other which carries on into the rest of the book.

I would recommend this book because it is a literary classic and if you are enjoy reading a slight romance book without any gross stuff thean you should read it. This book is kinda hard to read since it was written a long time ago when that was the English they used. A good tip to understanding the book is to read one chapter at a time and after reading it think over what has happened in that chapter. This tactic will help you get through the book without questioning what you have read. Overall this book was good.