Pride and Prejudice is a novel written by Jane Austen. The novel follows Elizabeth, a daughter of the Bennet family. The novel takes place during the Regency era where a rigid social class was used and many restrictions were placed on women. Austen uses her characters to display how pride and prejudice affect potential relationships or friendships. This is proven through Mr. Darcy’s relationship with Elizabeth, the main focal point of the novel. As their love story starts to take place the readers can gain a grasp on what the Regency era was like. However, even though Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage is the main focus of the novel. Many side characters get their own love story or other reasons for marriage. Some side characters that had their love situation are Charlotte and Mr. Collins, Jane and Mr. Bingley, and Lydia and Mr. Wickham. The novel displays all of their relationships intricately so that they all have a purpose in the story.
During the Regency era, there was a rigid social class that forced many restrictions onto women. Throughout the story, all of her characters can be categorized into three categories, upper class, middle class, and lower class. Many of those in the upper class looked down on those who were in the lower classes. This resulted in many of the upper-class people marrying each other to combine and maintain their wealth. One example of this is Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s desire for her daughter to marry Mr. Darcy. She and Mr. Darcy’s mother had decided on their marriage before any of their children were born because they wanted to combine their family's assets, and they would be able to not only expand their influence but also provide an alliance between the two families. Mr. Bingley and Miss Darcy’s potential marriage is also a good example of this. In the text, both the Bingley sisters have shown interest in getting Mr. Bingley to propose to Miss Darcy, even trying to stop Jane’s advances toward Mr. Bingley. This is because they know how important it is for them to retain their social status and the Darcy family is one that has been rich for many generations.
The easiest way to climb the social class was to marry those who were above your class. A marriage that involved two different social classes was normally abnormal because many people would rather stick to their class. However, despite that, many marriages in the novel involve two social classes. One of the being Charlotte Lucas, she purposefully seduced Mr. Collins because of his fortune and how he was able to provide for her. She also knew that her social class wasn’t great, so marrying someone of a higher social class than her allowed her to live a good life without having to worry about how she would live. This is especially important for those who are climbing the social ladder because of the benefits they would get from it. However, those who are dropping in social class are those whose families face ridicule especially if they aren’t upper class. Lydia Bennet is an example of this because Mr. Wickham is a poor person with a bad personality. Despite that, Lydia continues to get married to him and is content with it. After the marriage, however, Lydia was mocked and ridiculed for getting married to Mr. Wickham because of his societal place. Proving that while advancing the social ladder was beneficial, the other person may not see it as beneficial, but rather dangerous.
Throughout the story, there are many marriages of different types, and how they all represent the limited amount of options for women. Even though, Elizabeth is extremely lucky that she was able to marry Mr. Darcy even after she had rejected him once. However, one person who isn’t as lucky as her is Charlotte Lucas, this is because she married Mr. Collins who is stupid and enjoys catering to the rich in the hopes of gifts from them. Despite knowing all this she marries him anyway because she knows that he is one of the only men who would agree to marry her. This is because she isn’t from a rich family, isn’t the most good-looking person, and doesn’t have good connections to help her. Many of the people that married each other are like Charlotte who can’t support themselves and have to marry out of necessity, not out of love. Many of the marriages in the story are also done because of money and status. However, an exception to this is Elizabeth because she rejects Mr. Darcy even though he is one of the wealthiest people in London simply because she doesn’t love him. Elizabeth ends up marrying him because he is one of the only people she can respect and love.
Pride and Prejudice is known as a book of manners, this is important because it shows how one acts during their first impression can leave a lasting impact on the other. The main example of this is Mr. Darcy, when he goes to the ball in Netherfield, he does not interact with anyone except people who he already knows, which makes him come off as rude and arrogant. However, Mr. Bingley on the other hand dances every dance and is an amiable man to talk to. Even at the first ball, both Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy establish their reputations. The five daughters of the Bennet family all have different personalities, yet the younger three daughters are not as intelligent as the older two and enjoy playing around and flirting with officers. This gives the family a bad reputation on how they enjoy flirting which affects how many people want to be friends with them. Even Mrs. Bennet who is known as a flippant woman obsessed with getting her daughters married is infamous within the town for talking and bragging about her daughters. So much so that it gives Elizabeth second-hand embarrassment being her daughter. Throughout the novel, it is shown that Mr. Bennet does not respect his wife. He marries her because of her good looks but finds out that she is ignorant on many topics and thinks of her as a joke. This situation causes even more embarrassing yet awkward situations when at a party.
Pride and Prejudice displays the limited amount of things that a woman could do during the Regency era. There were also many requests for women if they wanted to marry into a good family. These are told by Miss Bingley while talking to Elizabeth when Jane is sick, “A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and, besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.” This proves how much a woman must know to be considered the perfect woman. Even if she masters all of this, it would do no good if she was not considered pretty by everyone else. Women were also not allowed to inherit property, which only hastened Mrs. Bennet's will to get all of her daughters married before Mr. Bennet died. Once Mr. Bennet dies, Mrs. Bennet and all of her daughters will get kicked out by Mr. Collins who will inherit the property. Women were also not allowed to have jobs during this time, this means that many could not support themselves and had to rely on men to survive. Proving that women were never free to do what they wanted and had to marry to survive, even if they did not enjoy being around that man.
In conclusion, Pride and Prejudice describes societal norms, class distinctions, and the limited options available to women during the Regency era, through Elizabeth. The central love story between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, reveals the impact of pride and prejudice on relationships. The novel also highlights the consequences of the rigid classes, where marriage for financial stability was a societal norm. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a direct example of how many wanted to preserve alliances and familial wealth. Additionally, proves the significance of first impressions and societal judgments. Mr. Darcy's initial coldness and Mrs. Bennet's persistent matchmaking efforts prove how actions and behaviors can shape reputations, and influence social standing, and relationships. The criteria said by Miss Bingley also prove how strict and expectant men were of women during the Regency era and how much work women had to put in to gain a good future. Pride and Prejudice does a good job of providing insight into how women were expected to live and survive during the Regency era. Although it was many years ago it is still a literary classic and helps gain an understanding of human nature.
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