Pride and Prejudice
Kaley Nelson
Character Map
Essay
Pride and Prejudice
By Jane Austen
Essay Written By Kaley Nelson
Pride and Prejudice is a text that is mainly devoted around the love lives of Jane Bennet and Mr. Charles Bingley, and of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Throughout the novel, I believe that Mr. darcy changed the most. At first he was kind of rude and selfish and then later on he changed because he wanted the affection of Elizabeth who later on goes by the name Lizzy. Jane Austin is the author of this novel and I believe that the book is a historical fiction/romance. The characters stay statistic throughout the novel and the most change is in Mr. Darcy, which most believe that that is the point of the novel, which even I believe is the main reason for the novel as well. Darcy does not actually feel the need to change until Elizabeth turns him down and tells him that he’s not that grand and that he’s stuck-up.
Mr. Darcy is the most changed character throughout the novel because at the start of the book he is considered proud and arrogant by the people of Meryton at the ball but by the end of the novel he is considered passionate, pleasant and very well mannered.
Jane Austen wrote this book trying to make people understand about the period of time this book was set in. Elizabeth for example in the book she doesn’t change much but she is different to most young women in her day, she is considered a tad bizarre. People generally judged young women by their attractiveness and young men by their riches so it all had to do with wealth and beauty when it came to gender.
Gender was one of the main things in Pride and Prejudice; it was also one of the main troubles in the late 17th and early 18th century (the period of time set in the book). But the main change in the book is Mr. Darcy for Elizabeth Bennet’s hand in marriage.
The main subject of this novel is courtship and marriage, as well as how gender roles worked in that time period. Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, shows and indirectly criticizes the 18th century England's rural society and the pride of high class through several people's marriages who are in different social position. Although the novel talks about the marriage and courtship, it's main focus is on pride and prejudice that complicates marriage and courtship. The complications are mainly when Elizabeth refuses to take Darcy's hand in marriage at first because she still has her prejudice towards Darcy. The ending of this novel is happy because it teaches that any complications are easily overcome if you really love someone.