So despite hearing about the book Pride and Prejudice throughout high school, I have never had the
opportunity to read it (nor am I the casual reader type, either). I guess it
depended on the teacher (or a drastic curriculum change since I graduated) considering
my sister, a high school junior, has already read this book. Nonetheless, Pride and Prejudice is so far a pretty
interesting read, especially the character Elizabeth Bennet. Lizzy appears to
have a more sophisticated outlook not only on life but also on the personalities
of others as well. The women of this time period, as shown by Lizzy’s sisters
Jane, Mary, Catherine, and Lydia, mainly portrayed the typical character
personality of wanting to marry a handsome gentleman with respectable wealth.
Lizzy’s uniqueness was first signified by her father Mr.
Bennet, who wanted to solely introduce Lizzy to Mr. Bingley whenever he decided
to inquire with him. The second major instance I saw was when she began
pursuing Mr. Darcy. I can only speculate what drove Lizzy to want to know more
about Mr. Darcy (curiosity? Love?), but this drive became ever so apparent
through her actions. Mr. Darcy represents a person who is arrogant to strangers
and less arrogant to his close companions; this is not an uncommon trait
nowadays (and possibly throughout history), expect sometimes replacing the shy attribute
with arrogance. Lizzy was the only daughter driven by the possibility that Mr.
Darcy is a wonderful gentleman once you actually connect and become close with
him.
So I know this whole love story-type genre may be
overdone for some people (especially with the Romeo and Juliet portion of our class),
but it is a strong motivator for both Lizzy and Mr. Darcy. Lizzy, with all her sophisticated
personality, still remains loyal to the tradition of marrying a well-off male
individual. When she ventured three miles to Netherfield to see her sick sister
Jane, I felt the greater reason of wanting to interact more with Mr. Darcy
overpower the former reason. Now, I may or may not have offended Lizzy admirers
by mentioning this, but this scene perfectly contributed to a typical love
story scenario: using some other plausible
reason to visit a potential lover. The other scene was with the interaction
between Lizzy and Mr. Wickham. Initially, it was just a typical flirt between
the two; but since Mr. Wickham began discussing his acquaintance with Mr. Darcy,
Lizzy became more engrossed in that than the flirting.
