pRiD3 & Pr3jUDicE

Ahh, the end of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and Pride and Prejudice along with it. I can see why a lot of people liked the diaries. I mean the jokes and dialogue were pretty corny for my tastes, but nonetheless still entertaining. It also serves as a pretty true Pride and Prejudice adaptation. With the characters names and attitudes still present and the storyline progressing in the same way the book does (with some changes here and there), it does pretty well to adapt the novel.

The few changes to the story are also nice. With the story taking place in our generation, having the story unfold via YouTube vlog is entirely appropriate. However, that limits how many characters can be in the story at one, which leads to characters being mentioned rather than seen in some parts of the vlog. Also, without actually seeing what’s going on in the lives of the characters, we only have Lizzie’s point of view which kinda makes the audience’s judgement of other characters a little biased.

The way they also try to modernize the story leads was bound to lead to some changes in the way the story progressed, but I don’t think any of them were undesired or really out there, and I think that’s what makes the diaries so popular. Also, I wonder how many people actually thought this story was real. Like…the acting wasn’t terrible, but I found it really hard to believe that this was someone’s actual life and that all this stuff was really happening to “Lizzie”. Idk…It could just be because I knew that this wasn’t supposed to be real, but I really can’t imagine anyone else thinking otherwise.

Overall, I can’t say that I’m more enamored with Pride and Prejudice or The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, but I’m glad I read it. At the very least, if a random person asks me if I have read the novel or if I know anything about the story, I could say “Why do you care? I don’t even know you…?”

Judging a book by it's cover

Pride and Prejudice…I can’t really say I see what has people so hyped about this book, but this wouldn’t be the first book in that category. I guess I’ll just chalk that up to the fact that I am not a humanities major. I swear the hardest thing to keep track of is who is talking and when since the women are referred to as Miss. or Mrs., and if you don’t pay attention, well…shit, you either reread the entire page, or you just hope you’re thinking of the right person.

The characters are aight, but other than Jane Bennet, Wickham, and Mr. Darcy, the other characters are uninteresting. Jane Bennet is an interesting character because she is like this optimistic, ever-so-pleasant girl in the series. Remember Lila from Hey Arnold?

Yeah, she’s basically what I would imagine Jane Bennet to be like (same voice too). Being raised in the same society as all the other women, she’s different. She chooses to see the bright side in everyone (which obviously is a double-edged sword), but she’s also not phony, which can be appreciated.

Wickam is just interesting because of his motives. Like most of the things he does seem to be driven by wealth. He attempts to elope with Mr. Darcy’s sister in order to become wealthy, and I understand why that’s wrong, but what about Mrs.Bennet? I’m sure she wants her daughters to be happy, but she wants to pimp her daughters out the richest man in the town. In that sense is she much different from him?

Now Darcy…lmao, he seems to cause pretty much all the problems in the story. His past strife with Wickham brings him to Hertfordshire, he suggests that Mr. Bingley break up with Jane, and his prejudice towards Elizabeth (and really everyone else) makes her (and everyone else) resent him, driving her towards Wickham and then later Lydia. Like imagine, if he was as nice as Mr.Bingley…story coulda been a lot shorter.