Comparative Essay On Pride And Prejudice
Most students typically groan and complain at the task of reading for English class, but some pieces of literature are truly beneficial for teens to read. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare are commonly known as novels read in high school. Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennett as she tries to follow her heart during the Regency Period; Romeo and Juliet follows two lovers from two feuding families. Pride and Prejudice is relevant to teens and is valuable to today’s education system, Romeo and Juliet, on the other hand, is not. The themes of Pride and Prejudice provide a relevant message to teen readers and should continue being taught at the high school level. A main conflict within the novel
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deals with judging someone on first impressions. When Elizabeth Bennett first meets Mr. Darcy at a town ball, she perceives him as an arrogant, selfish man based on his behavior that one night. Elizabeth sticks with this judgement throughout most of the book.
It is only towards the end and through Mr. Darcy’s actions and others opinions of him that Elizabeth sees that Mr. Darcy is a kind, generous man. By the end of the novel, the two characters have fallen in love and are engaged to be married. The ongoing theme of “don’t judge a book by its cover” could be applied to the way teens live today. Teenagers are very quick to stereotype and judge other teens in today’s world. Once a person is a part of a “group”, such as popular, nerd, jock, etc., it is very difficult to change the way others see and think of them. By reading Pride and Prejudice students can see how having prejudices against others is harmful, and can damage the relationships they have with others. Another theme that makes Pride and Prejudice valuable to today’s education system is “do what you think is right, not what others want you to do”. During the Regency Period, women’s job in life was to find a good husband with as much money as possible. The expectations of women were very low, and men didn’t think women’s opinion was useful. Elizabeth consistently rejected this idea by saying and doing what she believed to be right. The first time Mr. Darcy proposed, Elizabeth’s opinion was not very fond of him, so she turned him down
by stating everything that would be wrong with their union. The expected thing of Elizabeth was to accept Mr. Darcy’s proposal since he was considered a very rich man. Elizabeth decided for herself because she could not stand Mr. Darcy, and knew she would be unhappy in a marriage with him. This theme shows teens that in life, they should do what they want to do, and listening to others opinions and ideas could lead them to unhappiness. While it was published over three hundred years ago, Pride and Prejudice continues to teach important lessons amongst the teens of today’s world. The lack of relevance and inappropriate themes causes Romeo and Juliet to be a questionable choice in literature for today’s school system to teach. The play consists of two feuding families: the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, fall in love, get married, and commit suicide over each other. Most teenagers can’t relate to any part of the plot leaving most students questioning the story as a whole. Also, Romeo and Juliet was written almost 600 years ago. The main problem most students have with the play is they can’t understand almost all of its content. Many words and phrases haven’t been used in hundreds of years; therefore, students feel disconnected to the characters and plotline. Working through phrases like “And I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter,” sends a student scrambling the internet for a modern translation. When teens don’t relate to a text, it makes understanding the deeper meaning and themes more difficult. The content and actions of the characters in Romeo and Juliet also can influence teens to make bad and rash decisions. It takes Romeo and Juliet a total of four days to fall in love, get married, and kill themselves over each other. Teens of today are already known for being quick to make decisions due to the prefrontal cortex not being fully developed. Reading a piece of literature where all the main characters do is make rash decisions gives the idea to teens that the way to decide on important events is to not think through it. The play also has the main characters commit suicide over a love of four days. The play glamorizes the act of suicide by showing that the only way out of Romeo and Juliet’s problems is ending their own lives. With the alarming rates of teen suicides, students don’t need a case of suicide that promotes the action as the only option of dealing with problems. Based on lack of connection and bad influences, Romeo and Juliet is not a book teens need to be studying in school. Teens should not be analyzing William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but they should be studying Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Austen’s literary work provides students with valuable and important lessons, such as not stereotyping and following your own opinions, with situations they can relate to. Shakespeare’s work only leaves teens confused and pondering if things such as suicide are their only options to fix their problems. While teenagers do complain about most things, the high schools should take note of some of the complaints; the students have reasoning for voicing their issues with Romeo and Juliet.
deals with judging someone on first impressions. When Elizabeth Bennett first meets Mr. Darcy at a town ball, she perceives him as an arrogant, selfish man based on his behavior that one night. Elizabeth sticks with this judgement throughout most of the book.
It is only towards the end and through Mr. Darcy’s actions and others opinions of him that Elizabeth sees that Mr. Darcy is a kind, generous man. By the end of the novel, the two characters have fallen in love and are engaged to be married. The ongoing theme of “don’t judge a book by its cover” could be applied to the way teens live today. Teenagers are very quick to stereotype and judge other teens in today’s world. Once a person is a part of a “group”, such as popular, nerd, jock, etc., it is very difficult to change the way others see and think of them. By reading Pride and Prejudice students can see how having prejudices against others is harmful, and can damage the relationships they have with others. Another theme that makes Pride and Prejudice valuable to today’s education system is “do what you think is right, not what others want you to do”. During the Regency Period, women’s job in life was to find a good husband with as much money as possible. The expectations of women were very low, and men didn’t think women’s opinion was useful. Elizabeth consistently rejected this idea by saying and doing what she believed to be right. The first time Mr. Darcy proposed, Elizabeth’s opinion was not very fond of him, so she turned him down
by stating everything that would be wrong with their union. The expected thing of Elizabeth was to accept Mr. Darcy’s proposal since he was considered a very rich man. Elizabeth decided for herself because she could not stand Mr. Darcy, and knew she would be unhappy in a marriage with him. This theme shows teens that in life, they should do what they want to do, and listening to others opinions and ideas could lead them to unhappiness. While it was published over three hundred years ago, Pride and Prejudice continues to teach important lessons amongst the teens of today’s world. The lack of relevance and inappropriate themes causes Romeo and Juliet to be a questionable choice in literature for today’s school system to teach. The play consists of two feuding families: the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, fall in love, get married, and commit suicide over each other. Most teenagers can’t relate to any part of the plot leaving most students questioning the story as a whole. Also, Romeo and Juliet was written almost 600 years ago. The main problem most students have with the play is they can’t understand almost all of its content. Many words and phrases haven’t been used in hundreds of years; therefore, students feel disconnected to the characters and plotline. Working through phrases like “And I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter,” sends a student scrambling the internet for a modern translation. When teens don’t relate to a text, it makes understanding the deeper meaning and themes more difficult. The content and actions of the characters in Romeo and Juliet also can influence teens to make bad and rash decisions. It takes Romeo and Juliet a total of four days to fall in love, get married, and kill themselves over each other. Teens of today are already known for being quick to make decisions due to the prefrontal cortex not being fully developed. Reading a piece of literature where all the main characters do is make rash decisions gives the idea to teens that the way to decide on important events is to not think through it. The play also has the main characters commit suicide over a love of four days. The play glamorizes the act of suicide by showing that the only way out of Romeo and Juliet’s problems is ending their own lives. With the alarming rates of teen suicides, students don’t need a case of suicide that promotes the action as the only option of dealing with problems. Based on lack of connection and bad influences, Romeo and Juliet is not a book teens need to be studying in school. Teens should not be analyzing William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but they should be studying Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Austen’s literary work provides students with valuable and important lessons, such as not stereotyping and following your own opinions, with situations they can relate to. Shakespeare’s work only leaves teens confused and pondering if things such as suicide are their only options to fix their problems. While teenagers do complain about most things, the high schools should take note of some of the complaints; the students have reasoning for voicing their issues with Romeo and Juliet.