Pride and Prejudice Literary Essay
“He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped we would never come there again.” (3) These were the feelings that Miss Elizabeth Bennet possessed at the start of Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen weaved a marvelous tale of love in its rarest and truest form. This love was formed out of a once burning hatred. The transformations throughout Austen’s masterpiece shows how true love fights through the boundary of pride and prejudice which exists in the society of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Jane Austen captivates us through the characters of Darcy and Elizabeth through their altering feelings for one another and the world causing anxiety for the readers at first but ultimately an overwhelming relief for the readers.
To say the very least, the characteristics of Elizabeth and Darcy change dramatically throughout the novel of Pride and Prejudice. At the beginning of the tale we see Elizabeth does not have the most pleasant feelings towards Darcy. Lizzy basically just doesn’t even like him enough to care about his opinion for her. “‘She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me’…Mr. Darcy walked off; and Elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings towards him.” (3) As the story moves along Elizabeth’s initial dislike turns into a burning hatred as a result of Wickham’s deceitful information. “I had not thought Mr. Darcy so bad as this – though I have never liked him, I had not thought so very ill of him – I had supposed him to be despising his fellow-creatures in general, but did not suspect him of descending to such malicious revenge, such injustice, such inhumanity as this!” (16) Since, even the slightest thought of Darcy repulsed Elizabeth’s very soul, she rejected his initial proposal. This event stirred something in Darcy to write a letter explaining the truth of the situations that had Elizabeth’s heart and mind in complete disgust. Elizabeth’s feelings