Good Personalities Are Necessary for a Quality Life

Learning about the proper behavior in public, dancing and interacting with single, handsome gentlemen in the community, and marrying out and becoming the mothers of families seem to be the basic life journeys for the ladies in the 19th century in England. During that time, a woman is portrayed typically as a simple creature without any personal sprit and thoughts, whose main goals are to obey her husband and take care of her family. For example, in Paradise Lost, Milton protrays Eve as a beautiful woman without thoughts, who follows Adam blindly by saying “For comtemplation hee and valour fromd, for softness shee and sweet attractive Grace, Hee for God only, shee for God in him (296-300 Milton book IV).” Unlike Milton, Jane Austin focuses on depicting the sprit, charm and personalities of women and illustrates a theory that women should also contains good virtues in order to succeed in their lives in Pride and Prejudice. Analyzing the characteristics in Pride and Prejudice by Combing with Golden Mean of Aristotle and the cardinal virtues of CS Lewis, we are able to exactly understand good virtues Austin mentions. Elizabeth Bennet, the second of five daughters in Bennet’s family, is characterized as a successful woman from Jane Austin’s description, as she contains not only three cardinal virtues prudence, temperance and fortitude, but also generosity, truthfulness and thoughtfulness. Elizabeth is lovely, witty, confident, well-behave and thoughtful lady, for which she wins lots of admiration in her community. Unlike her mom boasting all around and her younger sisters misbehaving all the time, she always behaves properly and speaks properly in publics, which shows her temperance. Unlike lots of other women who focus only on marrying wealthy and good-looking men, Elizabeth is seeking a man who can truly understand and love her. When she sees her best friend Charlotte marries Mr. Collins, she comments that: “Charlotte the wife of Mr. Collins, was a most