Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
Personal opinion: I think the narrative style of the book is very old-fashioned, but it is because of that I get the feeling of being in that particular time with the characters. The story is not very exciting to my opinion; because as soon as the most important characters meet each other at the first ball, it is very obvious they will be together at the end of the story. Several people told me the book was very boring and longwinded but I disagree. Although the storyline becomes clear at the beginning, you still keep wondering whether they will be together. The second reason why I can imagine the surroundings so well is that the book gives a very detailed description of the life in England in the 19th century. The book is actually written in that time too, I think the description is therefore quite accurate. I also liked the characters very much. Jane Austen makes them seem so real and alive that it is much easier to understand how they act and how they feel. I especially like Elizabeth Bennet, because she is the most independent and strong character of this book and it is a beautiful process in which she and Mr Darcy have to overcome their prides and prejudices to be together at last.
Summary: the news that a wealthy young gentleman named Charles Bingley has rented the manor of Netherfield Park causes a great stir in the nearby village of Longbourn. The Bennets have five unmarried daughters and Mrs Bennet is desperate to see them all married, the mother of the girls was to my opinion very annoying but in the combination with her husband Mr Bennet this is a rather hilarious couple. After Mr Bennet pays a social visit to Mr Bingley, the Bennets attend a ball at which Mr Bingley is present. He is taken with Jane and spends much of the evening dancing with her. His close friend, Mr Darcy, is less pleased with the evening and refuses to dance with Elizabeth, which makes everyone view him as arrogant and obnoxious. Also the first impression I get from this chapter in the book is negative, it soon becomes clear Mr Darcy and Eliza Bennet are the most important couple in this book. When Elizabeth and Jane return home from a visit to Netherfield, they find Mr Collins visiting their household. Mr Collins’ description is so accurate that I can very well imagine why Elizabeth Bennet turns him down as soon as he makes a proposal of marriage to her. At the beginning of winter, the Bingleys and Darcy leave Netherfield and return to London. This is much to Jane’s dismay. That spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte, who now lives near the home of Mr Collins's patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who is also Darcy's aunt. Darcy encounters Elizabeth and one day, he makes a proposal of marriage, which is described very passionate and opens up Mr Darcy’s feelings to the reader. I do admit I was shocked by Elizabeth’s refuse and her reproaches to Darcy. He then leaves her but shortly thereafter delivers a letter to her. This letter causes Elizabeth to rethink of her feelings about Darcy. A little later, Elizabeth and Darcy go out walking together and he tells her that his feelings have not altered since the spring. She tenderly accepts his proposal, and both Jane and Elizabeth are married, just as the reader could expect.
Quotations:
1) “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” This quotation from Jane Austen herself describes Mrs Bennets motives to be so busy with having her daughters married. I think it is also a good description of the rules in the 19th century society and relationships between men and women. 2) “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” The youngest daughter, Mary, is not an ordinary girl. Finding a man is the least of her concerns compared to the other girls of her age, she is independent and smart, quite like Elizabeth. I find this quote important because it summarizes the barrier between Elizabeth and Darcy. 3) “The happiness which this reply produced, was such as he had probably never felt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do.” Jane Austen is describing Mr Darcy’s feelings, after 4) “Eliza gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.” In these two quotations it is made clear that the two have overcome their own pride and prejudice, which was needed from the beginning.