Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice Out of the many Movies that are out these days, we see many similar themes and ideas that go throughout the story. Yet, out of all these movies, one particularly came into my sight, Pride and Prejudice. This is a story following back all the way to the 19th century and beside the fact that there are many great celebrities there to make this movie much better, what makes this a great movie is that it tells a wonderful love story of a skeptical girl and a arrogant man that eventually learn that what they see isn’t all there is to something. Pride and Prejudice has also been one of the most cherished love stories in English literature. As in any good love story, the lovers must overcome numerous obstacles, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers’ own personal qualities. Elizabeth’s pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression; while Darcy’s prejudice against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinds him. This Journey Elizabeth takes on to Darcy’s heart can represent a Hero’s journey.
Starting off as an arrogant man, Darcy ends up as the true love of Elizabeth Bennet's life. Her first impressions of him were seen at the party and were also very outwardly revealed in her conversation with Wickham. Darcy's indifference towards people in the party leads everyone to have a negative impression him, which happened all because of his pride. This constant impression of Darcy is carried on throughout the movie, until Elizabeth finds out that he has been honestly expressing his feeling for her. After Elizabeth rejects Darcy of his proposal of his love to Elizabeth, he leaves her with a letter which explains everything about him. This proposal Elizabeth rejects is her initial calling for the start of this journey. She doesn’t realize it until the end of the movie, but her calling is inevitable. She goes through a journey soon to realize what will come at her.
Elizabeth goes through a process where she realizes how human Mr. Darcy is capable of being, and also that the 'bad' he did was for the sake of Elizabeth's good being. One instance Elizabeth is mistaken about is when Darcy has Mr. Bingly sent away so that he would be kept away from Elizabeth's older sister. What is represented from Darcy is that his care and love for Elizabeth, in a way, blinded him of what is reality and he processed this relationship being only based on a superficial level and Elizabeth's sister was marrying him for the wealth. Later on, their true feeling towards each other becomes very clear to everyone and Darcy realizes that his 'justified' actions weren’t so right after all. Another thing Darcy does for Elizabeth is funding her younger sister's marriage, which at first seemed to be some sort of action of betrayal to Elizabeth, but she later realizes that if he didn’t do this, the reputation of the Bennet family would go bad. Darcy is supposed portrayed as a selfish character who only thinks for himself, but it turns out to be that Darcy's acts of 'selfishness' was all for the love of his life, Elizabeth. What she saw as obstacle in her path in a way were actually stepping stones for the hero’s journey that Darcy sets out to express his love to her.
In this time and era this movie has taken place, we clearly see reputation taking on a big role in many aspects. Elizabeth’s younger sister running away to almost to give the family a bad name in the town, and Bingly’s social standing that stands in the way of Elizabeth’s older sister. Darcy’s act of going through all this trouble, in a way, can be seen as an act of generosity, not to just Elizabeth, but the whole family. One other factor that plays a role is Darcy’s class, which is portrayed through Elizabeth’s trip to Pemberley. As she has a tour around his house, she sees a portrait of Darcy and it melts away her prejudices of him, which should be seen as the ultimate factor that gives her a change in heart towards him. When she sees this portrait, we can assume that she does not see this stuck-up arrogant man, but instead sees the happiness and warmth on the smile that she sees on his face. This smile she sees in the portrait is remembered to her as that same smile he gives her when he looks at her. To her, this means a lot in a sense that Darcy has always been portraying his honest side of him for her. Like any good hero, Elizabeth also has her turning point, and this is represented in her trip to Pemberly. She is finally able to understand her true calling for what has to be done and now has an acceptance to her path.
Another idea that is in this scene is how the housekeeper continuously sets praises for her master. As stated earlier, reputation plays a big role, and this housekeeper has none to set out. In the party, we see many wealthy and high classed people tell different praises to others, Darcy included, despite his attitude. But one thing that is to be understood back then is that every high class person treated other high class people with respect. This didn’t necessarily mean that they even had to treat their housekeeper well too. So, to Elizabeth, this honesty of the housekeep means a lot more than a wealthy person praising Darcy in some party. Darcy can be now seen as a kind hearted man that even treats his housekeeper with care. This is a turning point for Elizabeth is a way that all her ideas about Darcy have been wrong up to this point.
From the start of this novel, Darcy never was a favorable character to anyone and especially to Elizabeth. In fact, he was more of an obstacle than the goal. But towards the end of the novel, Elizabeth is able to realize that her impressions of him were wrong. She is able to have a change in mind because she realizes that it was stupid of her to reject his true feelings he had for her without her being able to know the 'real' Darcy. In the end, it was all her prejudices that were holding her back from him, which later is melted away. Elizabeth’s heroes’ journey ends in a way that she succeeds at getting her goal and going through all obstacles.