Though Provoking Character Essay

My Thought Provoking Character: Elizabeth Bennet

Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. For me, Elizabeth is a very thought provoking character.

Top of Form
The second daughter in the Bennet family, and the most intelligent and quick-witted, Elizabeth is the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice and one of the most well-known female characters in English literature. Her admirable qualities are numerous—she is lovely, clever, and, in a novel defined by dialogue, she converses as brilliantly as anyone. Her honesty, virtue, and lively wit enable her to rise above the nonsense and bad behavior that pervade her class-bound and often spiteful society.
Nevertheless, she has a sharp tongue and tendency to make hasty judgments on first impressions. She is perhaps a little selective of the evidence on which she bases her judgments.
In the beginning of the book, her closest relationships are with her father; her sister, Jane; her aunt, Mrs. Gardiner; and her best friend, Charlotte Lucas. As the story progresses, so does her relationship with Fitzwilliam Darcy, who belongs to a higher social class than Elizabeth.
As in any good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks, 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, for a time, to her many virtues. Of course, one could also say that Elizabeth is guilty of prejudice and Darcy of pride—the title cuts both ways.
Meanwhile, there are countless smaller obstacles to the realization of the love between Elizabeth and Darcy, including Lady Catherine’s attempt to control her nephew, Miss Bingley’s snobbery, Mrs. Bennet’s idiocy, and Wickham’s deceit. In each case, anxieties about social connections, or the desire for better social connections, interfere with the workings of love. Darcy and Elizabeth’s realization of a mutual and tender love appears independent of these social forces.
Elizabeth must cope with a hopeless mother who is oblivious to her surroundings, a distant father who doesn’t care about anything, two badly behaved younger siblings, and several snobbish, antagonizing females, she must also overcome her own mistaken impressions of Darcy, which initially lead her to reject his proposals of marriage. Her charms are sufficient to keep him interested, fortunately, while she navigates familial and social turmoil. As she gradually comes to recognize the nobility of Darcy’s character, she realizes the error of her initial prejudice against him.
The course of Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship is ultimately decided when Darcy overcomes his pride, and Elizabeth overcomes her prejudice, leading to them both surrendering to the love they have for each other. Elizabeth’s personality and thoughts make her a very thought provoking character to me. She is intriguing and I would personally love to be in her shoes.