Jane Austen was a very popular writer in the 19th century. Her novels are classics and some lines of them have been quoted. The work “Pride and Prejudice” left a particularly bright mark in literature. The writer has always raised topical issues – inequality and human pride.
What is Pride and Prejudice about?
During the era described in the novel, arranged marriages were common. The heroine of the work acts contrary to the established order in society. She wants to manage her own destiny, therefore she is in search of a loved one, and not a rich man. There is such a man. He is from a higher stratum of society, but initially he becomes an obstacle to the development of relationships.
Using the example of Jane, the author wants to say that it is necessary to be true to your aspirations. After all, there will always be people who intend to exert pressure. But in search of happiness, you need to listen to your own feelings and intuitions. they definitely won’t cheat. Do not succumb to the provocations of others, give up halfway. This is the only way to become a respected person with a clear life position and principles.
The Meaning of Pride and Prejudice
The message of the work is that human superstitions should not be taken into account when it comes to sincere emotions. Incorrect attitudes can poison life, leave emptiness and unpleasant sensations. The characters of the novel made life difficult for themselves with personal pride and prejudice, but they were able to understand what was happening and find happiness.
Jane Austen is a very strong-willed person. The writer tried to portray a girl who knows her own worth. Although she is poor, she has dignity in the pursuit of personal happiness. Society and its opinion are of little interest to her. Many modern women took an example from the heroine, whose only goal was a profitable marriage.
Analysis of the book “Pride and Prejudice”
The book tells about the peculiarities of the rural life of the rural noble society. Everything revolves around a showdown: young, interesting and intelligent Elizabeth Bennet, the daughter of a poor provincial landowner, meets an attractive and intellectual aristocrat Darcy. In the district where the Bennett family lives, he found himself passing through. Lizzie feels that Darcy and her friend Bingley are neglecting her family.
A prejudice against Darcy is born in her, which she finds difficult to cope with, although a deep feeling arises in return. Darcy, realizing his own advantage over the nobility from the outback, at first behaves exaggeratedly arrogantly in the presence of Elizabeth, and then, having fallen in love with a girl, tries to overcome personal pride and prejudice. The story is not limited to eliminating conflicts between the main characters, they are from different circles, each of them has his own interest.
“Pride and Prejudice” is a realistic demonstration of the morals of the representatives of the English elite (late 18th – early 19th centuries).
History of Pride and Prejudice
This is Jane Austen’s most widely read and famous novel. The writer treated him with special attention, as if he were her own baby. She worked on this piece for many years, constantly improving it. The original version of the novel was called Early Prejudices. The author began to work on the creation of the work at the age of 21. The debut version was not published, and the writer resumed her work much later. The final version of the manuscript was printed in 1813.
The novel was very popular with readers and received a lot of good reviews. Readers recommended reading Pride and Prejudice and discussed the work. Some criticized the book, but in general the work was a great success.
The meaning of the title of the book “Pride and Prejudice”
As the title implies, the novel is about pride and prejudice that prevented people from enjoying personal happiness. The true love of the main characters copes with different social positions in society, and with the bad attitude of relatives and friends, and with different financial opportunities, and with a mass of all sorts of rules.
In addition to the main characters, Mr. Bennet is interesting, an intelligent citizen who understands and interprets everything correctly. His erroneous choice of wife and lifestyle led to a waste of his potential: he did not accumulate wealth, did not climb the career ladder, he does not love his wife and is well aware that his three youngest daughters are narrow-minded and poorly educated.
The novel also details the social foundations of those times.
Problems of the book “Pride and Prejudice”
The work touches on many issues of its time. They are topical even today, because human needs and aspirations are the same at all times. Jane Austen analyzes different topics.
Pride is an emotion that gets in the way of building relationships. She can destroy feelings and confuse. Obstacles are easily overcome if you study the problem from the outside and try to get around situational “pitfalls”. In the absence of a person’s compliance and desire for life changes, he becomes arrogant, he is possessed by prejudices. And here, too, pride is implied.
Social inequality and its results are prejudices. Elizabeth’s pride was hurt by Mr. Darcy’s judgment of her lack of intelligence and attractiveness, so he considered taking her as a dance companion. He is interested in the girl’s family and her origin, but believes that with such parental “baggage” and low origin, she cannot be with him.
A more condescending attitude towards Elizabeth Darcy is hindered by pride. She mistakenly perceives her temper and behavior in society. Her opinion is negative and it is difficult to dissuade her.
Solitude in nature. without showing emotion, people cannot be happy. Although everything is individual, it seemed necessary to the writer to touch on this topic in the work. Sympathizing with each other, the characters could not get close for a long time.
The reason for this was social influence and character traits. Thus, the influence of Mr. Darcy on his friend is characteristic. The young man manages to reassure Bingley that Jane is not intrigued by a marital union with him. She is more worried about the possibility of quickly leaving her father’s house and minimizing the influence of her mother. But in fact, the girl is characterized by a fine mental organization, so she did not seek to show her feelings.
family and education. Sister relationships are an indicator of the family situation. Mother raised her daughters as best she could, without a governess. Jane and Lizzy were cheerful and friendly. Mary was a little different in temperament, but her mother loved her. Lydia grew up superficial, partly due to parental neglect.
What Pride and Prejudice teaches
The work is timely today. At the time of this masterpiece, the manuscript was not considered essential for printing, so the novel remained on the shelf for 15 years.
The author wants to teach readers that one should not hide one’s own feelings out of pride or fear of being abandoned and abandoned. Everyone should read this novel and experience all the feelings described in it.
Explanation of the ending of Pride and Prejudice
The ending is a happy one, the highlight of which is the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. They fell in love with each other! In the finale, Jane Austen demonstrates that human relationships always outweigh prejudice and pride. One must always remain a man and judge others solely by their actions, and not by their high origin and first impression.
The work delighted the public, because the idea embodied in it became new for the Puritan reader. It is possible that after reading someone had thoughts about the equality of all people living on Earth. That’s how much sense in one small work!
Genre, direction
The work is written in the genre of a novel. All of Austin’s works are characterized by the direction of realism. All situations in her work are connected with marriage of convenience, with love between people from different levels of society – a characteristic feature of that time. It was relevant then, and it is still relevant today.
The entire narrative of the novel comes from the perspective of Elizabeth. The reader adopts the point of view of the heroine. He feels the world through her eyes, through her thoughts. This feature is characteristic of almost all the works of the author. We learn about the feelings of other characters through letters. They also contribute to the further disclosure of the characters of certain characters. So, in one of the letters we learn about the essence of Mr. Wickham. Through it, the inner world of Mr. Darcy himself is revealed.
essence
At that time, people got married by calculation. Roughly speaking, if the party is beneficial for the future and for the family, then there is nothing to talk about. There will be a wedding. Getting married, marrying for love is a rarity for people of that time. The book is devoted to this problem: the heroine stubbornly defends her right to dispose of her feelings. Perhaps, with this work, the writer wanted to show that defending her desire to marry for love is not so bad. Yes, there will be misunderstanding on the part of society, but on the other hand, there will be no difficulties of life in the company of a person who is not particularly loved.
Despite the pressure of the environment, as the example of the heroine proves to us, it is worth remaining true to yourself. If you feel that you are doing the right thing, that your feelings do not deceive you, and you understand that otherwise it will be worse for you, then you must continue to be confident in this and not succumb to the provocations of other people. Only in this way can one remain happy and pass for a firm person who cannot be broken by other people’s opinions.
Main characters and their characteristics
- The main character of the novel is Elizabeth Bennet , a reasonable girl who knows exactly what she wants. Lizzie, as her father affectionately calls her, is incapable of conforming to anyone’s wishes. She is ready to go against the opinion of the majority if she is sure that the solution proposed by them will not bring her happiness. Despite her sound mind, she is not without a light and cheerful disposition. He likes to play a joke and laugh, favorably treats the whims of his family. She is not so insightful, but this is her charm. Over time, she will be able to see the true face of people nearby. She judges them based on the first impression, but can also easily change her mind when she realizes that she was wrong in a person.
- Mr Darcyis another main character. His image is composed of the main features of a rich and worthy man. It combines nobility with arrogance, a big mind with scorn, a closed behavior with a big heart. Mr Darcy has a different upbringing than Elizabeth Bennet. He is a man of noble blood, belongs to a different level of society. He respects everything restrained, neat and clear. He does not understand the life of a small town. Initially, it seems as if this hero is a negative character, but during the course of the story his image is revealed. It becomes clear that despite the betrayal of a friend who was like a brother to him, despite the fact that it was difficult for him to accept his feelings for the “simple” Elizabeth, he showed his nobility, he helped Miss Lydia Bennet without any personal gain. He is the ideal of many girls.
Topics and issues
- Obviously, the issue of pride is touched upon , which becomes an obstacle between lovers or loved ones. It destroys feelings, makes you resist and feel like an absolute “sheep” from the fact that you are standing at a dead end and do not want to budge even a millimeter. You see only a wall in front of you, but if you tense up and look to the side, you can see that this wall is easy to bypass, once you understand that pride means nothing when it turns into pride and arrogance, fed by prejudice.
- The problem of social inequality and, as a result, prejudice. Jane Austen quite successfully changed the title of the book. After all, in fact, it makes you wonder who among them is proud and who is prejudiced. Mr. Darcy hurt Elizabeth’s pride by saying that she was not so beautiful and smart as to be able to accompany him in the dance. Mr. Darcy is just prejudiced against Lizzy because of her family and first impressions. It seems to him that a woman who is lower than him in origin and has such “strange” relatives cannot be near him. But all this can be reversed. Mr. Darcy is too proud to even notice Elizabeth and show even the slightest bit of condescension towards her, and Elizabeth is too prejudiced about his behavior in society, because he behaved very arrogantly and arrogantly. She had a certain opinion about him, therefore,
- Again and again, the author touches on the topic of the influence of other people on the opinion and actions of a person . Thus, Mr. Bingley was seriously influenced by Mr. Darcy. He, not being convinced of his own arguments, assured the poor lover that Jane was not particularly interested in him as a future beloved wife, rather, she was simply worried about the desire to get married in order to quickly satisfy her mother’s requests and leave her home. But in fact, Jane was a more subtle nature, who carefully concealed her feelings so as not to appear frivolous.
- From this we can deduce another small problem that is revealed in this work – the problem of closed character . To hide your feelings so much that the beloved does not even know about reciprocity is not always good. But this is a personal matter for everyone. Too individual.
- The theme of family and upbringing is also touched upon to some extent . The relationship between Jane and Lizzie is great propaganda for today’s society. Friendship between sisters, respect for parents, love between parents, a share of humor – all this is a combination of ideal components that form a strong bond in the family. Although their middle sister Mary was very different in character from the other two, she was loved. The family is multi-character and so good. In addition, the children were brought up independently by Mrs. Bennet, without governesses. For high society, this is an indicator of recklessness, but, nevertheless, she managed and raised worthy daughters. Though Miss Leady didn’t quite live up to her mother’s expectations. Perhaps, indeed, because of insufficient education, she grew up so frivolous.
Criticism
Jane Austen’s novels are always popular. Even today, her books are recognized as the standard of English prose around the world. Pride and Prejudice is number two on the BBC’s 200 Best Books. In 2013, the 200th anniversary of the work was celebrated around the world. Even such well-known publications as The Huffington Post, The New York Times and The Daily Telegraph took part in the celebration.
The first edition of the book was a success with the public and critics. Lord Byron’s wife, Anna Isabella Byron, called this work a “fashion novel”. George Henry Lewis, a well-known critic and reviewer, also spoke with positive criticism of this work.
But, nevertheless, there were those who completely criticized this novel. Thus, Charlotte Bronte, in a letter to Lewis, compared Austen’s novel to a cultivated garden with neat borders, delicate flowers, where there is not a single hill, an open area. In other words, the writer lacked something vital and refreshing in her work. Charlotte Bronte believed that the novel did not deserve a drop of laudatory reviews and admiration. She reproached Austin for her inability to see the life of her people as it is. There are several other negative reviews about the book from famous people, but it is perhaps better to have your own opinion about the book. After reading it, you can love or hate this novel, but we must admit that this is a classic in literature that you need to know and be able to understand.
Jane Austen herself, in a letter to her sister, said that she was very worried that the novel came out too “sunny and sparkling”, she wanted to make it stricter and more correct.
