More handpicked essays just for you.
Character analysis on pride and prejudice
Character analysis on pride and prejudice
Pride and prejudice character development
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The novel Pride and Prejudice is about five sisters and the things that happen on
their way to getting married. The sisters are Jane, Elizabeth, Kitty, Mary and Lydia. The
Bennet sisters all live with their parents at Longbourn. A new neighbor comes to live in
the area of the family, named Mr. Bingley. Bingley catches the interest of most everyone
in the area, but he seems to be especially fond of Jane. Bingley’s friend, Mr. Darcy, is
not so well taken as Bingley himself is. Darcy is seen as too proud and overall not as
nice a person as Bingley, but both are wealthy. Mr. Collins, the cousin and heir to the
Bennet estate, asked Elizabeth to marry him and she said no. Close to this time Bingley,
Darcy and the rest of their group left Netherfield to go back to London. This left Jane
alone and although she acted fine about it most of the time, she was upset about Bingley
going. The sisters received letters from Caroline Bingley, they told of Bingley’s likely
marriage to Darcy’s sister. The news just about ended the idea of Jane and Bingley
marrying.
Elizabeth got to know an officer named Wickham, who has a connection to Darcy
and to other characters later. Elizabeth learns different things about Mr. Wickham and
mostly loses interest in him after he is engaged to another women. He did tell her about
some bad things that Darcy did to him though, which gave Elizabeth a bad opinion about
him. Elizabeth has many meetings with Mr. Darcy at different places. Each time she is
puzzled at the way Darcy acts towards her. Other people keep telling her he likes her, but
Elizabeth does not listen. She does not realize it fully until he asks to marry her and
Elizabeth says no. When the redcoats leave, Lydia goes with on of the officers and his
wife. While there, she runs off with Mr. Wickham, but does not get married. This is a
great disgrace to the family, so it must be fixed. After some discussion and debts are paid
off, Mr. Darcy ends up paying so that Wickham will marry Lydia. Mrs. Bennet is really
happy about the marriage and so is Lydia, but Elizabeth knows Wickham well now, so is
not as pleased. Bingley and Darcy come back to Netherfield and are constant visitors at
Elizabeth Bennet holds a few secrets from her family. While she is visiting the Collins’, Mr. Darcy enters the room Elizabeth is all alone in and abruptly declares his love for her. She politely declines his proposal for marriage, which turns into an angry accusation
At first, when he believes he is superior to the Bennet family and lets gives his pride control over his thoughts, he seems to be arrogant, snobbish, and morally bad. Nevertheless, his love for Jane overpowers his pride and begins to change the way Mr. Darcy is seen. This shift is not immediate as evidenced by his initial proposal to Elizabeth which is insulting and offensive to her, but as Lizzy confronts him by confessing her thoughts about him and he gets a chance to explain himself and Mr. Darcy is seen through a different light. This also makes Mr. Darcy more aware of what society thinks of him and as a result, makes his pride fade away. This is seen when he secretly pays for Mr. Wickham’s debts and bribes him to marry Lydia. For much of the novel, the moral question towards his character is uncertain, but when we see how Mr. Darcy’s mannerism change the complexity of his character become more intricate.
spends at Netherfield. On the other hand, Mr. Darcy acts with a certain sense of “perfect
Mr. Bennet's sarcastic comments prove his disconcerting on the whole topic. When Jane is invited to meet with Mr Bingley and his sister, Mrs. Bennet, suggest that she go by horseback. hopes that she could probably get ill and extend her stay. Mrs. Bennet's. mind is always thinking of ways to marry her daughters.
The interactions between Jane and Bingley are vital to the plot and pave the way for all the other relationships to form. Their relationships run into numerous complications, both from Jane’s family and more insidiously from Bingley’s. Mrs. Bennet and Jane’s sisters make a fool of themselves while at a ball and leave the Bingleys and Darcy with a negative view of
Mr. Bingley dances with Jane twice and paid special attention to her, telling Mr. Darcy “she is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld!” (Austen Chapter 3). Eventually this courtship comes to a sudden pause when Jane receives a letter from Mr. Bingley’s sister Caroline informing her that the Bingleys have left Netherfield with no intention of returning. The letter also hints that Mr. Bingley is interested in marrying Mr. Darcy’s sister Georgiana (Austen Chapter 21). Although Elizabeth explains to Jane that “Miss Bingley sees that her
loved to hear about how awful Darcy was, such as when she met Wickman, who was
Mr. Darcy may have made an immense change for people to like him, but characters like Mr. Bingley remain static throughout the entire book. One of Jane Austen’s main points in Pride and Prejudice was to make clear that change wasn’t acceptable back then. Jane Austen wrote this book trying to make people understand the period of time this book was set in. Jane Austen’s book has many reasons for why the book was set at this time and one of them is the gender issues back then. Back then men and women weren’t permitted to do certain things and were expected to act in a certain way because if you were different it wasn’t considered good unlike nowadays, we can be different and nobody really cares, it’s who you are.
The Bingley family represents a very wealthy family, whose son would be a prize for any girl, and who is deeply interested in Jane, the eldest, beautiful Bennet daughter. The family though doesn't believe the Bennet's to be of a high enough standard, and move their brother to London to distract him with Mr. Darcy's sister, who supposedly was as unlikable as Mr. Darcy himself. Disliked by many because of his pompousness and pride, Mr. Darcy ruined his chances with Elizabeth for himself. In his own desire, he would have easily married her, she even hated to dance with the man.
The reader is first acquainted with Mr. Darcy's arrogance at the Meryton Ball. Speaking of Elizabeth Bennet, he so snobbishly says that she was, " tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me" (Austen 9). His feelings of superiority to the people of the town lend Mr. Darcy to be judged as a man with a repulsive and cruel personality. The women, who had found him dashingly attractive at first glance, deemed him a man unworthy of marriage because he offered no positive qualities other than wealth. Not only did Darcy refuse to dance with Elizabeth, but he makes it clear that no woman in the room was worthy or met his standards of a suitable partner stating that, " there is not another woman in this room, whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with" (Austen 8). In the beginning of the novel, Mr. Darcy is only concerned with the wealth and social standing of the people in the town. Because of their lesser social rank, he feels they are un-deserving of his presence and refuses to communicate with them. As the novel progressed, however, Darcy became more and more accepting of the Bennet family. Growing most fond of Elizabeth Bennet, the straightforward, clever daughter, he finally breaks and confesses his true feelings of love for her. "In vain...
When reading the letter from Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth is at her earliest stage realizing Mr. Darcy’s goodness. Mr. Darcy addresses how he was uninformed of Jane’s love for Mr. Bingley and comes to complete ground with the rumor including
‘Mr Darcy danced only once with Mrs Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being introduced to any other lady and spent the rest of the evening walking about the room speaking occasionally to one of his own party. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again. Amongst the most violent against him was Mrs Bennett, whose dislike of his general behaviour, was sharpened into particular resentment, by his having slighted one of her daughters.’ (Page 12)
Comparing and contrasting darcys and Elizabeth are relevant to relationships now. Now just like people now and back then, many people get into relationships for many of the wrong reasons. One reason is for the possibilities of gain from the other person’s money and/or wealth. Darcy realized that her family was money hungry. Today many families have become estranged due to money issues and complications. Darcy has pride in his character or morals and has a prejudice for the Bennet’s and their money. Now people do the same things for money, rather than choosing to live happy and stable lifestyles. Another comparison is having the ability to tell the truth or being deceitful. Darcy is telling Elizabeth many lies to make him look more appealing
Catherine, nicknamed Kitty, is the fourth daughter in the Bennet family. She is “weak-spirited, irritable, and completely under Lydia’s guidance” (206). Like her younger sister, she is carefree and shows little remorse for her behavior. Lydia is the youngest daughter of the Bennet family and the tallest. As the favorite of Mrs. Bennet, she is “self-willed and careless” (206) and, like Catherine, she is “ignorant, idle, and vain” (207). Little concerns her more than potential husbands and officers of the militia. Each daughter of the Bennet family is vital to the complexity of Pride and Prejudice as each of their temperaments contradicts and complements those of the others.
Mr. Bingley is often accompanied by Fitzwilliam Darcy, who is a very proud man. Elizabeth Bennet, who is proud of herself, and Mr. Darcy are not fond of one another from the start, these two characters pose the central conflict in the novel. As the novel progresses, Elizabeth receives a marriage proposal from her cousin, Mr. Collins, and turns him down. Mr. Collins then proposes to Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s best friend, who accepts. Elizabeth then leaves home to stay with, the Collins’ who live near Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy’s aunt.