A Character Analysis of Elizabeth Bennet Throughout Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice , there are many references to the unusual character of Elizabeth Bennet ; she is seen to be an atypical female during those times. Wit , bravery , independence , and feminist views all describe a most extraordinary model for women. Pride and Prejudice is a humorous novel about the trials of marrying well in the early eighteenth century. It focuses mainly on the actions of two couples – Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy and Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth Bennet is a vibrant, headstrong young woman who is not too keen on the idea of marriage , whereas Mr. Darcy is an egotistical and proud man who improves on closer acquaintance. Mr. Bingley is Mr. Darcy’s closest confidante and is a very good man who is easily persuaded. Jane Bennet is the eldest of the Bennet daughters who is closest to Elizabeth and is also a very good-natured person. All of these characteristics play off of one another throughout the course of events to create many interesting situations. Jane Austen was the daughter of a minister in a small English town. Her observations about irony and hypocrisy in English society drove her to write many stories of such things especially marriage as that was a prime example of such traits. She herself never married. Elizabeth Bennet’s wit is both humorous and intelligent. There are repeated instances within the story in which she proves her cleverness and liveliness. Joel Weinsheimer believes th... ... middle of paper ... ...64. Butler , Marilyn . Jane Austen and the War of Ideas. Oxford : Clarendon Press , 1975. Chandler , Alice. Jane Austen : Modern Critical Views. New York : Chelsea House Publishers , 1986. Halperin , John , ed. Jane Austen : Bicentenary Essays. Cambridge UP , 1975. Heilman , Robert. “E Pluribus Unum : Parts and Whole in Pride and Prejudice” . Jane Austen : Bicentenary Essays. Cambridge UP , 1975. Rubinstein , E. , ed. Pride and Prejudice : A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc. , 1969. Sherry , Norman. Jane Austen. New York : Arco Publishing Co. , 1969. Watt , Ian , ed. Jane Austen : A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs : Prentice- Hall Inc. , 1964. Weinsheimer , Joel . Jane Austen : Modern Critical Views. New York : Chelsea House Publishers , 1986.
Fowler, Karen J.Introduction. Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen: The Complete Novels. By Jane Austen. New York: Penguin, 2006. 211-421. Print.
Wallace, Tara Ghoshal. Jane Austen and Narrative Authority. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. 17-30.
Jane, Austen,. Emma complete, authoritative text with biographical, historical, and cultural contexts, critical history, and essays from contemporary critical perspectives. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.
In her novel, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen used the character of Elizabeth Bennet to epitomize the harmonious balance between reason and emotion in a woman, making her a truly admirable and attractive character.
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A. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1994. Print. The. Bloom, Harold, ed., pp. 113-117.
The literature output in Jane Austen’s creation is full of realism and irony. Janet Todd once asserted that "Austen creates an illusion of realism in her texts, partly through readably identification with the characters and partly through rounded characters, which have a history and a memory.” (Todd, The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen, 28.) Her works are deeply influenced between by late eighteenth-century Britain rationalism phenomenon and early nineteenth-century of romanticism.
Jane Austen Society of North America, Inc. A Brief Biography. jasna.org. 26 April. 2014.
England, under James 1st rule was a vastly altered period compared to our now modern society. So many of the values held during this time, have now been discarded and forgotten. Jane Austen grew up in the Romantic period and experienced a world which was divided, whether through education, class, status, fashion, abilities, gender and etiquette. Her novel, Pride and Prejudice is counted as one of the great classics of English Literature. Austen engrosses readers to live in her world for a time and experience a society filled with matchmaking, romance, marriage and gossip. Every one of her characters is so distinctive and has a clearly outlined caricature. Each of their diverse values conveys a different thinking of the time. Pride and Prejudice is preoccupied with the gentry and most of the social aspects which consumed these people’s lives. There were so many expectations of how you would behave in public, but of course not all of these were upheld. Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas are four characters which keep such strong beliefs about the social norms. These characters are expressed so descriptively and through their personalities readers can learn just how the numerous social standards were received.
Austen was a recondite writer with a new inside perspective with an outside view on life in the early 19th century. Born on December 16, 1775, Austen was a curious child given the unseal luxury of an education. Her father was a part of the gentry class and raised a family of ten, but was not well off by any means (Grochowski). Sense and Sensibility, written by Jane Austen, tells a dramatic story of three sisters and their emotional journey where they encounter love and betrayal. Because Jane Austen was raised in a liberal family and received a comprehensive education, her dramatic analysis of societal behavior in Sense and Sensibility was comparable to the hidden truths of social and class distinctions in 18th and 19th century Europe.
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The roles of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice are contrasted between a father who cares about what’s inside of people and a mother who only worries about vanity and appearance. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s parental guidance is unique to their personalities. Because of their two opposing personas, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s ideas of marriage are contradictory for their daughters; Mr. Bennet believes in a loving respectful marriage whereas Mrs. Bennet values a marriage which concerns wealth and social status. Their aspirations for Lydia, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Elizabeth mirror their conflicting ideologies. Mr. Bennet seems to have a quiet deep love for his daughters while, on the contrary, Mrs. Bennet’s love is over-acted and conditional. Both parents help to shape their daughters’ characteristics and beliefs: Lydia reflecting Mrs. Bennet’s flighty and excessive behavior while Elizabeth inherits Mr. Bennet’s pensive and reflective temperament. Looking past their dissimilar personality traits and contradicting convictions, both parents hold the family together and play an integral role in the household structure.
Wright, Andrew H. "Feeling and Complexity in Pride and Prejudice." Ed. Donald Gray. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1966. 410-420.
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