Elizabeth Bennet's Character in Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen, in her book Pride and Prejudice, constantly explores and analyzes the qualities and characteristics that constitute a “good” marriage in early 19th century England. Many in this time period marry for pragmatic or social motivations, and many vulnerable young girls fall prey to the prospects that a rich man with an estate would offer to her and her family. Although many other girls sacrifice their personal happiness by marrying wealthy men, Elizabeth Bennet is not one of them. Elizabeth Bennet does not get “seduced” by Mr. Darcy’s terrific estate or by his superior social status, nor does she fall prey to the social vices that bind Charlotte and Lydia to their respective husbands. She knows what she wants in a husband and is not going to be influenced out of her wishes by anyone. Elizabeth is an independent woman who makes a good decision in marrying Darcy because she shares a deep emotional connection with him, and also because she has the support of her trusted friends and family.

To argue that Elizabeth Bennet is totally unaware of the status and money she stands to gain from Mr. Darcy would be futile. She is very smart, not naïve. This difference, however, might lead some to an alternative reading of Pride and Prejudice, an interpretation that finds much humiliation and degradation on the part of Elizabeth throughout her marriage process. Throughout Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth has never expressed any feeling of hate or disdain for the upper class as a whole, and so there is no reason to assume they she would be anything less than ecstatic about the prospect of living in an estate the epitomizes the landed aristocracy. She even says to herself “and of this place,’ thought she, ‘I might have been mistress!...

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...tacles she overcomes to finally marry him show how strongly she feels towards him and that her desire for marriage is based on love, not pragmatism or seduction. Had she been in it for the money it would not have been worth her effort to pursue Darcy and she could have easily accepted Mr. Collins proposal. She is convinced that Darcy dislikes her, and when he proposes to her “Elizabeth’s astonishment was beyond expression.” (185) She does not decline Mr. Collins in the hopes that a richer offer is coming from Mr. Darcy, because when she refuses Mr. Collins she is thoroughly convinced that Mr. Darcy thinks merely bearable. Instead, she refuses Mr. Collins because he is a ridiculous man and she marries Mr. Darcy because she truly understands and respects him as a person, and he completes the deep personal connection that she has been searching for her whole life.