Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The opening chapter of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen accurately
introduces some of the main characters in the novel, and adds a little
humour to the introductions. The first sentence, “It is a truth
universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a large
fortune must be in want of a wife”, introduces all the single males in
the novel that are in search of finding a wife. Almost every single
male in the novel is a rich man who is looking for a wife. The Bennet
family is then introduced throughout the rest of the chapter.
Mrs. Bennet opens up the conversation in the novel by informing Mr.
Bennet that Bingley, a rich single male, is coming to their town,
Netherfield Park. Mr. Bennet, who does not seem interested in his
wife’s rant about Bingley, continues to listen to her. When asked if
he will go visit Bingley and try to get a head start on getting one of
his daughters to marry him, he declines. He doesn’t think his visit
will give his daughters that upper hand and he does not seem to care
about getting them married. His quick witty responses convince Mrs.
Bennet that only the women should go see Bingley. These responses show
Mr. Bennet’s wittiness and Mrs. Bennet’s gullibility. The first
chapter also shows how much the women care about finding a rich
husband for their daughters, possibly because they want their
daughters to live more comfortably and easily than the lives they are
living with their husbands.
We are also briefly introduced to the Bennet daughters. We learn that
Mr. Bennet’s favourite daughter is Lizzy, because she has “more of a
quickness than her sisters”, while...
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...e same methods as
a couple would use to obtain an ideal marriage, then perhaps we would
be able to obtain an ideal society. By researching Jane Austen we know
that most of the heroes and heroines end up at the end of the story in
an ideal marriage. By having Darcy and Elizabeth end the novel engaged
in an ideal marriage is a significant detail. Jane Austen, in doing
this is suggesting that society would be better if it followed
Elizabeth and Darcy's example. By controlling pride and prejudice, and
by learning that compromise is sometimes the best way to happiness,
society can hope to improve itself. Marriage in the end is the perfect
ending, since it is both an affirmation of the values of society as
well as a personal fulfilment, which it is for both Elizabeth and
Darcy since they improve themselves by being together.