“My fingers,” said Elizabeth, “do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many other women’s do.”
(Vol. 2, chapter 9, p. 146.4)
Elizabeth is very beautiful but not as beautiful as her sister Jane. In the novel “Pride and Prejudice”, peoples’ eyes are very expressive and carry peoples’ emotions because there was no other way of telling people how they felt. Mr Darcy finds Elizabeth’s eyes extremely attractive and thinks they are the most attractive part of her face. He believes that her eyes show how intelligent and beautiful she really is.
Elizabeth also does not have a figure which was fashionable at the time, but her figure pleases Mr Darcy. He does not however want to see just how beautiful Elizabeth is because it is mortifying for him to be attracted to her as she is of a lower social class than him, and he has also told his friends that he does not like Elizabeth. Mr Darcy does however think Elizabeth is feisty and has a “glow to her complexion” after she had walked all the way to Netherfield making her more delightful in Mr Darcy’s eyes - aswell as the readers.
He was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world he was caught by their easy playfulness.
(Vol. 1, chapter 6, p.18.1)
Elizabeth is delightful as she is a real person – she is not flawless; she has many faults. She shows some signs of being prejudice, she interprets things wrong and she enjoys disliking people. However, she makes mistakes and learns from them, which is an attractive quality. Throughout the novel we can see Elizabeth developing as a person as she tries to change her intentions. After receiving Mr Darcy’s letter, she realises that what she thought about him was wrong and that he had only made a mistake.
“How despicably have I acted!” she cried. – “I, who have prided myself on my discernment!…Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly. – Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other…I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment, I never knew myself.”
(Vo.2, chapter 13, p. 172.9)
Austen brings about Elizabeth’s change of heart quite quickly. Her character change is very dramatic and sudden – not at all gradual. This is typical of Jane Austens’ novels as her characters usually develop very quickly rather than gradually. This is not a bad thing, as people do have sudden revelations as result of something extraordinary or stimulus. Elizabeth moderates her prejudice when Mr Darcy welcomes nicely her at Pemberley when she visits with her Aunt and Uncle. At this point in the novel, Jane Austen uses dramatic irony where the readers know more than the characters – Elizabeth does not realise Mr Darcy has changed his manners for her alone.
“Why is he so altered? From what can it proceed? It cannot be for me, it cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened.”
(Vo.3, chapter 1, p. 209.7)
Another part of Elizabeth that is delightful is the fact that she can judge character well. She can see what the Bingley sisters are really like unlike her sister Jane who sees the best in everyone.
Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced; their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them.
(Vol. 1, chapter 4, p. 11.3)
There are also many non-delightful qualities that Elizabeth possesses. Elizabeth enjoys disliking the Bingley Sisters. She should not enjoy disliking people – it is not a delightful quality. It goes against the fact that “Pride and Prejudice” is a Christian novel so you should like your enemies and forgive them and also be good to them even if you do not like them. She acknowledges that it is not good to dislike someone so much, but she still does anyway. At first Elizabeth thought the Bingley sisters were nice people because of the affection they showed towards her sister Jane.
Elizabeth began to like them herself, when she saw how much affection and solicitude they showed for Jane.
(Vol. 1, chapter 8, p. 26)
However she soon changed her opinion of them when she learnt that they were only interested in themselves.
The sisters, on hearing this, repeated three or four times how much they were grieved, how shocking it was to have a bad cold, and how excessively they disliked being ill themselves; and then thought no more of the matter and their indifference towards Jane when not immediately before them, restored Elizabeth to the enjoyment of all her original dislike.
(Vol. 1, chapter 8, p. 27)
Elizabeth enjoying disliking the Bingley sisters so much makes her a flawed heroine.
Elizabeth mainly shows acts of being Prejudice towards Mr Darcy as she is eager to believe the worst of him because she does not want to like him. However, Elizabeth
was the one at fault when she overheard Mr Darcy’s conversion at the Netherfield Ball with Mr Bingley as it was bad manners and she was not supposed to hear it. She should not base her dislike for Darcy on something she was not supposed to hear. She prejudges Darcy and holds what he said about her against him throughout the novel.
“She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighter by other men.” – Mr Darcy talking to Mr Bingley.
(Vol. 1, chapter 3, p. 8.5)
Elizabeth could be seen as not delightful because she took a very long time to change her opinion of Mr Darcy. Mr Darcy took a short amount of time to realise that he liked Elizabeth, whereas Elizabeth took longer. She is usually a good judge of character, but she judges wrong with Mr Darcy and Mr Wickham.
Elizabeth thinks Mr Wickham is a pleasing gentleman, but he is not. He tells her his feelings for her in public which was extremely wrong at the time, because you were not supposed to tell someone your feelings about them until after you were married. She believes what Mr Wickham tells her about Mr Darcy and she then thinks ill of Mr Darcy too easily. Mr Darcy only made a common mistake of splitting Mr Bingley and Jane up because he thought Jane did not love him. Mr Darcy did this for the good of his good friend Mr Bingley. However, Elizabeth is far too cynical about this and she is harsh in the way she treats Mr Darcy because she cares deeply for her sister Jane. Charlotte Lucas told Mr Darcy about Mr Bingley and Jane, but it was a common mistake for Mr Darcy to make.
“It is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals he affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him.”
(Vol. 1, chapter 6, p. 16.4)
Only do the other members of the Bennet family realise what Wickham is really like after Lydia’s elopement with him.
A big theme of the novel “Pride and Prejudice” is misinterpretation. Elizabeth makes the mistake of mistaking Mr Darcy’s shyness when she teases him about dancing for pride. Mr Darcy also misinterprets Elizabeth thinking that she is flirting with him when she in fact is making fun of him on various occasions.
Taking all the evidence into account about the character of Elizabeth Bennet, despite her having flaws, she is still a delightful character. The reader of the novel can relate to her character because she has flaws and of course no one is perfect. Elizabeth is delightful because she can acknowledge her flaws and she is also willing to change. These are both attractive qualities. Throughout the whole novel, we can see that Elizabeth is real and ordinary. She is not blindingly beautiful and she is not extremely intelligent. This makes us relate to her even more. Heroines which are too good to be true come across in some novels as dull because they should not be perfect. Elizabeth however is a flawed heroine just like ordinary people. One could argue that she is not delightful because of her prejudice to Mr Darcy which was wrong, but at least she realised her mistake and was willing to change her attitude towards him. Elizabeth creates delight in the readers of “Pride and Prejudice” and so therefore she is a delightful character.
Neha Amlani L5 Alpha
