At first I assumed that this novel talks mainly about Darcy's "pride" and Elizabeth's "prejudice" and tells us how they overcome them. However, later on in this novel I realized that Elizabeth has “pride” to almost the same extend as Darcy. Darcy, the main male character in this novel, is responsible for his sister, himself, his estate, and the name of his family. He is proud of these deeds does anything he can in order to protect them. Charlotte Lucas tells about Darcy: “a man of his wealth and family background has a right to be proud.” On the other hand Elizabeth is proud of her intelligence and independence. Her prejudice of Mr. Darcy’s appearance, the way he acts around people and represent himself are the main theme of the novel. To what extend does the first impression influence our further judgment? Later on in this novel, Darcy begins to humble himself in order to be closer to Elizabeth. She becomes attractive to him ironically because of her pride. Even though her family, especially her mother and the youngest sister Lydia, put her into a lower class, she remains a strong character, who supports the family but follows her own path.
He began to wish to know more of her, and as a step towards conversing with her himself, attended to her conversation with others."
From this point, Darcy's prejudice against Elizabeth begins to fade while her prejudice towards him still remains because he refused to dance with her at the ball. By the end of the novel, the series of events which they both experience give them the opportunity to understand one another and the time to make their feelings for each other clear. Their mutual understanding is the foundation of their relationship and will lead them to a peaceful and lasting marriage. Their relationship also shows the importance of getting to know the partner before marrying.
On the other hand the marriage of Lydia and Wickham is an example of a bad one. Their marriage is based on good looks, youth and appearances. These qualities disappear or change very fast, and the relationship slowly fades away. Although we don’t know much about how Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet got together, we can assume from their conversions. When they talk we get to know that their relationship is similar to that of Lydia and Wickham - Mr. Bennet married a woman he found sexually attractive but forgot to realize she had no intelligence.
The last example of a marriage is of a different nature. The marriage between Mr. Collins and Charlotte is based on economics rather than on love or appearance. It was a common practice during Austen’s time for women to marry a husband to save her from spinsterhood or to gain financial security.
These marriages contributes to the theme that a happy and strong marriage takes time to build and must be based on mutual feeling, understanding, and respect. Hasty marriages will not survive and will lead to inevitable unhappiness. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane criticizes the elements of marriage and society that she finds disastrous. These are the conclusions of her observation of the people in her world.
