How do pride and prejudice affect the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth?

Jane Austin was born on December 16, 1775 at the parsonage of Steventon, in Hampshire, a village of which her father was rector. She was the youngest of seven children. In 1801, the family moved to Bath, where they lived until 1805 when, upon the death of her father

Jane Austen's best-known work, Pride and Prejudice, was written in 1797-98, it was not published until 1813, two years after the publication of Sense and Sensibility. Her three other books belong to a later period - Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion being written between 1811 and 1816. Mansfield Park was published in 1814 and Emma in 1816 - during Ms. Austen's lifetime.

The book was apparently called First Impression because the appearances of the characters created the plot of the novel. However, because the novel is also concerned with the effects of the character’s first impressions, that is their prejudice, Jane found the title Pride and Prejudice more appropriate.

In the 18th century when Jane Austin wrote Pride and Prejudice life was very difficult for people in those days as people was only concerned about two things they were wealth and family class. Ladies had lower rights than men’s did, and that’s why ladies couldn’t go to work so therefore they couldn’t earn a living by they own. They can resolve this problem by marrying a rich man by solving her financial side of the women’s. If a women was not pretty than the women would find it very difficult to marry a very rich man.

Mr Bennet’s family had five daughters, it was very difficult in the older days for women, as they did not have much rights as men’s did. A woman could not inherit its father wealth, this was very stressing for the Bennets family because they did not have a son in the family and without a son in the family they wont be nobody else to be able to carry on the family wealth of Mr Bennets. They were only one person the family wealth could go to and that was Mr Collins, Mr Bennet’s nephew.

The main scene takes place between Elizabeth who is one of the five daughters Mr Bennets has and Mr Darcy

Elizabeth takes special interest into Mr Darcy however the feeling is not mutual as Mr Darcy describes her not tolerable or handsome enough for him. Elizabeth’s hatred for Mr Darcy grows when she hears of his dealings with Mr Wickham and than she later learns it was because of Mr Darcy that her sister Jane and Mr Bingly were separated. After all these events Mr Darcy is in fact in love Elizabeth and proposes to her, Elizabeth ...

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The main scene takes place between Elizabeth who is one of the five daughters Mr Bennets has and Mr Darcy

In chapter 33, Elizabeth one of Mr Bennets daughter was working with Mr Darcy cousin Connel Fitzwilliam. Elizabeth find out that Mr Darcy was the cause her sister Jane and Mr Bingly breaking apart. Connel Fitzwilliam than explains that Mr Darcy had felt that the ladies family was not suitable. Mr Darcy prejudice against the Bennets is clearly showing by the way he has dealt with this situation. Mr Darcy had felt Jane was not good enough for Mr Bingly because she did not match up to his standards. These standards were Jane ’s family fortune, because the Bennet’s are rich and Mr Darcy therefore, believes that it is not right to marry any one who is a social class lower than you.

Mr Darcy other reason’s were the Bennet’s family, they have obsessive mother who no knows no shame and her only aim is to see her daughters married to a rich men.

Elizabeth felt very hurt and angry when Fitzwilliam had told her Mr Darcy’s dealings with her sister and Mr Bingly’s relationship. Fitzwilliam states the reason for Mr Darcy’s action was because there were some serious objections against the lady. The way Elizabeth feels is shown because it say’s “her heart swelling with indignation”. This means is Elizabeth was angry and her heart was swelling up with anger and crossness. Elizabeth is feeling like this because she is hurt that Mr Darcy saw so little of her family that he is looking down at her family and states that they are not worthy of anyone who is respectable to be marring them. This causes Elizabeth’s to hate Mr Darcy more and she blames it on his pride. This causes Elizabeth to reflect on her family because she starts to wonder

She than talks about Jane’s good manners and states how anyone could possible thinks this of them, when Jane has all loveliness and goodness in her. She describes her father she says, “ whose respectability Mr Darcy will probably never reach“. Elizabeth is beating around the bush, she doesn’t want to believe Mr Darcy is in the right to think this way, so she makes many excuses for herself and especially to save her own pride. However there is one thing that Elizabeth her self cannot even make excuses for and that’s her mother. It says, “When she thought of her mother her confidence gave away a little”. Elizabeth was at first confident that her family was not to blame for Mr Darcy’s action but when she thought of her mother she began to think maybe there was a small possibility. She quickly objects to this consideration and blames it on Mr Darcy’s pride. Elizabeth knows deep down that her mother is to be blamed on giving the family a bad name but she does not want to lose her own pride, self-esteem and so she rejects the idea by blaming it on Mr Darcy’s pride. Elizabeth then concludes that Mr Darcy’s pride was the cause of him thinking this way and at no point was her family to be blamed for the unhappiness of Jane.

Elizabeth states that “ his pride and caprice were the pride had Jane had all suffered”. She states here, that because of his pride Jane was now unhappy this grows her hatred and prejudice towards Mr Darcy even more. Elizabeth is quite prejudice herself because she is blaming it on Mr Darcy’s pride because she doesn’t want to think ill of her family in order to save her own pride. Elizabeth first thought when she met Mr Darcy was he was Proud and conceited. Elizabeth is narrow minded and when ever sees a fault concerned with Mr Darcy blames it on him being too proud.

In chapter 33 Mr Darcy proposes to Elizabeth in marriage and she rejects him. Before Darcy arrived Elizabeth was reading all letters she had received from Jane. She is examining the letters to make herself frustrate herself against Mr Darcy, so by reading the letters she could understand and feel the pain Darcy had caused her sister. Elizabeth wants to feel furious with Darcy because she feels guilty in having spent time with him in the park and she is trying to make up for her guilty conscious because she knows now all the pain he caused her sister.

Darcy walks around the room several times, sits down and gets up. This causes both Elizabeth and Darcy uneasiness. The tension would have made Darcy more nervous and Elizabeth a little irritated. This shows that it is very hard for him to say the words and that he is fighting his own conscious that is against the decision of a marriage proposal.

In chapter 34 Mr Darcy writes Elizabeth a letter and explains his interference with her sister Jane and his friction with Wickham.

In the letter Darcy at first explains that why he separate her sister from Mr Bingly because of the family behaviour, he observed on the night of the ball and realized that his friend was falling in love. He told Bingly that he cannot fall marry her and so they moved to London. Darcy writes that I was not you sister Jane or you but the shame of you three younger sisters, especially you mum. He writes “ The total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly betrayed by mother and three younger sisters, occasionally even by your father.

He also explains the situation with Mr Wickham, he explains that Darcy’s father was Wickhams Godfather and that him and wick ham were like brothers. However Wickham had been secretly been dating his sister Georgina who was only 15, Darcy had confronted him and learnt that Wickham was only after his sister wealth. He writes, “ Wickham’s chief object was only his sister’s fortune, which is thirty thousand pounds”. In those days, it was very expensive

I conclude that I think that they are many different factors to blame for Mr Darcy and Elizabeth’s problem. One factor I believe could be Mr Darcy pride, as he’s a very rich man, he believes that he does not need to answer for his actions. Darcy’s prejudice feelings towards the Bennets family is another factor because Darcy constantly insulting they family manners and putting them down. Darcy’s interference with Jane also caused Elizabeth to hate him which increased problems between both of them.

Elizabeth’s prejudice against Darcy had also caused problems because Elizabeth was convinced that Darcy’s pride was to be blamed for the cause of Wickhams problems with money.

I think Darcy is more to blame because when both of them met at first sight he had insulated Elizabeth and there was no other women sitting and Darcy had refused to dance with her. At this point Elizabeth labelled him rude and too proud. His dealings with her sister were a key factor on the cause of problems because here Darcy had put his prejudice to action and made Elizabeth dislike him even more.

I do not think that they relationship is not real, if it is I think it would not work because Elizabeth got insulted by a Mr Darcy. So I do not expect them to marry after she got insulted her and her family.

I think that Jane Austin is trying to tell us that relationship can never be destroyed. She is saying that people are not always as they seem and that sometimes people who have very different personalities tend to get along. I agree with this because I think people with similar personalities may not find each other interesting and tend to get bored of each other very quickly.

Karan Varma Page