The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen explores an array of themes which include:
1.Pride- Exhibited in Darcy's pompous behaviour. His pride in his elite social status causes him to belittle those below him on the social ladder. Moreover, it is revealed in the novel that, "Human nature is particularly prone to pride."
2. Prejudice- Manifested in both Darcy and Elizabeth's initial perceptions of one another. Both characters are quick to judge each other based on their social position. That is to say, Darcy thinks Elizabeth to be a lowly commoner while Elizabeth thinks Darcy to be a haughty snob.Each misjudges the other because of their own prejudices.
3. The Role of Marriage as a means of Social and Financial Mobility- For the entirety of the novel, Mrs.Bennet's sole purpose is to ensure that her daughters are married into wealth, so as to improve the family's financial situation as well as their social standing. She thoroughly supports the idea of Jane marrying Bingley (can you say money?) and she constantly stresses to her daughters the importance of marrying an endowed bachelor.The opening sentence of the novel, "It is universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife," even foreshadows Mrs. Bennet's belief and reveals that the aforementioned theme is quite major in the novel.
Why do you think Mrs. Bennett was so preoccupied with getting her daughters married off? Why do you think she really wanted her daughter to marry Mr. Collin's?
Sorry...I forgot to post my name....It's Danielle...Danielle McCoy. Lol
Now dealing with the matter at hand: Mrs. Bennet's obsession with getting her daughters married off could be attributed to her fear of being financially and socially unstable. That is to say, she feels that the only way she can secure her and her husband's livelihood is if her daughters are married to endowed bachelors. As a result, she makes it her mission to marry off her daughters. Moreover, Mrs. Bennet especially pushes Elizabeth (Lizzy) to marry Mr.Collins because she knows that if the two and joined in marital union, the Bennet family assets will remain in the Bennet family since Mr.Collins is entailed to the Bennet's property.
Also, there are other themes within prideand prejudice such as: Love: in which overcoming all obstacles caused by tension of Elizabeth and Darcy different personalities prevails. Elizabeth's pride causing her to wrongfully judge Darcy and Darcy's prejudice of Elizabeth's social status causing him to not see Elizabeth for the type of person that she is even though he is attracted to her. There are among these other obstacles such as Lady Catherine's control, Wickham deception and Mrs. Bennet's foolishness.
Marriage: as expressed in the novel when Charlotte (Elizabeth's close friend) accepted and married Mr. Collins to gain financial support and who does not view love as the most essential part of a marriage.
I AGREE WITH DANIEL that the reason why Mrs Bennet wanted her daughter to marry Mr collin was because he was the man that was entitled to Mr Bennet property.
i also think the reason why MRS Bennet wanted her daughters to marry wealthy individuals was because she wanted them to be better off than her meaning more fortunate than she is.
the themes presented in this novel are many and the main two being pride and prejudice Pride - seen in Mr Darcy because he believes that he is better than everyone else because of his wealth and social status and he looks down on others because of this
Prejudice - Seen in both Darcy when he prejudges Elizabeth because of her lack of wealth and social status and also in Elizabeth when she prejudges Darcy because of his apparent pride and arrogance
also the theme of marriage for wealth and social status was prevelant because that was on the minds of everyone in the village especially Mrs Bennett because she wanted her daughters and her family to be stable and she thought that wealth and status was the only way to get it.
and to answer jamian's question i think she would marry Mr Darcy if she was in Elizabeth's position at the end of the novel because Darcy had the most money and true love for her.
Danielle, you sort of nailed the topic of themes on the spot flawlessly. I wholly agree with your analysis. However, we must also take into consideration that Darcy admits that he does not have the talent to converse with persons he has never met before. His justification for his pretentious and conceited behaviour is extremely weak but it reveals that he is aware of his "pride" and feels the need to defend himself. His pride is especially seen at the ball when he bluntly refused to dance at all and proceeded to insult Elizabeth Bennett. As you already stated they both form their own perceptions of each other and consequently deceive themselves. One can justify this by making reference to Darcy's acts of saving Lydia's reputation and re-uniting Mr. Bingley and Jane. Therefore, Elizabeth truly had a slight misconception of Darcy's inner integrity. Darcy's pride blinds him at first but he soon realises that Elizabeth is different from the other "traditional" woman which subsequently caused him to be enamored with her. Jen, i also concur to your reference of love. Jane Austen makes it perfectly clear that love is not a phenomenon that is dictated by the constraints of social status or wealth. This is evident in Darcy's proposal of marriage to Elizabeth who is regarded as socially inferior. Tradition is yet another theme which is somehow entwined with love. Mrs. Bennett was adamant about Elizabeth marrying Mr. Collins even though she loved him or not. Love, in her opinion was not as important as living comfortably and being respected by others in society. Elizabeth however, refused to be damned into an eternity of misery by marrying someone she did not love. This was very common among many families in the Elizabethan society of that era. Many families were eager to get out of debt or were fervent about becoming wealthy and they were more than willing to marry their daughters off to whomever they deemed socially and financially acceptable not withstanding that their daughters might despise the male candidates.
To express Sarah's sentiments..."Good one Jamian!" Lol
I think Mrs. Bennet would have hastily married Mr. Collins, as he was the one who proposed first. I mean we all know she is a foolish , materialistic woman who would have married anything with...well u know what. Lol. Moreover, the fact that Mr. Collins was entailed to the Bennet property validates the reason why i think that Mrs. Bennet would have married him. However, if she was more like her daughter, Lizzy, then maybe she would've have married the right man, Mr. Darcy, for love and not for monetary and social gain.
Well, i have to say that i completely agree with ariel for saying that the two main themes presented are pride and prejudice as displayed in Elizabeth and Darcy
there are many themes in pride and prejudice. pride being shown by mr.darcy when he didnt want to dance with any of the girls saying that they were not handsome enough and that he does not converse with people that are not his parties or the type of people that he talks to or dance with. prejudice-elizabeth never got to know mr.darcy because of what others were saying about him she didnt like him and she thought of him as a bad and selfish man as well as being proud. in that time marriage was a very big and important thing but he also had to be of great fortune as well as pleasant. mrs. bennet wanted all of her daughters to get married to a man of great fortune and this was like all she could think of this was like her reason for living to get all of her daughters married.
Well I would like to commend everyone for there comments they were quite interesting since with them i was able to look at pride and prejudice themes from different angles.....
For Jamians questions (which is quite commendable i must say ) I think Mrs. Bennet would have chose Mr. Darcy..... In my opinion, he is much like her husband (Mr. Darcy)... you know with his witty insults for example "not bieng handsome enough" which both men have used reflecting their ego. It is as if she is attracted to men of her husband's qualities.
Like most of my fellow class mates who commented i do also see Pride as a theme displayed by Mr. Darcy- a man who uses his pride to look down upon others and often misjudges them, Elizabeth- who uses her pride to assess another person's pride and Mrs Bennet- in choosing mostly financially stable husbands for her daughters
Another theme which goes ahdn in hand with pride is Prejudice which is reflected equally by Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth toward each other since they both feel they are better one in terms of attitude and the other in terms of wealth.
And the last but final theme is Destruction of Love's importance in Marriage which is reflected by Mrs. Bennet- as she schrotonizes each acceptable canididate/husband for financial backing which would in turn result in neconomic stability for the family rather by assisting her daughters in finding men they love or could grow to love vice versa.
There are many themes in this novel, but these three are the main themes:
1. Pride- illustrated in Mr. Darcy's behaviour when he constantly insults Elizabeth because of her social standing.
2. Prejudice- illustrated in both Darcy's and Elizabeth's behaviour because of what they merely think of each other.
3. Marriage as a sign of high social status- illustrated by Mrs. Bennet in her constantly forcing the issue of her daughters getting married to the men that they are aware of their high social class/status.
I agree with Dandyball it was a very good analysis of the novel.
I too agree with what everyone said, but additionally, I believe that Reputation is also a theme that's found in Prdie and Prejudice. The fact that in those days a woman was expected to behave a certain way and if she didn't live up to those expectations there would be a very stong possibilities she could make herself vulnerable to being ostracized. We see this when Elizabeth decides to walk to Netherfeild and ends up getting her skirt muddy, to her it wasn't anything big but in Miss.Bingley's eyes it was disgraceful. Another example is Mrs.Bennet whose ill-mannered behanviour only gives her a bad reputation to the "snobs" - Mr.Darcy and the Bingleys. Lastly there's Lydia whose elopement with Mr.Wickham not only threatened the repuyayion of her entire family but also but put the chance of her sisters getting married at risk.
Brooke again and I completely agree with Danielle and Saskia. Pride was definitely exhibited by Mr. Darcy from his very introduction into the novel at the ball and Elizabeth did not even hide the fact that she was a biggot towards Darcy. She seems to judge him solely on his financial status and such behaviour was reciprocated by Darcy towards her. The matter of inferior and superior birth was definitely prominent through out the book and was later reiterated by Lady Catherine (she is such a hater). Marriage was another theme which was prominent in the book. However the matrimonial institution of the day seemed for the most part to be based on financial and social status rather than love an compatibility. I think that for them, getting all dressed up and walking down the isle was simply a more subtle way of saying "add my name to your checking account and put my name on the mailbox outside the mansion" (if you ask me I think Elizabeth and Darcy got it right)
To answer Jamian's question, I think Mrs. Bennet would marry Mr. Collins not just because he was the heir to everything the Bennet's owned but because he was the first to propose irregardless of the fact that he had originally fallen for her sister and chose her as the alternative because Jane was "taken". Mrs. Bennet is psychotic and obsessive and any man with a potential engagement ring should stay far away from her. lol
oooohhh another thing. i think that Mr. Darcy was grossly misjudged and that he only came of arrogant, conceited, self centered, pompus, vainglorious and snobbish because he was shy. He was only fronting like he was all that. ;-)
mrs nejaele ...how you no that the marriage was loveless i mean ....didnt really say so ...you can tell by reading the book she annoys him at times ...but come on you have 5 kids with a woman and na grow fa love she .....sorry but the sex cant be that good or great to keep a man around (she's white lol ) ....but on a serious not there is love .in the marrigae he stayed with her and had kids ....if you waanna say look at charlette and collins she only married him for money ok yeah ...but eventually some form a love have to come right .....and it normal for men to be annoyed at theirs wives ....women talk alot and she talks overly to much .....and elizabeth she has her fault she's human she didnt like darcy because he didnt dance with her .....pose his knee was hurtin him ....chups and all this darcy lets his pride hide ...whatver if i was rich like darcy and i know ppl like mrs bennet and half the women in this book who only want me for money i wud be a prick to ....i'lll be worst to hell...i wont even ask her agin to marry me chups ...elizabeth better be glad he ask her agin ...i'm done :)
i was wondering how to answers this question since I'm not entirely finished with the book yet so i tried to get some help and i founds this and i believe it is a good interpretation and i truly agree with it
Austen is critical of the gender injustices present in 19th century English society. The novel demonstrates how money such as Charlotte need to marry men they are not in love with simply in order to gain financial security. The entailment of the Longbourn estate is an extreme hardship on the Bennet family, and is quite obviously unjust. The entailment of Mr. Bennet's estate leaves his daughters in a poor financial situation which both requires them to marry and makes it more difficult to marry well. Clearly, Austen believes that woman are at least as intelligent and capable as men, and considers their inferior status in society to be unjust. She herself went against convention by remaining single and earning a living through her novels. In her personal letters Austen advises friends only to marry for love. Through the plot of the novel it is clear that Austen wants to show how Elizabeth is able to be happy by refusing to marry for financial purposes and only marrying a man whom she truly loves and esteems.
The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen explores an array of themes which include:
ReplyDelete1.Pride- Exhibited in Darcy's pompous behaviour.
His pride in his elite social status
causes him to belittle those below him
on the social ladder. Moreover, it is
revealed in the novel that, "Human
nature is particularly prone to pride."
2. Prejudice- Manifested in both Darcy and
Elizabeth's initial perceptions of
one another. Both characters are
quick to judge each other based
on their social position.
That is to say, Darcy thinks
Elizabeth to be a lowly commoner
while Elizabeth thinks Darcy to
be a haughty snob.Each misjudges
the other because of their own
prejudices.
3. The Role of Marriage as a means of Social and Financial Mobility- For the entirety of the novel, Mrs.Bennet's sole purpose is to ensure that her daughters are married into wealth, so as to improve the family's financial situation as well as their social standing. She thoroughly supports the idea of Jane marrying Bingley (can you say money?) and she constantly stresses to her daughters the importance of marrying an endowed bachelor.The opening sentence of the novel, "It is universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife," even foreshadows Mrs. Bennet's belief and reveals that the aforementioned theme is quite major in the novel.
good comment. You need to post your name so I know who you are.
ReplyDeletedadyball,
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think Mrs. Bennett was so preoccupied with getting her daughters married off? Why do you think she really wanted her daughter to marry Mr. Collin's?
Sorry...I forgot to post my name....It's Danielle...Danielle McCoy. Lol
ReplyDeleteNow dealing with the matter at hand:
Mrs. Bennet's obsession with getting her daughters married off could be attributed to her fear of being financially and socially unstable. That is to say, she feels that the only way she can secure her and her husband's livelihood is if her daughters are married to endowed bachelors. As a result, she makes it her mission to marry off her daughters.
Moreover, Mrs. Bennet especially pushes Elizabeth (Lizzy) to marry Mr.Collins because she knows that if the two and joined in marital union, the Bennet family assets will remain in the Bennet family since Mr.Collins is entailed to the Bennet's property.
i agree with daniell both of them judge one another based on the social position
ReplyDeletemrs bennet only wanted her daughter to marry mr collins because of the inherintance they would get, and she only want them to marry people with money.
ReplyDeleteAlso, i agree with what danielle said about the themes.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there are other themes within prideand prejudice such as:
ReplyDeleteLove: in which overcoming all obstacles caused by tension of Elizabeth and Darcy different personalities prevails. Elizabeth's pride causing her to wrongfully judge Darcy and Darcy's prejudice of Elizabeth's social status causing him to not see Elizabeth for the type of person that she is even though he is attracted to her. There are among these other obstacles such as Lady Catherine's control, Wickham deception and Mrs. Bennet's foolishness.
Marriage: as expressed in the novel when Charlotte (Elizabeth's close friend) accepted and married Mr. Collins to gain financial support and who does not view love as the most essential part of a marriage.
ReplyDeleteI AGREE WITH DANIEL that the reason why Mrs Bennet wanted her daughter to marry Mr collin was because he was the man that was entitled to Mr Bennet property.
ReplyDeletei also think the reason why MRS Bennet wanted her daughters to marry wealthy individuals was because she wanted them to be better off than her meaning more fortunate than she is.
ReplyDeleteQUESTION FOR THE FLOOR:WHO DO YOU THINK MRS BENNET WOULD HAVE MARRIED IF SHE WAS IN ELIZABETH'S POSITION
ReplyDeleteA]MR COLLINS
B]MR WICKHAM
C]MR DARCY
CHOOSE YOUR ANSWER AND GIVE A REASON FOR YOUR ANSWER.[THANK YOU ] I JUST WANT TO HEAR THE DIFFERENT ANSWERS.
the themes presented in this novel are many and the main two being pride and prejudice
ReplyDeletePride - seen in Mr Darcy because he believes that he is better than everyone else because of his wealth and social status and he looks down on others because of this
Prejudice - Seen in both Darcy when he prejudges Elizabeth because of her lack of wealth and social status and also in Elizabeth when she prejudges Darcy because of his apparent pride and arrogance
also the theme of marriage for wealth and social status was prevelant because that was on the minds of everyone in the village especially Mrs Bennett because she wanted her daughters and her family to be stable and she thought that wealth and status was the only way to get it.
and to answer jamian's question i think she would marry Mr Darcy if she was in Elizabeth's position at the end of the novel because Darcy had the most money and true love for her.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, you sort of nailed the topic of themes on the spot flawlessly. I wholly agree with your analysis. However, we must also take into consideration that Darcy admits that he does not have the talent to converse with persons he has never met before. His justification for his pretentious and conceited behaviour is extremely weak but it reveals that he is aware of his "pride" and feels the need to defend himself. His pride is especially seen at the ball when he bluntly refused to dance at all and proceeded to insult Elizabeth Bennett. As you already stated they both form their own perceptions of each other and consequently deceive themselves. One can justify this by making reference to Darcy's acts of saving Lydia's reputation and re-uniting Mr. Bingley and Jane. Therefore, Elizabeth truly had a slight misconception of Darcy's inner integrity. Darcy's pride blinds him at first but he soon realises that Elizabeth is different from the other "traditional" woman which subsequently caused him to be enamored with her.
ReplyDeleteJen, i also concur to your reference of love. Jane Austen makes it perfectly clear that love is not a phenomenon that is dictated by the constraints of social status or wealth. This is evident in Darcy's proposal of marriage to Elizabeth who is regarded as socially inferior.
Tradition is yet another theme which is somehow entwined with love. Mrs. Bennett was adamant about Elizabeth marrying Mr. Collins even though she loved him or not. Love, in her opinion was not as important as living comfortably and being respected by others in society. Elizabeth however, refused to be damned into an eternity of misery by marrying someone she did not love. This was very common among many families in the Elizabethan society of that era. Many families were eager to get out of debt or were fervent about becoming wealthy and they were more than willing to marry their daughters off to whomever they deemed socially and financially acceptable not withstanding that their daughters might despise the male candidates.
Oo yeah good one Jamian...she probably does think they'll end up like her..hence her completely irrational and OCD toward matrimony
ReplyDeleteTo express Sarah's sentiments..."Good one Jamian!" Lol
ReplyDeleteI think Mrs. Bennet would have hastily married Mr. Collins, as he was the one who proposed first. I mean we all know she is a foolish , materialistic woman who would have married anything with...well u know what. Lol.
Moreover, the fact that Mr. Collins was entailed to the Bennet property validates the reason why i think that Mrs. Bennet would have married him. However, if she was more like her daughter, Lizzy, then maybe she would've have married the right man, Mr. Darcy, for love and not for monetary and social gain.
Well, i have to say that i completely agree with ariel for saying that the two main themes presented are pride and prejudice as displayed in Elizabeth and Darcy
ReplyDeleteTo jamie's question, i would say Mr. Collins because of his wealth
ReplyDeletethere are many themes in pride and prejudice. pride being shown by mr.darcy when he didnt want to dance with any of the girls saying that they were not handsome enough and that he does not converse with people that are not his parties or the type of people that he talks to or dance with.
ReplyDeleteprejudice-elizabeth never got to know mr.darcy because of what others were saying about him she didnt like him and she thought of him as a bad and selfish man as well as being proud.
in that time marriage was a very big and important thing but he also had to be of great fortune as well as pleasant. mrs. bennet wanted all of her daughters to get married to a man of great fortune and this was like all she could think of this was like her reason for living to get all of her daughters married.
Well I would like to commend everyone for there comments they were quite interesting since with them i was able to look at pride and prejudice themes from different angles.....
ReplyDeleteFor Jamians questions (which is quite commendable i must say )
I think Mrs. Bennet would have chose Mr. Darcy..... In my opinion, he is much like her husband (Mr. Darcy)... you know with his witty insults for example "not bieng handsome enough" which both men have used reflecting their ego. It is as if she is attracted to men of her husband's qualities.
Like most of my fellow class mates who commented i do also see Pride as a theme displayed by Mr. Darcy- a man who uses his pride to look down upon others and often misjudges them, Elizabeth- who uses her pride to assess another person's pride and Mrs Bennet- in choosing mostly financially stable husbands for her daughters
ReplyDeleteAnother theme which goes ahdn in hand with pride is Prejudice which is reflected equally by Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth toward each other since they both feel they are better one in terms of attitude and the other in terms of wealth.
And the last but final theme is Destruction of Love's importance in Marriage which is reflected by Mrs. Bennet- as she schrotonizes each acceptable canididate/husband for financial backing which would in turn result in neconomic stability for the family rather by assisting her daughters in finding men they love or could grow to love vice versa.
There are many themes in this novel, but these three are the main themes:
ReplyDelete1. Pride- illustrated in Mr. Darcy's behaviour when he constantly insults Elizabeth because of her social standing.
2. Prejudice- illustrated in both Darcy's and Elizabeth's behaviour because of what they merely think of each other.
3. Marriage as a sign of high social status- illustrated by Mrs. Bennet in her constantly forcing the issue of her daughters getting married to the men that they are aware of their high social class/status.
I agree with Dandyball it was a very good analysis of the novel.
Good!! You got it. Right on track.
ReplyDeletePlease watch spelling and capitalizing of words.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Elizabeth looked at her parents and realized that she did not want to be in a loveless marriage.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with what everyone said, but additionally, I believe that Reputation is also a theme that's found in Prdie and Prejudice. The fact that in those days a woman was expected to behave a certain way and if she didn't live up to those expectations there would be a very stong possibilities she could make herself vulnerable to being ostracized. We see this when Elizabeth decides to walk to Netherfeild and ends up getting her skirt muddy, to her it wasn't anything big but in Miss.Bingley's eyes it was disgraceful. Another example is Mrs.Bennet whose ill-mannered behanviour only gives her a bad reputation to the "snobs" - Mr.Darcy and the Bingleys. Lastly there's Lydia whose elopement with Mr.Wickham not only threatened the repuyayion of her entire family but also but put the chance of her sisters getting married at risk.
ReplyDeleteBrooke again and I completely agree with Danielle and Saskia. Pride was definitely exhibited by Mr. Darcy from his very introduction into the novel at the ball and Elizabeth did not even hide the fact that she was a biggot towards Darcy. She seems to judge him solely on his financial status and such behaviour was reciprocated by Darcy towards her. The matter of inferior and superior birth was definitely prominent through out the book and was later reiterated by Lady Catherine (she is such a hater). Marriage was another theme which was prominent in the book. However the matrimonial institution of the day seemed for the most part to be based on financial and social status rather than love an compatibility. I think that for them, getting all dressed up and walking down the isle was simply a more subtle way of saying "add my name to your checking account and put my name on the mailbox outside the mansion" (if you ask me I think Elizabeth and Darcy got it right)
ReplyDeleteTo answer Jamian's question, I think Mrs. Bennet would marry Mr. Collins not just because he was the heir to everything the Bennet's owned but because he was the first to propose irregardless of the fact that he had originally fallen for her sister and chose her as the alternative because Jane was "taken". Mrs. Bennet is psychotic and obsessive and any man with a potential engagement ring should stay far away from her. lol
ReplyDeleteoooohhh another thing. i think that Mr. Darcy was grossly misjudged and that he only came of arrogant, conceited, self centered, pompus, vainglorious and snobbish because he was shy. He was only fronting like he was all that. ;-)
ReplyDeletemrs nejaele ...how you no that the marriage was loveless i mean ....didnt really say so ...you can tell by reading the book she annoys him at times ...but come on you have 5 kids with a woman and na grow fa love she .....sorry but the sex cant be that good or great to keep a man around (she's white lol ) ....but on a serious not there is love .in the marrigae he stayed with her and
ReplyDeletehad kids ....if you waanna say look at charlette and collins she only married him for money ok yeah ...but eventually some form a love have to come right .....and it normal for men to be annoyed at theirs wives ....women talk alot and she talks overly to much .....and elizabeth she has her fault she's human she didnt like darcy because he didnt dance with her .....pose his knee was hurtin him ....chups
and all this darcy lets his pride hide ...whatver if i was rich like darcy and i know ppl like mrs bennet and half the women in this book who only want me for money i wud be a prick to ....i'lll be worst to hell...i wont even ask her agin to marry me chups ...elizabeth better be glad he ask her agin ...i'm done :)
i was wondering how to answers this question since I'm not entirely finished with the book yet so i tried to get some help and i founds this and i believe it is a good interpretation and i truly agree with it
ReplyDeleteAusten is critical of the gender injustices present in 19th century English society. The novel demonstrates how money such as Charlotte need to marry men they are not in love with simply in order to gain financial security. The entailment of the Longbourn estate is an extreme hardship on the Bennet family, and is quite obviously unjust. The entailment of Mr. Bennet's estate leaves his daughters in a poor financial situation which both requires them to marry and makes it more difficult to marry well. Clearly, Austen believes that woman are at least as intelligent and capable as men, and considers their inferior status in society to be unjust. She herself went against convention by remaining single and earning a living through her novels. In her personal letters Austen advises friends only to marry for love. Through the plot of the novel it is clear that Austen wants to show how Elizabeth is able to be happy by refusing to marry for financial purposes and only marrying a man whom she truly loves and esteems.