Essay Pride And Prejudice

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The novel Pride And Prejudice written by Jane Austen was written and takes place in regency England during 1810-1820; a time where the courtship between man and woman were built upon the wealth and prestige of one of the two parties, more than often the man. This is enforced through the first sentence of the novel, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Austen depicts the top two percentage of British society, the “highest orders,” throughout her novel of manners. Mr. Darcy, a man of supreme elitism, lives in Pemberly, an estate of stature, and is part of the leisured class. On the contrary, Elizabeth Bennett is a woman born into less than desirable marriage qualities due to her mother entering courtship with a man of higher class. Thus, inequality is a theme that Austen dramatizes during the course of her novel, however, throughout development of the novel their pride and prejudice subsides and they are enlightened with new views of each other. From the start, Mr. Darcy creates an odious figure of himself towards the Bennett’s when he refuses to dance with Lizzy, ““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 slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.” He is in essence saying that because no other man is dancing with her, she is not good enough to be dancing with him. This generates a heavy disliking towards Darcy due to the rudeness of his refusal and thus begins her prejudice against him.
Mrs. Bennett, seeing an opportunity to seal a courtship between Jane, Lizzy’s closest sister, and Mr. Bingley, wealthy friend of Mr. Darcy, sends Jane to walk rather than go by carriage to Pemberly, the estate of Mr. Bingley, during a cold rainstorm so that Jane will become ill and will have urgency to stay at the estate. After Jane having stayed for some time, Lizzy insists on visiting the estate to help nurture her. Incidentally, Mr. Darcy happens to be staying there as well and begins to feel charmed by Lizzy due to her outspokenness.
Later on, Lizzy meets an officer named Wickham and quickly finds him to be charming. He tells her that in the past Darcy refused to give Wickham the inheritance he deserved, leaving him penniless with no means to support himself. Lizzy believes this without question due to her current prejudice towards Darcy and liking towards Wickham. Thus, the relationship between Lizzy and Darcy is further sustained and her antipathy for Mr. Darcy only grows.
Elizabeth visits her newly married, yet only for comfortably of life, friend Catherine at the Collin’s estate, which also happens to be Mr. Darcy’s aunt’s estate as well. Whilst visiting she happens to come across Darcy, who coincidently is visiting his aunts estate concurrently. The two engage in some verbal dispute and subsequently Darcy proposes. Lizzy refuses in a objectionable manner, saying she cannot marry Darcy because of his doing of separating Mr. Bingley from her sister, Jane, "ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a
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