The novel Pride and Prejudice is about five sisters and the things that happen on

their way to getting married. The sisters are Jane, Elizabeth, Kitty, Mary and Lydia. The

Bennet sisters all live with their parents at Longbourn. A new neighbor comes to live in

the area of the family, named Mr. Bingley. Bingley catches the interest of most everyone

in the area, but he seems to be especially fond of Jane. Bingley’s friend, Mr. Darcy, is

not so well taken as Bingley himself is. Darcy is seen as too proud and overall not as

nice a person as Bingley, but both are wealthy. Mr. Collins, the cousin and heir to the

Bennet estate, asked Elizabeth to marry him and she said no. Close to this time Bingley,

Darcy and the rest of their group left Netherfield to go back to London. This left Jane

alone and although she acted fine about it most of the time, she was upset about Bingley

going. The sisters received letters from Caroline Bingley, they told of Bingley’s likely

marriage to Darcy’s sister. The news just about ended the idea of Jane and Bingley

marrying.

     Elizabeth got to know an officer named Wickham, who has a connection to Darcy

and to other characters later. Elizabeth learns different things about Mr. Wickham and

mostly loses interest in him after he is engaged to another women. He did tell her about

some bad things that Darcy did to him though, which gave Elizabeth a bad opinion about

him. Elizabeth has many meetings with Mr. Darcy at different places. Each time she is

puzzled at the way Darcy acts towards her. Other people keep telling her he likes her, but

Elizabeth does not listen. She does not realize it fully until he asks to marry her and

Elizabeth says no. When the redcoats leave, Lydia goes with on of the officers and his

wife. While there, she runs off with Mr. Wickham, but does not get married. This is a

great disgrace to the family, so it must be fixed. After some discussion and debts are paid

off, Mr. Darcy ends up paying so that Wickham will marry Lydia. Mrs. Bennet is really

happy about the marriage and so is Lydia, but Elizabeth knows Wickham well now, so is

not as pleased. Bingley and Darcy come back to Netherfield and are constant visitors at

the Bennet house. After a few times, Bingley asks Jane to finally marry him and she

excepts. Darcy, who usually visited along with Bingley, continued to act strangely when

visiting the Bennet’s. Many rumors had spread that Darcy was going to ask Elizabeth to

marry her, but nothing had happened yet. Some people were opposed to the wedding, but

Elizabeth excepted and the two got married.

In Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, I believe that the main theme of the book is

the battle of the contrasting personalities and opinions of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. The

two characters are barely ever in agreement and when together are usually arguing about

something. Darcy often lets his pride get in the way of his feelings and lets that be the

thing that most people remember about him. While Elizabeth is very disagreeable at

times herself. She seems to find a prejudice about just about everything, and she has no

problem letting people know it. A driving force of the book was the constant arguments

that Elizabeth and Darcy had about social matters and the opinions that he or she had on

them.

     The novel has many points that are important or intricate parts to the plot, but

only one scene stands out in my mind to being the turning point of Pride and Prejudice.

The scene in the parsonage, between Elizabeth and Darcy, when he asks for her hand in

marriage is the turning point of the book. It makes the true feelings of Darcy, which were

hinted at many times, known to Elizabeth. Darcy does something unlike himself and

shares his feelings. In the manor that he does it in, with all of the insults to the Bennet’s

and Elizabeth directly, he does not come off as well as he would have liked. That is one

of the reasons for Elizabeth’s refusal, along with the things that Wickham had told her

about Darcy’s bad treatment. I believe that this is the turning point because Elizabeth can

now not view Darcy the same way, she does not yet feel the same way, but she knows his

feelings and it changes part of her perception of him. Darcy is now left more open to act

as new way to her and it showed me that with some changes to happen soon, the two of

them would be getting married.

In 1813 when Jane Austin wrote Pride and Prejudice, I do not think she realized

how good a view of young people she had. While reading the book I thought that it is

still true in today’s time period. The actions of the sisters to each other and to there

parents are timeless, along with how interested Kitty and Lydia were in young men.

They chased after the redcoats as girls go after athletes today. The importance of money

is also a very typical concept in finding a partner today. The amount is different, but all

is basically the same. I liked this aspect of the book, I found it extremely interesting that

life back in the 1800’s has not changed so drastically from the way some things are

today. The similarities between the two periods are not exactly the same, though they did

some many signs of the same ideas.

     A part of the book I disliked was how it only showed the point of view of the

female character. I realize that was the way the book was written, but I would have liked

to get a better sense for what other characters like Darcy or Bingley were feeling at

different times. One time was when Darcy was half listening in on the conversation

between Elizabeth and Mrs. Bennet during the dance at Netherfield. They were talking

about different matter, such as Bingley and Elizabeth getting married, she gave you the

feeling that Darcy did not seem to like what he was hearing, but you did not learn that for

sure until later in the novel. Most of the things that I wondered about were explained

later in the book, just a few times I still wished she had just told the brief thoughts of

more male characters in the book.

     The language used in the book was at times, hard to understand to me. Since the

book was written almost two hundred years ago in England it is understandable to have

some language differences. I found the meanings of things that characters were saying

hard to figure out, it did not take away from me following the main idea of the novel, but

made it more difficult to smoothly read. Lydia (pg. 185) said one such line, “I am glad I

bought my bonnet, if it is only for the fun of having another bandbox!” The meaning of

that line is far beyond me, but I did not see that it had any deep meaning in the novel

aside from getting a better sense for the character of Lydia.

     After reading the entire book I took the opinion that I did not really like the book.

It was extremely well written and had many amusing parts, but the topic itself was just

not one that I have any interest in. The book dealt with five sisters and their dealings

with getting married. I do not think that too many males my age would find much

interest in such a topic. At some points in the novel they mentioned the redcoats and

other army type things, but not once did they talk about a battle or even a small fight in a

local pub. That would have kept my interest for a longer period of time then all the talk

of marriage and how tolerable people are. Jane (pg. 14) says, “He is just what a young

man ought to be, sensible, good-humored, lively; and I never saw such happy manners!-

so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!” Those lines and many other like them,

in no way helped me to like the book anymore. Only the witty comments of Mr. Bennet

could make up for all of the talking of marriage. I believe the book was worth reading

and a good book, but not one I would normally read on my own.