“Pride and Prejudice” offers an intensely personal story Essay

â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† offers an intensely personal story, and this story is written in light, airy, sparkling prose and is filled with witty and immensely entertaining dialogue. There are brilliantly drawn characters ranging from Elizabeth’s slightly eccentric mother to the gold-digging military officer Wickham. The two couples that I will be investigating in the following coursework are Elizabeth with Darcy and Collins with Charlotte. The two couples are both completely different in their relationships. The relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy is a peculiar one. Elizabeth first set eyes on Darcy at a public ball, and Elizabeth was not given the best if first impressions. This is because it was also the first appearance of Mr. Bingley and Elizabeth would have been comparing them both. Mr Bingley danced happily all night at every opportunity: â€Å"†¦Danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Whereas Mr. Darcy: â€Å"†¦danced only once with Mrs. Hurst and once with Miss Bingley†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Elizabeth would be interested in a fun loving man, not some boring man that was too proud. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..Or so she thought. When Mr. Bingley was in vain trying to persuade Mr. Darcy to dance with another Bennet his comment was: â€Å"†¦She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt ME†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Although Mr. Darcy did not intend for Elizabeth to hear this, she did. And this brief meeting was enough to give Elizabeth a first impression, originally the novel of â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† was called â€Å"First impressions† and we can see why. So what of our second pair; were events more auspicious? Charlotte Lucas is a very close friend to Elizabeth, but even with this they have very different views on marriage and love. Elizabeth feels it is essential to have love in a marriage and she would not dream of marriage otherwise. Whereas Charlotte has a very different opinion, she thinks love is a bonus in marriage and not a necessity. She would be quite happy to marry blindly because all that she seeks in a marriage is social stability and the social status: â€Å"†¦Happiness in Marriage is entirely a matter of chance†¦Ã¢â‚¬  When Charlotte first sees Mr. Collins she is interested. She is not interested in his charming good looks, which is just as well, she is interested in his house, money and availability as a husband. Let us now consider the personalities involved in these two marriages. Elizabeth is the protagonist of the novel and the second oldest of the five sisters, she is lively, quick-witted, sharp-tongued, bold and intelligent. She is good looking, and is especially distinguished b her fine eyes. She has pride in seeing a person’s inner-self, yet this ability fails her on more than one occasion. Elizabeth is one of the few people to not be impressed by wealth or titles such as Lady Catherine De Bourgh. And what of her husband to be? Mr. Darcy is an aristocrat of great wealth. He is a proud man and conscious of class difference. Even though Darcy may be proud he still possesses honour. His pride is actually what makes him lose his pride; this is so because Darcy is very used to women falling at his feet but when he realises his adoration for Elizabeth she makes it clear that she isn’t interested. This challenges Darcy. And of our second couple? Collins is an extremely comical clergyman and adds a humorous side to the novel. His trademark is conducting very long and very silly speeches, the sole purpose of these speeches is to say what he thinks to the people around him. Another one of the purposes he has in the novel us being next in line to inherit Longbourn when Mr. Bennet dies. He thought it would help the Bennet family if he was to marry once of the daughters, but when this is refused he turns his affections to Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte is one of Elizabeth’s closest friends, but in the novel her main function is to act as a contrast to Elizabeth. She has little opportunity to find a husband whom she really loves so she settles for the social status and security a man like Mr. Collins can offer. What of the proposals towards Elizabeth? As I have previously stated, Darcy expects women to fall at his feet simply because he is used to it. But when I examine the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy I see that Elizabeth had a deep hatred for Mr. Darcy. Although this is mainly due to the wrongful accusations imposed by Mr. Wickham, she thinks him to be a proud, cruel, insensitive and devious man. In reality Mr. Darcy is proud by mostly he is shy. Mr Darcy thinks he is successfully attracting Elizabeth, and the she knows it. When actually Elizabeth has no idea of this until Charlotte points it out: â€Å"†¦My dear Eliza he must be in love with you or he would never have called in on us in such a familiar way†¦Ã¢â‚¬  When the first proposal is made to Elizabeth she is absolutely outraged at how this man could think her to love him: â€Å"†¦you were the last man on the earth whom I could every be prevailed on to marry†¦Ã¢â‚¬  At this refusal Mr. Darcy was deeply hurt and left the room. We are not told the exact words of Darcy’s second proposal because firstly there is no need, and secondly Jane Austen chooses to leave the proposal to our imaginations. Elizabeth accepts this proposal because by that time she and Mr. Darcy are truly in love. And of the proposal towards Charlotte? Mr Collins only wants to marry because Lady Catherine advised him to, and he is not at all interested in love: â€Å"†¦make him the happiest of men†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The proposal was nothing at all towards the proposal of romance. This proposal was actually more of a practicality, something that had to be done before they could both do what they both intended to do; Charlotte wanted to find comfort in her children whereas Collins wanted to please lady Catherine. From looking at both relationships; Elizabeth with Darcy and Charlotte with Collins, I conclude that both couples are happy. Elizabeth and Darcy are happy because they both found their true loves and Elizabeth has the bonus of a husband of wealth and in ownership of a tasteful home. Collins and Charlotte are happy because Collins get to please Lady Catherine (which is all he seems to want to do) and Charlotte is happy because she was reaching quite a high age for unmarried status. The future is concerned is guesswork, but educated guesswork. And my educated guesses are that Elizabeth are and will always be truly happy as long as they have one another. Collins and Charlotte will also be happy in the future because; Collins never put any real commitment into marriage so has nothing to lose, and Charlotte will find comfort in her children. Jane Austen was very successful at putting her views across; she made her opinions obvious when she wanted to (which was not very often) and all of her opinions are justified by my standards and I think many others would agree.