Pride & Prejudice Homework
Professor McGavran
Feb 19, 2014
Elizabeth Bennet; the Nice Girl Changes Up?
When we first meet Elizabeth Bennet, she seems like a well-put together young woman: smart, funny, pretty, and loyal. With this being said as the second daughter of a country gentleman who can't leave his estate to his daughter, Elizabeth is headed straight for poverty if she doesn't marry a man who can provide for her. And marriage seems to be the main goal in her time period and a ring is central to her quest, too. Still, Elizabeth come equipped with all seeing eyes as well as ears. As a matter of fact, priding herself on being a good observer and an excellent listener takes her far in the novel, and she's observed that marriage can also be a one-way ticket to unhappiness. Let us see the development in Lizzie Bennet and note her changes. Elizabeth is one character that everyone would love to be best friends with. Her smarts are inevitable; she is also a reader, and let’s never forget to mention her beauty. Austen tells us that "she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous" (3.14). And it's true. Her main problem is that not everyone seems to understand her brash sense of humor. Sometimes that is good for her, for instance when she was making fun of Mr. Collins to his face. Other times it just leads to her simply being misunderstood, like the time she tells Mr. Darcy that she "rather wonder[s] now at [his] knowing any" accomplished women (8.51-52). She is blatantly making fun of the standards that he and Miss Bennet have come up with for accomplishment yet she is the only one laughing at the matter. We see her interacting with characters, and we think, is this girl ever seen as serious? Lizzie couldn’t even be serious with her sister. When Jane asks how long she's loved Darcy, Elizabeth replies by saying, "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley" (59.16). A protagonist, she really enjoys having fun while searching for a husband. Her love for Darcy is fake yet the love for his money is stable and real; it keeps her head over heels for him.
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