Reading log 1 - Pride and Prejudice

The exposition

I have chosen to read the novel Pride and Prejudice which is a book written by the famous author Jane Austen. The story takes place on the English countryside in the early 19^th-century and revolves around a family called Bennet. The Bennet family has five daughters and they are all represented on the first few pages of the book. Jane and Elizabeth are the oldest ones and therefore expected to soon be married. Their mother, Mrs. Bennet, spends day and night searching for gentlemen who are willing to marry her beloved daughters. Therefore when Mr. Bingley moves to town everyone gets very excited. The rumour has it that Mr. Bingley is a very wealthy and proper man, a perfect match for one of the girls.

”It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other their daughters.”

These are the first lines of the book. I think they are well connected to Mrs. Bennet’s life goal - the importance of finding a good and suitable man for her daughters. The first lines tell you what the book will be about. Family, marriage and relationships are all big parts of the plot.

The first major event in the novel is when Mr. Bingley and the Bennets finally meet at a ball, with all the other upper-class locals. Jane, the oldest of the five sisters, and Mr.Bingley enjoy each other’s company very much and Mrs. Bennet could not be more pleased with the night. She is already making up wedding plans in her head on the way home. But Mr. Bingley did not arrive alone. With him came his two sisters and an old friend of his, Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy is a very arrogant and proud man, this has a connection with the title of the book I guess, and no one gets a good first impression of him. Elizabeth Bennet who is a very free-speaking person tries her best to get to know this man but with no luck since Mr Darcy does not finds any interest in her because of her lack of beauty he says.

At first I thought this would be a typical love story with Jane and Mr.Bingley getting happily married. But as the story went on I realised this book had so much more to offer - Jane Austen is not famous for nothing.

In my opinion the main characters of the book are Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy since the book circles more and more around them as the story goes on.

Elizabeth is not like the rest of the Bennet sisters. She is a very independent woman and is not afraid to speak her mind. Elizabeth is often a disappointment to her mother since she is not very ladylike and does not want to settle down with just any man that comes in her way. I find her character very interesting because of her intelligence and strong will.

Mr. Darcy on the other hand is a character that develops as the story goes on. In the first chapters he is very arrogant and grumpy. He is not at all as open minded as Elizabeth and as a reader I had a really hard time liking Mr. Darcy in the beginning.