The sudden change - Pride and Prejudice

The peripeteia – the sudden change

I believe that the sudden change in Pride and Prejudice takes place almost in the middle of the book when Elizabeth and Mr Darcy have a huge fight. He proposes to her, and she can’t understand why he asks for her hand when he has cost so much pain to her family and herself. In the beginning of the book, before the fight, Elizabeth dislikes Mr Darcy very much due to the things Mr Wickham has told her that Mr Darcy did to him, which result in almost all of the prejudices and bad feelings she has against Mr Darcy. But after the conflict, Elizabeth receives a letter from Mr Darcy where he explains the situation with Mr Wickham, which shows that Mr Darcy only tried to protect his sister from Mr Wickham who wanted to escape with her because of her money. He also tells her that he is the one that separated Mr Bingley with Jane, because he thought that Jane didn’t love Mr Bingley equally. This, of course, makes her more confused than ever, but still, she starts to question her feelings for him, and as the days go by, she realizes that she loves him very much.

The feelings Elizabeth has for Mr Darcy is something that has been going on almost throughout the novel, and a quote by Elizabeth on page 252, shows the readers that her feelings for Mr Darcy have grown increasingly. “It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began.” This is also the point where everything changes because Elizabeth finally understands, by heart, that Mr Darcy is an extremely caring person, and everything he did and still does is because he wants to protect his family and the people close to him.

The ending

I think that the ending of the book was a typical happily ever after ending for most of the characters. Elizabeth and Mr Darcy finally got each other, and so did Jane and Mr Bingley. Even though, for example, Lady Catherine or Mr Wickham didn’t end up quite happy as the others, I still believe that the ending of the book was good. I wouldn’t want it to end in another way, because I don’t think that Lady Catherine or Mr Wickham deserved a happy ending due to the fact that they weren’t good people, and they were only thinking about themselves. Lastly, I believe that everyone got what they deserved, good or bad, happy or not, all of them were choosing their own destiny by the choices they made.

The title

I still believe that the title Pride and Prejudice is a very good name for this book, because it describes what the book is about. Almost every character that Austen writes about is described as a person with a lot of prejudices. Elizabeth and her family, for example, have many prejudices against Mr Darcy in the beginning, and Mr Darcy himself, is portrayed as a very pride person.

The message of the novel

I believe that Jane Austen was unhappy with the society during the 18^th century, and therefore, she wrote this book to show people how wrong it was that for example a woman should marry a man with a great fortune, and not because she loved him. I also think that this novel is written in a very ironic way about the society, and that Austen was expressing her anger against the unequal society, but through the novel.

Moreover, I would say that another message of the book is how important it is to stand up for yourself, and that you should be satisfied with nothing but the best. Elizabeth, for example, could have married Mr Collins or Mr Wickham, but for all the wrong reasons. She was smart enough to realize that she wouldn’t be happy with none of them, because she didn’t love them, and that she never could. Finally, I think that it’s very important not to let your prejudices and your pride become a problem for what you really feel, and that you shouldn’t judge people too quickly.