The first lines
“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 neighborhood, 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 of their daughters.”
To be
honest, these couple of lines in the beginning of the novel really caught my
curiosity and at the same time provoked me. Jane Austen begins her entire novel
by telling the reader how important it is for a woman to marry a man with a
good income and not by love. Except from the fact that these sentences shows us
that the novel will be about prejudice, that existed during that time, it also
shows us that things have changed. This was probably an every day alternative
during their time, but for someone like me, in another century and in another
culture, I couldn’t relate to these sentences and therefore I had to read more.
The exposition
The novel
takes places during the 18th century in England and is about the
Bennet family. Mrs Bennett’s biggest wish in life is that her five daughters
will find men with a good fortune who they can marry. Therefore, when Mr
Bingley, a man who is rich, single and attractive rents a house close to the
Bennett’s house; Mrs Bennet sees her opportunity to marrying away one of her
daughters. One night Mr Bingley arranges a ball where Jane, the oldest
daughter, catches his interest and dances with only her the entire night. This,
of course, made Mrs Bennet really delighted and satisfied. However, Mr Bingley’s
friend, Mr Darcy, another man with a great fortune is also at the ball.
Unfortunately, he does not give as good impression as Mr Bingley. Elizabeth
quickly judges him as a man with a lot of pride and when she overhear him
saying that Elizabeth isn’t someone he want to spend time with because she
isn’t beautiful enough her judgment about him confirms. Furthermore, as a
reader you will also get introduced to Mr Collins who is Mr Bennet’s cousin, and in the case
of Mr Bennet’s death inherits all of Mr Bennet’s fortune. Mr Collins will visit
the Bennet family and his main intention is to marry one of the five sisters.
Soon, he proposes to Elizabeth who declines and her mother gets furious.
One of the
main characters in this novel is Elizabeth Bennet. She is the second oldest of
five daughters in the Bennet family. It seems like Elizabeth is her father’s
favourite daughter since he believes she is the cleverest one, this contrary to
her mother who wont consider Elizabeth as her first choice among the other
daughters.
Elizabeth
is a woman who is gifted in many ways. She is beautiful, intelligent,
intellectual and outspoken. She is also a caring and loving person and values
her family the most, particularly her sister Jane. Furthermore, she is the kind
of person who has faith in in true love and therefore believes that a woman should
marry a man she loves and not because of his great fortune. However, she has a
bad habit, which is judging people very quickly in a sarcastic way. For an
example, she judges Mr Darcy for being arrogant only after their first meeting.
Another
main character is Mr Darcy. He is from a respectable family with a big fortune.
He seems to be a man of few words, Mr Darcy is described as an asocial man with
a lot of pride and therefore thinks highly about himself. But, he seems to be a
very trusted man by his friend Mr Bingley, and also by his younger sister, Miss
Darcy, who he loves and protects very much. This shows us that he is most
likely, just like Elizabeth Bennet, a caring and loving person.
The title
of this novel is Pride and Prejudice and I believe that the entire novel is
based on this couple of words. Just by reading the first sentences on the first
page, the author, Jane Austen, presents the themes pride and prejudice. This
goes on in the coming chapters where we can read about the predetermined
thoughts to the characters, depending on their birth or status, or how they
should act in a certain occasion and mostly about how a woman is expected to
act during the 18th century.
There is little physical description of the characters in Pride and Prejudice, so my perception of Mr Darcy is shaped by BBC. How about you? Do you see Colin Firth?
SvaraRadera