Pride and Prejudice 1

''Pride and Prejudice'' takes place in England around the 19th century and the novel begins with introducing the Bennet family, the main characters. Everything starts with Mrs Bennet telling Mr Bennet that a wealthy young man, named Charles Bingley, is moving into Netherfield Park in their neighborhood. Mrs Bennet sees this as an opportunity for marrying away one of her five daughters which is basically her only occupation (getting her daughters married). She pleads with Mr Bennet to call on Mr Bingley so that she can introduce her daughters to him. This leads the Bennet family to become invited to a ball where Mr Bingley instantly become well-liked due to him being personable and polite to the local folk. On the other hand, his friend Mr Darcy who is handsome and noble looking makes a less favorable impression by acting proud and condescending.

The eldest daughter of the Bennet family, Jane, instantly gets drawn by Mr Bingley who also seemed equally attracted to her and they form an attachment to each other at the ball. By contrast, the main characters in the novel, Elizabeth and Mr.Darcy, begin their resentment for each other. This is started by Mr. Darcy who says ''she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who slighted by other men.'' about Elizabeth to Mr Bingley who suggests Mr Darcy to dance with her. Elizabeth overhears this and jokes about it dispute feeling a budding resentment.

Alot of characters are introduced in the beginning, such as the Bennet daughters; Elizabeth, Jane, Mary, Catherine, Lydia. Mr. Bennet and Mrs Bennet who are their parents and also Mr Bingley, Mr Darcy. These are the characters which the story circles around but there are also some minor characters.

The novel's protagonists are Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. The novel plot and the other characters are mostly seen from Elizabeths viewpoint, she is the second daughter of the Bennet daughters. She is described as intelligent, lively, attractive and witty like her father. She, of all the Bennet daughters, has the closest relationship with Mr Bennet on the contrary to her mother which she is her mothers least favorite of all daughters. She is very outgoing, and independent, which you can tell by the way she says whatever is on her mind and she is also quite different from all her sisters.

Mr Darcy is a wealthy bachelor who is considered very handsome by most of the people in the novel. He is described as tall, intelligent and from what I have read it seems as if he is rather unsocial, given that he detests dancing and is not much for light conversations. This is also the reason why people didnt care for him very much during and after the ball. However, Mr Bingley doesn't seem to be bothered by it since they are very close friends.

''It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possesion of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feeling or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this thruth 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''

This quote represents the very first lines in the novel, they actually caught my interest (which isn't an easy task since i don't like to read) beacause they were very intriguing and I believe that the entire plot will centre around these sentences. They breifly tell us about Mr Bingley but also that, as i just said(wrote), the novel will be about women (or more likley their mothers) pursuit of ''single men in possesion of good fortune'' for themselves/ their daughters.I believe that Jane Austen chose this title due to Elizabeth represents ''Prejudice'' and Mr Darcy ''Pride''. Futhermore, the title ''Pride and prejudice'' is very fitting for many reasons, one of which is that it refers to the ways that Elizabeth and Mr Darcy view each other from their first meeting where Elizabeth forms a prejudice against him because he hurt her pride by saying  ''she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me...''.