Reading log 2 - Pride and Prejudice

The conflicts

External conflict

There are a few external conflicts in Pride and Prejudice. In my opinion the main one is between Elizabeth and her mother, Mrs Bennet. Ever since Elizabeth was a young girl they have been arguing about everything and nothing. 

They do not share the same way of looking at life and their opinions about marriage is the ones who differs the most. All Mrs Bennet wants is for Elizabeth to find a good and wealthy man to marry. However Elizabeth does not believe in a marriage built on money. Elizabeth wants to marry a man because of love, which her mother finds incredibly frustrating. 

Mrs Bennet finds the typical 18^th century behaviour very pleasant and can not for her life understand why Elizabeth prefers to fight against it.

Internal conflict 

The major internal conflict in the novel is within Elizabeth Bennet herself. In the beginning of the book when she meets Mr Darcy for the first time she immediately dislikes him. She finds him very arrogant and proud. 

However as the story goes on her feelings for Mr Darcy changes and develops in to some sort of love. Elizabeth is finding it very hard to control her feelings since Mr Darcy ruined her sister’s marriage and did such an awful thing to Mr Wickham. She would never decide to settle down with such an awful person as Mr Darcy. 

Though when Elizabeth finds out about the truth she lets her feelings for Mr Darcy grow strong and she admits, not only to herself , but to her whole family that he will be the man in her life.

The conflicts - Pride and Prejudice 2

External conflicts

There are a number of external conflicts in Pride and Prejudice. One of the long drawn out ones is between the main character Elizabeth Bennet and her mother, Mrs Bennet.

I believe that they argue because of their dissimilar opinions. They do not share the same thoughts about society and its forbidden rules during the 18^th century, neither about women rights or the meaning of marriage.

Since Mrs Bennet is an old fashion lady, her way of thinking is typical 18^th century. For an example, her biggest wish is that all of her five daughters will marry a man with great fortune and not by love. Elizabeth on the other hand, truly believes that women should have the same rights as men. Furthermore, she has faith in true love and considers that marriage only should be based on love and not money.

Another conflict that I noticed is between Mr and Mrs Bennet. They are leading an essentially unhappy marriage since they are not compatible. Their personalities are so different; their entire marriage is a conflict.

Internal conflicts

The primary conflict is an internal conflict between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. With their pride and prejudice, it seems like they are never able to see the truth about each other. The conflict is internal since it is Elizabeth fighting against her own feelings for Mr Darcy.  

In the beginning, Elizabeth hates Mr Darcy due to his pride behaviour, what she thinks he did to Mr Wickham and mainly because of the fact that he separated Mr Bingley and her beloved sister. Never ever would she marry a cold-hearted man as Mr Darcy.

However, when the truth comes out it suddenly seems like Mr Darcy is a great man. Elizabeth gets frustrated because of her mistakes about Mr Darcy’s attitude toward her as arrogance, when in fact he only acted like that because he didn’t know how to express his true feelings for her. Finally, the love story begins and she lastly starts to adore Mr Darcy like never before.

The conflicts - Pride and Prejudice

The conflicts

Pride and Prejudice

There are a couple of conflicts portrayed in the book. I have chosen to shortly tell you about two conflicts. The first one is about the relationship Elizabeth and her mother has to one another and the second conflict describes the conflict between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy.

The relationship between Elizabeth and her mother is a bit complicated. Mrs Bennet seems to be much more strict when it comes to Elizabeth, in comparison to her other four daughters. She is often irritated by Elizabeth’s behaviour and overall her daughter’s persona. On the other hand, Elizabeth is her father’s favourite. This is something you will understand while reading the book for example when you come across situations where her father speaks about her in a special way. I believe that this is something that also builds up the tension between Elizabeth and her mother.

Furthermore, the arguments between Mrs Bennet and her daughter are often small and may not seem very obvious. They both have strong personalities and their small arguments continue throughout the entire book.

The second conflict I mentioned was the conflict between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. When they first met Elizabeth, and many others, found Mr Darcy unlikeable and full of himself. Further into the book something comes to Elizabeth’s knowledge that makes her hate Mr Darcy. Elizabeth has found out that Mr Darcy was the one who convinced Mr Bingley not to marry her little sister Jane, this resulting in a broken heart and a very sad sister. She resents Mr Darcy at first, but after Mr Darcy’s letter to her where he explains why he did it (he was not sure if Jane truly loved Mr Bingley), she starts to understand his actions.

Mr Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s conflict continues although throughout the book the conflict evolves into a conflict and question of “do I love him or not?”, “does he love me?”, “do I still resent him?” and so on. At this point you understand the book title “Pride and Prejudice” because this is a fight between Elizabeth’s prejudice and Mr Darcy’s pride.

The conflicts – pride and prejudice

As said there is often all kinds of conflicts in most books and in this story, which I am reading is not different in this point at all. However some of the time the argues can be hard to detect, they are often small and over before you know it. Jane Austen also writes in a sarcastic way, which is the reason way the fights are hard to notice in some occasions.  

External conflicts

The main character Elizabeth Bennet often argues with her mother and her mother complaints about her now and then. This creates a lot of small arguments, which often occurs in the book.   

Their relationship seems to be a bit complicated. Mrs Bennet does not like how Elizabeth behaves and does not seem to like how she is as a person. Elizabeth Bennet is her father’s favourite but her mother’s least favourite and I think that is one of the reasons way their relationship is so complicated and way they argue a lot.

There is not a particular conflict, which is huge, instead there are several spread out over the entire book and they are always small and do not take up so much space, yet together they stand out in the book, and that is why I still wanted to write about them.   

“Not yet, however, in spite of her disappointment in her husband, did Mrs Bennet give up the point. She talk to Elizabeth again and again; coaxed and threatened her by turns”. This is just one example of how the small arguments could sound.

Internal conflicts  

At the beginning of the book Elizabeth dislikes Mr Darcy but do not think ill of him, but around a third of the book she gets some information which makes her hate him. Still this changes after some time after she gets to know the truth and that is when she comes in conflict with herself and she cannot decide how she feel about him.

The story she gets to hear is that she has him to blame for her sister’s broken heart, due to the fact that he was the one convincing Mr Bingley not to marry Miss Bennet, and therefor leaving her and never to see her again. When Elizabeth confronts him he does not deny it, although he says he did it for the right reasons. Later she gets a letter from he where he tells the truth, he did it but only because he did not know that her sister actually was in love with Mr Bingley. Even if she still doesn’t find him agreeable, she can’t deny that what he has done, he did with the right intentions. “ How could she deny that credit to his assertions, in one instance, which she had been obligated to give in the other? He decleared himself to have been totally unsuspicious of her sister’s attachment, and she could not help remembering what Charlotte’s opinion had always been. Neither could she deny the justice of his description of Jane”.

The conflict mainly concerns that she thinks she has done him wrong but she still do not think he has done completely right either, however all this makes it very hard for her to decide what it is she really feels towards him and how to deal with the story she have been told.  At first she still dislikes him a bit and do not wish to meet him ever again, although she is ashamed of herself and her behaviour towards him, which is also one of the reasons she do not want to see him again. Even so she does not think he had the right to break her sisters heart, but as I said before after a while she can see why he did it and do not have a grudge against him any more.  

Around here a new conflict stars to take form in her mind. What does she really think of him, is she starting to love him and does she regret her turning him down? This starts after she meets him in his own hometown and in his own home. He has really taken in on what she said when she refused to marry him. Now she can see this new part of him and she can’t decide if she thinks it will last and if she is starting to have new feelings for him.  

The conflicts - Pride and Prejudice

An internal conflict that takes place almost throughout the novel is when Elizabeth is fighting against her own feelings for Mr. Darcy. At first, she doesn’t like him at all due to his pride behavior, but also because of what he did to Mr. Wickham, or at least what Mr. Wickham told her that Mr. Darcy had done to him. However, after rejecting his proposal, she receives a letter from Mr. Darcy, which he pleads her to read. After reading the letter, she realizes that Mr. Wickham isn’t the man she thought he was and that Mr. Darcy only tried to protect his sister from Mr. Wickham, who wanted to escape with Miss Darcy just because she is rich. But still, Elizabeth is confused of her feelings because Mr. Darcy also confessed in the letter that he was the one that separated Mr. Bingley with her sister, but that was only owing to his thoughts that Jane didn’t love Mr. Bingley equally, and he didn’t want to see his best friend heartbroken. As much as Elizabeth dislikes Mr. Darcy, she is also starting to adore him because of the good man he has shown her that he is, not only to her but to everyone he cares about.

An external conflict is the fights between Elizabeth and her mother. In contrast to the internal conflict Elizabeth had about Mr. Darcy, this conflict is also happening over and over again. I personally believe that these fights are due to Elizabeth and her mothers’ different opinions about the society during the 18^th century, where the story takes place. Mrs. Bennet’s way of thinking is typical values people had this time, very old-fashioned. Elizabeth on the other hand, has a more modern way of thinking about the society, and she believes that a woman should have the same rights as the men have. Moreover that a woman should marry a man she truly loves and vice versa, and that money isn’t the main reason why people should get married, love is. Lastly, I think that Austen is criticizing the society she lived in, but through Elizabeth's opinions and values.

Part two - The conflicts

External conflicts 

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are constantly fighting each other. Elizabeth hates and feels disgusted by Mr. Darcy. She feels that due to the fact that he is rich Mr. Darcy thinks that he can boss around and be rude to everyone. When Elizabeth got to know that Mr. Darcy was the reason of her sister’s pain, she could not even be in the same room as him. She could not understand how someone could be able to that. How could he do that to a good-hearted person as Jane Bennet. Jane and Mr. Bingley where deeply in love, so why did Mr. Darcy separate them so that they would live miserly for the rest of their lives? When Mr. Darcy came to Charlotte Lucas' home he declared his deep feelings for Elizabeth. However Elizabeth could not accept his proposal now that she knew what he had done. She accused him for her sisters and Mr. Wickhams miserly life. Was he that much jealous, angry and supercilious that he could not bear to see happiness? 

Internal conflicts

Despite Mr. Darcy's act Elizabeth had also some faults. She did not realize that she accused Mr. Darcy for being rich and supercilious. Nonetheless it is correct that Mr. Darcy thought that Elizabeth was below his rank but he was not a terrible person. In Jane and Mr. Bingley's case he had a big part in it. Yet he separated the two love-birds because he though that Jane did not love Mr. Bingley equally and Mrs. Bennet only wanted her daughter to marry Mr. Bingley for his money. Therefore Mr. Darcy did what he did to save his friend from a big mistake as he thought it was. On the other hand in Mr. Wickham's case Elizabeth was totally wrong. Mr. Wickham had tricked Miss Darcy to elope with him even though he did not love her. He wanted to elope with Miss Darcy for the reason that he could take her money. As the reader already have realized Mr. Darcy is very protective of his sister and when he realized that someone who he had grown up with and who is father was fond of, he was devastated and angry. He could never forget him for what he had done to his sister or his trust. After Elizabeth had shared this knowledge of Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy's relationship she felt ashamed. She had judged someone who had all the right to be angry with a person and behave how he did.