The Peripeteia - Pride and Prejudice

The sudden change

Every great novel has a turning point. In Pride and Prejudice the turning point starts when Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy have one of their huge fights. Mr Darcy will end up proposing to Elizabeth which she clearly could not comprehend. How could he have the guts to ask her to marry him after all that he have done to her and her family? How ever, after the fight Elizabeth will receive a letter from Mr Darcy where he explains everything. The letter shows us that behind all that pride Mr Darcy actually is a great person. This made Elizabeth confused. She started to question her feelings towards him and finally understands that she does not hate Mr Darcy, she loves him.

The end

The end of the story was not particular shocking. Like I predicted it ended as most of the love stories I have read, the boy gets the girl and they live happily ever after. In this case, Elizabeth and Mr Darcy finally faced their true feelings and got each other. So did Jane and Mr Bingley too. Even though I could predict the ending I have to say that I liked it. Personally I think that it is not a good love story if it doesn't have a happy ending.

The title

I believe that ''Pride and Prejudice'' is a suitable title. It seems that the author, Jane Austen, has put a lot of thought into it. The title is very meaningful because pride and prejudice are exactly what the enitre plot is about. The main character Elizabeth Bennet is a prejudiced person who has a bad habit of quickly judging people. Meanwhile, Mr Darcy is a person with alot of pride and therefore the fantastic title - Pride and Prejudice.

The message

It is noticeable that the author had a clear message when she wrote this story. In fact, I believe that she had a several messages she wanted to point out in her writing. One of the primary messages in this novel is kind of a hidden message through the character Elizabeth. In fact it is Austen critizing the unequal society she lived in by the main character. She is a fantastic author since she does this in an ironic way. How ever, the message is clear, the women during 18th century did not have the same rights as men. Therefore, they should stand up for themselves. They shouldn't have to feel that they have to marry someone for their great fortune instead of love. Another clear message in this novel is that you should never let your prejudices or pride get in the way of what you truly feel.

The Peripeteia– pride and prejudice

The Peripeteia

In this novel the beginning of the change happens very quickly, however the following events and the transformation of the main character takes a little bit longer. The change comes when Elizabeth Bennet receives a letter from Mr Darcy where he explains why he acted the way he did in a situation, but also he tells the truth about Mr Wickham. The reason for his this action is because Miss Bennet accuses him for being unfair and cruel, something he feels he need to explain why to her. Until this letter, Elizabeth has thought of Mr Darcy as a disagreeable person, whom she dislike, however this letter changes a lot, both when it comes to her feelings towards him, but also his behaviour towards others and her behaviour towards him. Although everything doesn’t change entirely at once, but at least it is a start.     

The change continues when she meets him again at his house (Pemberley). He shows her that he has transformed to a better man and that he has taken in on what she accused him of to be. Until this visit she only stopped to dislike him, but now another feeling starts to take place in her. Her feelings towards him start to be more of the loving kind.

When the change take place, Elizabeth also knows that she has done him wrong and she is ashamed of herself and some of her actions. So when she realises this, she starts to change her behaviour towards Mr Darcy. 

All this happens very slowly and even if you (the reader) understand what is happening, Elizabeth has a hard time finding out what her true feelings are until she think it is too late for them to ever get married. “She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man, who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her. His understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have answered all her wishes”. This is when Elizabeth really understands that she loves him and that she could have been utterly happy with him as a husband.   

The ending

I can’t deny that I’m a sucker for happy endings and therefor I like the ending of this novel very much. I think the world is dull enough anyway for books to have sad and cruel endings. I also think the end is appropriate because of the fact that she does not start to love him until he changes and she gets to see his real self. Off course the marriage of Jane and Mr Bingley is very pleasing as well and their happy ending is as happy as Mr Darcy and Elizabeth. In addition to this it is great that Jane and Elizabeth have the chance to live so close to each other.

On the other hand, not everyone have their own fairy tale ending in this story, which is both a little sad but also more realistic. So even if I said that I love happy endings, I also like when it is a bit realistic, due to the fact that in the real world not every one can be as happy as they want to. I know I contradict myself, however I believe that endings of novels and stories should be both realistic and end well, which this book provides.

The message

I believe that Jane Austen has several messages in the story. One is that women do not have to behave in a certain way, but also that you shouldn’t have to much pride and prejudices towards others. However the main message is for me that love and happiness is just around the corner if you don’t let you pride and your prejudices get the best of you. The main characters realise that they have done wrong and treated different characters unacceptable only due to their pride or their prejudice. And off course that you should learn to see past your prejudices.

The title

It is easy to know way she has chosen the title pride and prejudice because all through the book they often talk about their pride and their prejudices. Many of the characters in the novel let their pride and their prejudgments get in the way in so many occasions, especially the main character Elizabeth Bennet who cannot see Mr Darcy for who he is until it is almost to late. Additionally the whole book is about pride and prejudices and that is why it is such a good name for the novel.  

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.

Part Three - The peripeteia

A sudden change 

Elizabeth Bennet has from the beginning of the novel had a bad feeling about Mr Darcy. She accused him from being the most evil and pride person in the whole world. When Mr Darcy acknowledge his feelings towards her, Elizabeth answered him being the last person in the world that she ever would marry. However Elizabeth had the right to be angry with Mr Darcy. Their first meeting she overheard Mr Darcy telling Mr Bingley that she was not beautiful enough for him to consider of dancing with. And latter on throughout his stay at Netherfield he behaves asocial and insolently. Therefore when Elizabeth heard from his cousin, Colonel Fitzwiliam, that Mr Darcy was the reason of her sisters misery she had had enough. She was extremely disappointed and angry. At the time she got to knew that he was the cause of her sister's misery, Elizabeth was getting to like Mr Darcy. At Rosings, Mr Darcy's aunts home, Mr Darcy was social and good with her friends Charlotte and Mr Collins. At this time it seemed that all hate that Elizabeth had towards Mr Darcy was about to change. Nevertheless this change of feelings did not happen. Both of them, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth was hurt of the words that they accused each other for.

Therefore, the next day Mr Darcy wanted to explain the two accusation that Elizabeth had made towards him. In the letter he explained that he separated Mr Bingley and Jane Bennet due to the fact that he thought that his friends feelings was not equally as Miss Bennet's. Mr Darcy though that Miss Bennet was forced of her mother to get marry to Mr Bingley because he was rich. However Elizabeth knew that Jane was extremely in love with Mr Bingley and that she was only shy to show her feelings for everyone. Mr Darcy did not apologize for this event cause he had believed that at that time he did the right thing. The next accusation was Mr Wickhams misery life. Mr Wickham had told Elizabeth that Mr Darcy had taken everything from him and so he had to get into the military, which at this time was not a well paid job.  Yet, this was not the real story. Mr Darcy was enraged with Mr Wickham due to the fact that he had planned to elope with his little sister and only because of her money. This made Elizabeth's feelings towards Mr Darcy to change. She was now ashamed of her accusations. And when she met him at Pemberley she did not know what to do. She was surprised that he treated her friendly. At this meeting she was surprised that he was social and kind not only to her but also towards her uncle and aunt. Elizabeth had never seen this side of him. It was a good surprise and she kind of started to have feelings for him now. She though if he still had the same feelings for her as at Rosings.

Mr Darcy had from the beginning had feelings for Elizabeth Bennet, yet he fought with those feelings. Still when he met her at his aunt's house he understood that he could not fought them anymore. He had given up and was ready to acknowledge his feelings for Elizabeth. Elizabeth, on the other hand was not quite fond of him at this time. She did not like that he was arrogant and asocial. Also she had heard what he had to say about her at their first meeting. However this did not make her hate him, she just laughed at that statement. What was her breakthrough was when she understand that he had participate in his sisters misery and Mr Wickhams. Be that as it may her feelings was about to change. Elizabeth understood that Mr Darcy and she had more in common than not and that he was the one for her. Mr Darcy was the one who could make her happy. 

The ending

The ending of the novel Pride and Prejudice was a "happily ever after- ending". Elizabeth got her Mr Darcy and Jane got her Mr Bingley. Mrs Bennet was now thrilled that she had three daughters married and that two of them had enough money that if something happened for example if Mr Bennet died, the two elder sisters would help their family. The only people who was disappointed of the ending was Lady Catherine the Bourgh and Miss Bingley. Both of them did not want Mr Darcy to marry Elizabeth Bennet. Lade Catherine de Bourgh, Mr Darcy's aunt, wanted him to marry her daughter and Miss Bingley wanted him to marry her. However he was not in love with those people although this two women would make a better match for him due to the fact that they was from a higher rank. 

Almost everyone likes a happy ending. The book showed how two people changed their though and got from the worse to the better. Mr Darcy learned to not be pride and asocial and Elizabeth Bennet learned that she should not accuse someone so early. As you see, this was a perfect match. This two love-birds made each other a better person. The ending was an appropriate way to end this kind of a novel. A reader wants to know that her/his main characters/favorite characters got the happy ending that they deserved.  

The title

Pride and prejudice. This is a perfect title of the novel due to the fact that the novel is about this two topics. Mr Darcy's pride and Elizabeth Bennet's prejudice. The whole story is about this two words. The first meeting between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. Mr Darcy was pride and behaved arrogant and Elizabeth did not like him cause he was rich and pride. Throughout the whole book this two themes shows. However Mr Darcy is not pride or arrogant anymore in the middle of the novel. On the contrary Elizabeth is still accusing him for being rich and pride. After receiving Mr Darcy's letter Elizabeth starts to also tone down her accusations. 

The message

I do not find a good message about the novel Pride and Prejudice.  I believe that it is a fictional book with element of real life. Maybe the author wanted the reader to stop being proud and prejudice? However it is said that Jane Austen mostly wrote love stories. Therefore I would not believe that there is a special message in the book besides a good love story.