A review by ellespringer
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

5.0

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen… the original enemies to lovers trope. The first time I “read” Pride and Prejudice was over a year ago during my senior English Literature class. My teacher, who happens to be one of the most influential teachers I have ever had, told me that the book would be terrible and I would hate it. He was a very sarcastic person, but I took that opinion and ran with it, and I hated the book before I even began reading. In the past, I have found myself yearning to be a person who enjoys classic novels, but I just assumed it was never in the cards for me. Thankfully, I was wrong. Below is a snippet of my English paper that I wrote upon my first attempt at reading Pride and Prejudice.

"I originally thought this book would be thought provoking and full of inspirational  characters, but in fact it was about the ordinary dating lives of women in the early nineteenth century. This book was basically a dull, aged version of the Bachelor. Along with that, Elizabeth Bennet was not a feminist ahead of her time, but actually a woman that became tethered to a man and lived her life revolving around love and nothing else. While at first glance, she could have seemed uninterested in men, in reality that's all she thought about. At parties she glanced towards Mr. Wickham or Mr. Darcy. She was concerned when Ms. Bingley would engage in conversation with Mr. Darcy and obsessed over her sister Jane's relationship with Bingley. However, Elizabeth is not the most frustrating character I have read because of her incessant interest in men, but because of how she was considered a feminist when she was really anything but.”

When I read Pride and Prejudice over a year ago, I was not as avid a reader as I am now. You could say I took a six year hiatus from reading. During my first read, I may have used cliff notes for the latter half of the book as I could not get through the first half well. One of the biggest misconceptions about Pride and Prejudice is that it is a boring book. People think this because you have to read half the book to realize what is happening and to get to the really compelling aspects of it. This is why it was not a smart idea to use cliff notes as a way to skip part of the book because that was where the true love story took place.

While I stand by the fact that I do not consider Pride and Prejudice a feminist novel like many do, I rescind almost every other opinion I had about the book the first time I read it. So, where do I stand on the book now that I gave it a fair shot and didn’t go into it with my own preconceived notions? I loved it! Let’s start from the beginning and work our way through because there is a lot to unpack in the 411 pages I just read.

In the beginning, I hated Mr. Darcy with a fiery passion because of his comment at the ball that was aimed towards Elizabeth; “she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me”. This made me completely sympathize with Elizabeth because if a man told me that I was “fine, but not pretty enough to want to talk to”, I would most definitely be pissed (and I have been known to be able to hold a strong grudge). So, I do in some sense get why Elizabeth had a prejudice against Mr. Darcy that was only enhanced when Mr. Wickham told her numerous lies about him and their history together. This is also why every occupant of the Longbourn house had a very large dislike for Mr. Darcy, and why Elizabeth had to explain how she could love such a man in the end of the novel. However, Mr. Darcy began to grow on me almost immediately after the ball when Elizabeth came to Netherfield to tend to a very sick Jane. While everyone else thought Elizabeth to be improper and rude when she walked three miles to get to Jane, this only piqued Darcy’s interest. He wasn’t captivated by Miss Bingley or every other girl that threw themselves at him, but the moment Elizabeth walked into the room in a dirty dress and covered in sweat from walking in the sun, she caught his eye. Every quality which made others look down on her made Darcy more interested. When she read her book instead of playing cards, Darcy tried to converse with her about her interest in said books. When she made “abusing comments about his character to his face”, he took the time to clear up every ill thing she had ever heard about him before he proposed again. At this point, I was beginning to understand why people hope and pray to one day meet their own Mr. Darcy.

However, while Darcy was beginning to look at Lizzy in somewhat positive eyes, she was not able to tell because of his outward expressions. I believe that the reason Mr. Darcy exuded pride was because he was socially awkward and Elizabeth made him nervous. Darcy was out of his comfort zone in his party and didn’t know how to converse with Lizzy, so he settled for stealing glances her way when he couldn’t resist the temptation. While she thought that Darcy did not like her, in reality they had both judged the outward appearances of the other, and didn’t take the time to decipher if it was a true representation of them as people. The entire novel revolved around Darcy and Elizabeth misjudging each other and progressively learning that they were missing pieces of the story. Their relationship and growing love was what made them better and how they were able to see their past miscalculations.

Now, I must confess to one of my own miscalculations. Upon the first time I read the novel, I hated Mr. Darcy because I thought he was a proud and pompous man. However, while Mr. Darcy was once that kind of man, he acknowledged that fact and worked to change it and correct the wrongs he had once done. While he is a prime example of the grumpy main character love interest, he was not what some would consider the “bad guy” that the good girls fall for. He is the guy that seems tough on the outside, but really does all he can to love and protect the girl. After she turned down his proposal, he wrote a lengthy letter to explain where she had gone wrong in her opinions of him, and to also accept that he had been wrong in his interference of Jane and Bingley’s relationship, but that he had had good intentions to protect his friend. Also, while he didn’t know if Elizabeth would change her mind about his proposal, he still went after Mr. Wickham and Lydia and paid Wickham to marry Lydia in order to protect the reputation of Elizabeth and her family. He did this in spite of the fact that he thought he had lost Lizzy and wouldn’t be able to gain her trust, respect, or love again. He took care of her and accepted none of the credit and with no expectation of anything in return.

I must also admit that I was not a fan of Elizabeth during my first read. I still stand by the fact that she is not a prime example of what a feminist would be, but she had more wit and intelligence than I once gave her credit for. Elizabeth is bright and sarcastic and normally had a good read on the people in her neighborhood; that is until she met Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy. She had to learn to push past her prejudices and realize that her first impressions of people were not always correct. She learned that Mr. Wickham was actually a cunning liar and manipulator and that Mr. Darcy was, as I once stated before, a kind and generous man hidden behind a stoic exterior.

Darcy challenged Elizabeth and everything she had come to know. He made her think. He made her angry. But, in the end he made her overcome with love and happiness. In return, Elizabeth pushed back on Mr. Darcy and always had a quick witted response to his words, which most women would not say to their husbands, much less their “fiances” or acquaintances. My favorite line in the book was “I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh”. While Jane and Bingley were happy together, Darcy and Elizabeth were meant for each other.

Now, I must mention some of the other relationships that took place within this novel that I didn't quite love as much as Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. To begin, I would like to discuss Mr. Collins. While I understand that it was not as out of the ordinary to marry one's cousin in the early 19th century, I still find it quite gross. And the fact that Mr. Collins couldn't take the hint the first time Elizabeth told him no and kept insisting on her changing her mind, made me dislike him even more. While I understand that his initial intent on wanting to marry one of Mr. Bennet's daughters was to ensure that they kept Longbourn house after Mr. Bennet died, he did move on to Charlotte Lucas very fast after Elizabeth turned him down. This turned out to be a very intelligent decision on Elizabeth's part because she was able to find Mr. Darcy in the end. And, while Charlotte was not as happy in her marriage with Mr. Collins as Elizabeth was with Mr. Darcy or Jane was with Mr. Bingley, she was content in her life with him. Their marriage somewhat reminded me of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. While they created a wonderful family together, they did not seem to have as quite of a happy or well connected life together as some of the other couples. To me, Mrs. Bennet did seem to be a bit much, but she only wanted what was best for her daughters and to ensure that they were not only loved but taken care of once they got married. However, Mr. Bennet did not do as much to secure his daughters' future as his wife did. While he cared very much for Elizabeth, he seemed to leave the rest of his daughters' futures up to chance and his wife's interference.

While Mr. Bennet did not care for all his daughters in equal measure, he did love Elizabeth very much. When he found out that she was engaged to Mr. Darcy, one of his first questions was, "But will he make you happy?" He acknowledged that Mr. Darcy was a very wealthy man who he could not refuse to give his daughter's hand to, but he wanted to make sure that she was happy and content with her acceptance of his proposal. Mr. Bennet also ensured that Mr. Darcy was someone Elizabeth could respect as a partner because she was a smart young woman and deserved an equal partner at that. But, however concerned he was for Elizabeth's marriage was not to an equal degree to the concern he showed Lydia or Jane. While Lydia did make a very stupid choice by going away with Wickham, Mr. Bennet did not seem very concerned for her well being, and was more concerned with protecting his family's reputation. While he did show more concern for Jane's relationship, he never questioned that she would be challenged or entertained with Bingley like he did with Elizabeth. One of the most irritating points in the book for me was the blatant favoritism that came from Mr. Bennet towards Elizabeth and Mrs. Bennet towards Jane. Poor Mary was all alone almost the entirety of the novel, and was only appreciated in the end once all her sisters were gone and Mrs. Bennet craved company; at least Kitty and Lydia had each other to confide in.

While I could go on and on about this book and all the other relationships that took place within the pages, I will leave it at this; I misjudged this book entirely. This book was anything but boring and I would have to say that every page was important because it showcased a deeper understanding of people's attributes and imperfections. Darcy’s pride and Elizabeth’s prejudice faulted them until they were able to overcome it; and they were able to overcome it only with the help of each other. I can now firmly say I enjoyed reading Pride and Prejudice and that Jane Austen was a brilliant writer.