Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth Bennet

Elizabeth Bennet is the central character of the novel Pride and Prejudice. I don’t need to remind you that Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular English Novels of all time and it is read around the world by millions of people each year.

Elizabeth is perhaps the best character created by Jane Austen. Elizabeth Bennet comes from an ordinary background but she is a strong personality. She is smart and intelligent. She is not as pretty as her elder sister Jane Bennet but she is attractive. She was an exceptional person compared to her age. While most girls would consider getting married as the only goal of life, Elizabeth did not like to run after men.

Mr. Collins wanted to marry her but she refused because she knew that Mr. Collins was a shallow and boring man. Mr. Collins had a stable good income. She got married with Darcy in the end but before that she made it sure that she was getting married with the right man.

As a daughter Elizabeth is more close to her father than her mother. Mr. Bennet likes Elizabeth most because he thinks that she is the best of her five daughters. So, he admires her a lot and he gives a lot of importance to her ideas. So, when Mrs. Bennet insists that Elizabeth must get married with Mr. Collins then Mr. Bennet came forward and said Elizabeth from a big disaster. Mr. Bennet said that if Elizabeth gets married with Mr. Collins then he will not have good relationship with her. In fact, Elizabeth wanted this thing too. So, this way Mr. Bennet only cleverly supported Elizabeth.

As a sister Elizabeth is a very influential person. She influences all the sister. She is two year younger than the eldest sister Jane but Jane always depended on her ideas. So, whenever Jane needed to discuss something she came to Elizabeth. Of course, Lydia was not such a fan of Elizabeth because Lydia was a dancing type of person. On the other hand, Elizabeth was a serious person and that was why Lydia was not fond of her.

Elizabeth has a very bold attitude towards life. She is not a gentle girl like Jane. She is not afraid to tell what she thinks. That is why, she has conflicts with some characters in the novel. She has conflict with her mother. Her mother does not like her and does not think that she is a pretty girl. She has also conflict with Darcy because Darcy insulted her with his pride. It took a lot of time for her to forgive Darcy. This shows that Elizabeth is a tough person with a tough mentality and when he gets annoyed with someone it take a lot of time for that person to get the forgiveness from her.

The mistake about Darcy is perhaps the most important thing in the novel. At first, Darcy insulted Elizabeth by refusing to dance with her and Darcy commented that Elizabeth was not that much beautiful. This offended Elizabeth a lot and it is natural because this kind of comment would offend any girl especially in a dance party. However, this bitterness blinded Elizabeth’s eyes about Darcy and she continued this prejudice against Darcy for a long long time. This only made her own life more bitter. Darcy proposed to her for marriage and she refused. So, this matter created regret in her later that she felt that she could have become the wife of a very rich person.

Elizabeth also did a mistake about George Wickham. She hated Darcy and she thought that Darcy acted badly with Wickham. In fact, Wickaham was a clever person and she pretended to Elizabeth that Darcy has done very big injustice with Wickham. However, Elizabeth did not try to investigate more and she got bad idea about Darcy and she continued her prejudice about Darcy for more time. This mistake proved to be very costly for Elizabeth. She later found out that Wickham was a very bad person and he even made Lydia crazy and Lydia foolishly eloped with Wickham. Wickham was not that much interested to get married to Lydia and then Darcy had pre-intervened and ensured that Wickham gets married to Lydia and this way the honor of Elizabeth’s family got saved with the help of Mr. Darcy.

The character of Elizabeth changed a lot from the beginning to end of the novel. At first, Elizabeth disliked Darcy and she disliked many things. Gradually, she tried to investigate and find out the reality about Darcy. This matter shows that Elizabeth was a smart and intelligent girl. She was not that kind of person who forms an idea and sticks to it. She tried always to update her views and ideas about the world and this makes her a very attractive character to the readers.