Pride And Prejudice Essay, Research Paper

The passage which best relates the theme of Pride and Prejudice,

by Jane Austin, is on page 125, in the middle of the page. This is

where Mr. Darcy is proposing to Elizabeth, and is informing her of the

inferiority of her family and connections. This passage is significant

because it is one of the few times where the characters openly

acknowledge that the sole purpose of a person’s life is to achieve a

high salary and a high social position.

It is evident from every point of the story that all people care

about is marrying into a higher social rank. And even for those who

are comfortable with their current status, it is imperative that they

only marry someone of at least equivalent rank. This idea possesses

every character in the story and seems to motivate every action that

is taken.

The superficiality of this idea goes so far as to break the

bonds of love. Darcy is willing to insult a girl as he is proposing to

her, just to inform her of the what he has to go through in order to

stoop to someone of her level. Regardless of what Darcy thought

his chances were at acceptance, he was still addressing a girl that

barely knows him, and actually dislikes him. That is not a situation

where insults are likely to bring results.

This point is compounded because Elizabeth only gets slightly

insulted by this comment. Her initial refusal of Darcy was based

almost totally on his actions towards Jane and Bingley’s relationship,

and his treatment of Mr. Wickham. However, she is barely perturbed by

this comment of Darcy regarding her family. This is so strange because

one would expect Elizabeth to at least be equally mad for personal

insults as well as for what was done to others.

Pride and Prejudice ends with Elizabeth and Darcy each

overcoming their anger against each other, and falling in love.

However, this touching scene is ruined because of the appearance of

Lady Catherine. She demands Elizabeth to marry Darcy, and tells Darcy

that it would look very negatively on his family if he were to marry

someone as “low class” as Elizabeth. So even one’s family is willing

to break up “true love” in order to maintain rank.

This theme runs throughout the entire story and really destroys

the entire thing. Other stories, such as Romeo and Juliet, have the

same sort of “forbidden” marriages, and since those arrive out of real

situations, they add more interest to the story. Here, it is simply

prejudice by rich people against poorer people, which only detracts

from the writing. So while this theme may have existed in reality

during Jane Austen’s lifetime, it should not have been included in the

story.