Resumo de Pride And Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a sentimental comedy published in 1813 and is one of her earliest as well as most popular novels set in the county of Hertfordshire (50 miles outside of London). The beauty of the novel is its popularity and ever growing readership even today. In fact, inspired by the book, an NRI director has also made a movie on it by the title ?Bride and Prejudice?. Though the story of the movie is quite indianized and not the same as the original novel, the story does have a strong reflection to the novel itself.

The novel tells the story of a Bennett family and the incessant efforts of Mrs. Bennett to find suitable husbands for her five daughters. The novel is full of exciting and interesting twists and turns in showing Mrs. Bennett?s mad quest for finding good and wealthy suitors for her daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. The story begins with the arrival of one wealthy and single Mr. Bingley in a nearby estate to that of Bennett household. Mrs. Bennett takes an instant liking to him and contemplates getting one of her daughters married to him. Bingley shows his liking for Jane, the eldest of the Bennett daughters, in a ball party where he comes with his close friend Darcy, another wealthy and single gentleman of high status.

Darcy and Elizabeth (Jane?s sister) share a very cold interaction with each other and are very much prejudiced against each other in their first meeting only. With time and constant interaction and contact, they both realize their mistake in judging each other wrongly due to their vain prides and prejudices and marry each other. Similarly, Jane and Bingley get married too after some initial hiccups. Lydia, one of the younger Bennett daughters, runs away with Wickham, a man of corrupt morals. But finally due to selfless and virtuous efforts of Darcy, she is found out and brought back married to Wichkam.

As the title of the novel suggests, the major theme of the book is pride and prejudice of the main protagonists of the story and how they overcome these undesirable feelings to finally unite with each other. It is pride only on the part of Darcy, a wealthy and single man of high status who cannot see the inherent qualities of Elizabeth, one of the Bennett daughters, to express his love for her. On the other hand, Elizabeth is suffering from prejudice and shallow vanity in considering Darcy as too high headed and in love with his high social status to see the real person hidden behind that ?assuming too much about himself façade`?.

In fact, both these themes are interwoven and connected to each other. It is prejudice against the lower status people only that makes Darcy proud of his position and status and consider the lower status people like the Bennetts as too low for his company. And it is pride on the part of Elizabeth thinking that she is too good in judging people that she falls in the trap of prejudice in her wrong judgment of Darcy?s character.

The story also deals with other themes like family, virtue, marriage, women, class, and society. One can see how women during that time were preoccupied with the thoughts of getting married to rich and high status men to lead a secure life. This shows that women had no other participation in society except getting married and procreation of kids. This is amply demonstrated by the character of Mrs. Bennett and her sister Mrs. Phillips whose only concern in life is getting their daughters and nieces married off to wealthy men, no matter what their character or temperament is like.

The role of family in the proper upbringing of kids is shown through the Bennett and Darcy family. It is because of lack of education of their daughters that Lydia, one of the Bennett daughters, runs away with Wick ham, a man of dirty character. On the other hand, the author also shows a contrast in Bingley sisters who inspite of their very good upbringing and education are stupid, mannerless, and vain. And one sees aa constant strain of class consciousness running throughout the novel. The author, in a way, shows her displeasure at the amount of importance attached to class considerations by showing that characters like Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, not very high in status, but possessing a good virtue and manners, are also a product of the same society.

Virtue is another thing that the author tries to highlight through the novel by showing how Darcy and Elizabeth overcome their vices (pride and prejudice) to change and improve themselves for the better. On the whole, the novel has all the ingredients of love, hatred, romance, elopement, to make it a wholesome and good read. It's a book that can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of age, culture, society, as it has a universal appeal and the themes are very real and practical.

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