Something prevalent in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is the emphasis on relationships and formal courtship. Along with this idea comes the importance of each character and their place and purpose in the novel. After reading Nabokov, I took away the importance of being more detached when I read. Doing so, I looked past the romantic details about Jane and Bingley’s relationship and saw them more as a tool of Austen’s. After the novel is focused on the courtship between Elizabeth and Darcy. Therefore, in my opinion, all of the other courtships taking place are in service of the central courtship. The differences between all of the courtships give examples on different types of love but more importantly they all show the immense power that love has. I discussed earlier how I predicted that Jane and Bingley’s relationship was being used to contrast with Elizabeth and Darcy’s. I also thought that perhaps Jane and Bingley’s relationship served as an example of what Elizabeth and Darcy’s should look like. After further reading, I agree with some parts of the previous argument but also disagree with others. Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship is what it is. It is one full of true passion and love and has absolutely no need to follow the example of Jane and Bingley. Austen’s message is that through everything, through the pride and the prejudice, two people were able to be together because of the power of their love for each other. Their love is unique and that is what makes them so special. However, I do feel that Jane and Bingley’s courtship is used sort of as a precursor to Elizabeth and Darcy’s. Austen foreshadows some love earlier on when she writes “To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love” (5). After all, Elizabeth and Darcy meet for the first time at an assembly where everyone is dancing. They do not dance there, but later do, just as they don’t fall in love right away. Jane and Bingley did fall in love in a different way than Darcy and Elizabeth did, but that doesn’t mean that Elizabeth and Darcy should follow in the same way. As a whole, Jane and Bingley’s relationship is the reason that Darcy and Elizabeth truly get to know each other and eventually realize their love for each other. Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship is Austen’s way of sharing her opinion on the strength of love. Then, her focus on pride and vanity that I discussed in an earlier blog post is one of the ways that she proves the strength. An example of the connection between love and vanity is where Austen writes, “Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly,” demonstrating pride as one of the hurdles their love must overcome (141). In this section Elizabeth also says that until that moment, she had not known herself. Her realization of her love was also a self-discovery, another thing that love has the power to do. As time goes on and Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship develops, we see how their love develops and gets stronger as both of them realize it. Darcy and Elizabeth overcome their first impressions of each other and reveal their true feelings for each other. The transformation that Elizabeth goes through that is shown by her saying “I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh” is a way that Austen tied in Jane and Bingley’s love to Elizabeth and Darcy’s to compare the two, even saying that through everything Elizabeth and Darcy’s is perhaps stronger, even though it was in no way a typical love story (258).
I would definitely recommend this book--especially to anyone who enjoys a good romance story. The setting/time period is something I really enjoyed, but what really struck me about this book is some of the quotes about true love. I could imagine some of them being on those things you see on Pinterest or something. Austen did an amazing job of depicting true love and was able to put that into words which is very admirable. It is something that I see myself reading multiple times over the years and definitely rereading as an adult. It has qualities that people can relate to, and qualities that people want to be able to relate to which makes it hard to put down at some points. You become so engrossed in what is happening that you feel as if you are there with Elizabeth and Darcy feeling the tension and emotion between them. So glad I finally got to read this book and share what I thought of it.
These are all really good! I like that your writing style, at least for this, is as such so that I can see what you're thinking and processing as you write; that's cool! But a con to this approach is that some understanding is lost for someone who hasn't read Pride and Prejudice (me). If you'd concentrated each post on something and given background for that, I'd have understood it better, but I know writing's supposed to be generative, so I get it. I also really am impressed that you devoured this text so quickly. I wish there had been a bit more of a conclusion or a "so what" to each post; how does this thing that you're talking about really contribute to Austen's work. You DO talk about that much more in the later two posts, so that's good, too. I'd also been curious to hear what your opinion on Darcy and Elizabeth's relationship is, as you understand it as Austen wants. Like, is she criticizing them for improper courtship? Like, although they got through pride and prejudice, they're still together. Well is she saying that courtship would have saved them the trouble of pride and prejudice, or is she saying that, wow congrats to them because they're in love despite hardship. And I'd also like to know the value of courtship? I'm also a bit confused because a lot of people have very similar last names; is there a familial component here? I think there are some more themes and motifs you could explore, but alas, there are only four posts to post. Also, I like that you briefly touch back on your earlier posts in the latest post. It was a little light on quotes. Good job!
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