Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 1813 Ever since its publication, Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice continues to remain one of the most popular English novels ever written. It is easy for many to dismiss as a simple romantic novel tailored for women, but in its core, the novel is about one’s self worth facing a society trying to put and limit one down in a box. This was the situation of women in during Austen’s time, and this is still the situation millions of women face around the world. The novels begin with Mr and Mrs Bennet’s predicament: Once they pass away, their daughters cannot inherit anything by law, due to them being women and lacking a male heir, and they face the real danger of becoming penniless. So the catalyst of the novel is the parents’ wish for their daughters to marry as soon possible, to well suited men, in order to guarantee their livelihood. At the heart this situation is the novel’s strong-willed and lively protagonist Elisabeth Bennet and her encounter with Fitzwilliam Darcy, a wealthy young landlord who treats Elisabeth at first with haughty pride and looks down upon her. The novel then tackles several important themes such as class, wealth, the situation of women, the manners of English society, and the very important topic of marrying for love vs marrying for convenience. The novel is quiet charming. Austen adds enough legerity and comedy in her work to make tackling the important and serious issues enjoyable. She puts her entire focus on the characters and their interactions. This is why she doesn’t focus much on the setting and describing to the reader where the characters besides just giving a name or simple indication. The settings seem superplus here. I believe this aspect and technique did help the novel to transcend its time and era and remain popular to this day. Even though I personally did not identify with any of the characters and their predicaments, Austen’s great writing allows us to clearly understand the motivation of each character, the comedy of the situations and manners, and above all, the romances that bloom and develop. Nevertheless, Austen was careful as well to portray the prejudice that women received at her time. Women in Pride and Prejudice were treated as simple objects of affection at times, as superficial accessories at others. Yet Austen’s goal was bypass this objectification in order to portray her characters subjects, as persons who can, and should have the right and power to choose for themselves against what society might throw at them. It is a lovely novel and I enjoyed reading it. Its themes are timeless. It did take a bit for me to gain momentum while reading it, but I’m glad I did. It reads as a fairy tale at times, as a social commentary at others, and as romantic comedy. It gets my recommendation and don’t let any preconceived notions deter you.
