Friday, July 2, 2010

Reading Pride & Prejudice

Sense & Sensibility is my favorite Jane Austen novel, but Pride & Prejudice is a close second. It's been three years since I last read Pride & Prejudice, and every time I read it, I get more out of studying it. I see more of the characters' personalities, realize things I have missed, and am reminded of how humorous the novel actually is.
Darcy and Elizabeth are one of my favorite literary couples because of their banter. I love how stubborn Darcy and Elizabeth are, judging each other through misunderstandings, even though they are intellectual equals. If Darcy had known how much Elizabeth hated him based on falsehoods, he could have cleared up a lot of her misjudgments earlier on. It's a good thing they spent more time together, because they would have continued to think badly of each other and never found their intellectual equals.
My favorite secondary characters are Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, because Mrs. Bennet is so ridiculous and overdramatic with her statements and Mr. Bennet is a good male counterpart to his wife. She takes every decision her daughters make personally, as if it effects her total existence, while Mr. Bennet doesn't get carried with girls' love lives like Mrs. Bennet.
Mr. Bennet also tends to keep his wife, Mrs. Bennet from destroying their lives, like refusing to let Elizabeth marry Mr. Collins, knowing Mrs. Bennet is pushing Lizzy to marry him, by saying, "An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." He shows he has a sense of humor about their living situation, his wife's meddlesome ways, and society in general, when he says, "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"

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