Why You Shouldn’t be Prejudiced towards Pride and Prejudice

Welcome back to Blogging with Benji, where there’s no need to be shelf-concious! This month, I’ll be discussing Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, written in 1813. It is widely considered to be a literary “classic” and has been adapted into more than ten different movies and countless spinoffs. Pride and Prejudice is a 61 chapter installment about Elizabeth Bennet and her four sisters. The story primarily revolves around Jane and Elizabeth, the two eldest sisters, and could be considered a “love story” since marriage is the main topic throughout the book. The Bennets live at Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire (a county in rural England), which is located near the town of Merrytown and the Netherfield estate. Mr. Bingley, an extremely rich upper class man, had recently purchased Netherfield and moved in with his two sisters and his friend Mr. Darcy. Mr. Bingley (also called “Bingley”) is liked by everyone in the area and is seen by many as a prospective suitor. For example, Mrs. Bennet (the mother) is extremely excited when she hears that a wealthy gentleman bought Netherfield and immediately begins planning about how to get her daughters married.

However, Mr. Darcy (or “Darcy”) is viewed as extremely prideful due to his disinterest in socializing or talking to other people at events and his obvious belief in his superiority to the non-upper class. Darcy is initially disgusted by Elizabeth due to her “poor manners” and social inferiority, but he gradually begins to fall in love with her over time. Elizabeth also dislikes Darcy due to his pride and because of a narrative by an officer from the nearby militia about how Darcy cheated him out of a good future through supposedly abhorrent and immoral actions. Elizabeth is prejudiced towards Darcy and does not consider the other side of the story, automatically believing Darcy to be a villain. Jane and Bingley eventually fall in love, but Bingley unexpectedly leaves Hertfordshire and returns to London and their relationship seems to fall apart. 

A scene from one of the many Pride and Prejudice movies

Sadly, I only read the first 40 chapters and cannot summarize the entire book. There is not much plot or action in Pride and Prejudice, but Austen focuses more on character development and uses the interactions between characters to emphasize central themes of “pride” and “prejudice.” For example, Elizabeth does not initially realize that by noticing only Darcy’s pride and basing her opinion of him on hearsay she is being extremely prejudiced and almost hypocritical towards him. Austen elaborates on each character in-depth and does a great job of depicting them in a clear and realistic way that highlights the character’s values and personality. Mrs. Bennet is depicted as a shallow and vain woman who only cares about her daughters getting married and does not value anything else in life. Mrs. Bennet’s character is shown through interactions like when she is jealous of the neighboring Lucases because their daughter was wed to a wealthy man before her daughters were married and cannot stand talking to them without making angry and harsh comments. On the other hand, Elizabeth is shown as calculating and intelligent when she often correctly guesses other people’s motives and sees through the superficial layer of other characters (except for when it comes to Darcy). The complicated love triangles and relationships between characters are interesting to read about since there are always multiple “levels” of the story. Re-reading previous passages gave me a new understanding and a new interpretation on events that I had thought were unimportant. Some people dislike Pride and Prejudice since they believe that it is just an old-fashioned poorly written boring romance, but I would disagree with this judgement since I think that if read with attention to detail and intricacies, the novel becomes much more interesting due to its complex characters. This book functions on a more subtle level and should be read from an unprejudiced standpoint for maximum enjoyment. Pride and Prejudice is somewhat comparable to Hawthorne’s character sketches in “The Custom-House,” and I would not recommend this book if you disliked Hawthorne’s character sketches. Austen’s writing is easier to read than Hawthorne’s, but they both like to spend a lot of time on intricate detail and have slower-paced writing styles. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I think that Pride and Prejudice is not a book that should be rushed through and should rather be read slowly so that the characters can be fully appreciated. This is not a book that is likely to “hook” you, but it is good for occasionally picking up or if you forget a book for independent reading (Pride and Prejudice is free to read online).