Open Prompt 1970 revised

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a novel about the Bennet family, and more specifically, Elizabeth Bennet-the headstrong, rebellious daughter of the family.  In this novel, Elizabeth explores the meaning of love and finds love for herself.  Along the way, she discovers the limits and constraints of living in a world strictly governed by society.  The standards of the society affect all the characters in the novel, which Jane Austen uses to create a satire of 19^th century English society.

                Elizabeth Bennet lives in a society that is extremely concerned with appearances and treat women merely as objects of affection.  Most of the characters in Pride and Prejudice follow with society’s expectations, including Mrs. Bennet and Elizabeth’s sisters.  If they don’t follow the societal norms, they risk being criticized by the other members of society.  For all the young women, the most important thing in life is to search for a husband to be able to start a family.  Even Mrs. Bennet believes that her only job is to raise her daughters and marry them off to wealthy men.   Every year, there are several balls in which the ladies seek out potential husbands.  As a result, the women are not valued for their intelligence or abilities, but instead for the way they can charm a man.     

Because of their desire to meet a potential husband, the women of this society are rather shallow.  They spend copious amounts of time socializing, meeting as many people as possible and trying to get invitations to balls.  The young ladies don’t care about anything except fancy dresses for the balls and meeting handsome, rich men that they might be able to marry.  Lydia is an excellent example of such a character.  She craves parties and attention from men.  She marries early, even though she doesn’t know the man very well.  Love is often not a factor in marriages, all that matters is that the man has money to support the young lady and is willing to marry her.

                Elizabeth Bennet, however, goes against society and refuses to be obsessed with parties and socializing.  She is one of the only characters that thinks for herself and does what she wants, not what is expected of her.  She enjoys spending time reading and prefers to take her time finding a husband.  She is even offered a hand in marriage from a man who is relatively wealthy, but she refuses it because she does not love the man.  This is almost unheard of in society and causes her mother to become furious.  Sometimes, Elizabeth’s actions even cause the other members of society to feel horrified, such as when she chose to walk to the Bingley’s house and dirtied her skirt.  Despite Elizabeth’s defiance of the societal norms, she finds true love and ends up happily engaged. 

                Austen uses the contrast of Elizabeth’s actions and society’s actions to effectively create a satire of nineteenth century British society.  Elizabeth represents the reasoning and intelligence present in all people, but the actions of society show how that reason is pushed away and replaced with the constant desire to impress and follow all of society’s rules.  When seeing Elizabeth’s reason against society’s standards, the audience realizes how silly the society seems.