Pride and Prejudice

Alice writes:
Pride and Prejudice

The Bennet family consists of five daughters, a mother and a father. The daughters are all unmarried but beautiful, and they all have special and unique characteristics. Mrs. Bennet, the mother, wants nothing more than for each of her five daughters (Jane, Elizabeth, Kitty, Lydia, and Mary) to marry to a rich handsome fellow. Lucky for the Bennets, a fitting gentleman named Charles Bingley comes to Netherfield Park, a town nearby where they live. After Mrs. Bennet nagging Mr. Bennet to go and visit Mr. Bingley, he finally does so. He approves him as a suitor for his girls because he likes him and he seems to be a nice man.
Mr. Bingley invites the Bennet family, mostly for the sake of meeting the girls, to a ball. At this dance, Mr. Bingley brings along another man with him, named Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy is disliked by any the entire Bennet family. He is rude and obnoxious because he would not dance with Elizabeth. He sees her as unfit and lower class than he is. This is highly offensive to the Bennet family seeing as Elizabeth is the smartest and prettiest of all the girls. On the bright side of things, Mr. Bingley shows much interest in Jane after dancing with her more than just once.
Meetings between the Bennet family and Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy continue on, and oddly enough Mr. Darcy starts to show interest in one of the Bennet girls: Elizabeth. He is attracted to her because of her intelligence and charisma. Since Mr. Bennet and Jane have been showing interest to each other, Jane is invited to the Bingley house. To her misfortune though, the weather is not on her side. On her way there it starts to pour rain, and she gets sick. As a result she must stay in Netherfield until she feels better. Elizabeth has to go take care of Jane, and the only way to get there is by walking through a ton of mud and dirt. She finally arrives at the Bingley house, where she is scowled upon by Mr. Bingley’s sister, who is very snooty, for having such dirty, disgusting clothes. As if that weren’t enough, she notices that Mr. Darcy has an attraction towards her, which makes her hate Elizabeth even more.
When Jane and Elizabeth finally get home where they can properly rest, they find Mr. Collins, the heir of Mr. Bennet’s property, visiting. The girls think Mr. Collins is a self centered, arrogant person and the girls do not like him. On the contrary, he is fascinated with the daughters. During his visit his self-importance lessens and weakens after he proposes to Elizabeth - who turns him down!

This story takes place in Longbourn, England around the late 1700’s up to the early 1800’s. Because of this setting, class is a very important factor that is played into the story. For example, in the beginning Mr. Darcy doesn’t dance with Elizabeth because she isn’t “good enough” for him. Even before that, they girls are told they are to marry high class, rich men. Lastly, when Elizabeth enters the Darcy residence in soiled clothing, something lower class people usually wear, she is looked down upon. Needless to say, love is a huge theme in the novel as well as it is the basis of the plot.