Pride and Prejudice Close Analysis

...

also be related back to why Elizabeth got close to Wickham, she knew that Wickham had a past with Darcy and she used this to opportunity to further examine his character but also to manipulate Darcy’s feelings and get him riled.

In the novel, Jaen Austen creates her protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, to be a strikingly unconventional female with respect for her time. Elizabeth tends to relate less to the female companions and instead finds the need to define herself through her surrounding males. Therefore, her relationships with men in the novel reflect her continual search for an ideal figure of social respectability. At the beginning of the novel we see her natural affinity with her father, who is more civilized than her materialist mother. But since Mr. Darcy has entered her life she feels the impropriety of her family, Elizabeth was forced to look for a new luminary. I think in this passage Elizabeth’s seeking for a new obsession is communicated well; from the very first moment that she stepped foot in Pemberley, she was intrigued and began her critique and assessing on Mr Darcy. Immediately Elizabeth was captivated, by Mr Darcy, unlike Mr Collins who would “rattle away like other men” and Wickham who “like the wild young men nowadays, who think of nothing but themselves”. Darcy is a stand-up, honourable man and Elizabeth was infatuated by everything that he has to offer.

A close analysis of this passage reflects Elizabeth’s true sentiment on Darcy, and her infatuation towards him. We are also able to grasp the concepts of some of the major themes and symbols such as love, first impressions and social class. With a thorough look at this passage, we can better understand the ideas shown in the novel Pride and Prejudice.