And yet, one can’t help but sympathize with these women, who are trapped in roles in which society has placed them. Elizabeth’s mother and younger sisters are vain, superficial and silly, everything Elizabeth and her older sister, Jane, are not. The characters in Pride and Prejudice are both delightful and irritating. A drawing room’s small talk becomes heroic as she paints the ultimate meaning of the relationships that are at stake. She shows how this process is just as meaningful for a woman as for a man. Like all great novels, Austen tells a story of self-discovery. Yet, Austen does more than tell a love story or accept the prejudices that this first sentence evokes. Why this is the BEST: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Austen begins Pride and Prejudice with this classic frame for what would become the romance genre. Set in the Regency era in Great Britain, the book’s themes include marriage, wealth, class, and self-knowledge. Through the ups and downs of potential suitors, Elizabeth learns about the repercussions of swift judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. As one of five daughters without a brother to inherit her father’s estate and then look after them, Elizabeth and her sisters are pressured to marry for money. Summary: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice charts the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, amidst the pressures that her family and society exert upon her to marry well.
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