Pride and Prejudice

Rating:
Summary: Pride and Prejudice
Review: When I first picked up Pride and Prejudice a few years ago, I was quickly put off by the seemingly apparent silliness of its characters and their mentality. When I came back to it during sophomore year, this time with more patience and a better-developed reading background, I came to realize what each character contributed to the story. Focused on a middle-upper class family of five daughters and their parents, this classic ingeniously sets forth two very real aspects of any society. From the flighty whim evident in its characters to the materialistic but true-for-this-world values presented, this book manages through drama and romance to reveal a hidden emphasis on pride and prejudice.

The first character the reader is acquainted with is Mrs. Bennet, who throughout the story is hell-bent on getting her daughters wed to wealthy - and only wealthy - husbands. In her one sees a sole, materialistic priority of reputation and wealth as if besides getting her daughters married and rich there is nothing else. Funny how it seems to me, may I add, that this kind of doggedness reflects a common Chinese goal in my society that besides getting into a top top college there is nothing else!

The sisters of Jane Bennet's interest, Mr. Bingley, also display such a prejudice in terms of money. On top of such prejudice the sisters also display a prideful superiority over others of society. They place themselves above all others; this is reflected in their opposition of their brother marrying Jane - the Bingley sisters find Jane's manners 'charming' but scoff at her middle class background. Such pride is most evidently seen in Mr. Darcy, a character whom rarely seems to converse with others as if his breath should not be wasted thus.

What I liked best about this book, however, was something I did not begin to realize until halfway into the book. I found that the ingenuity of Pride and Prejudice lies in that while the reader sides with Liz Bennet, the reader gradually realizes that in disdaining others' pride and prejudice she herself becomes one of the most prideful and prejudiced characters in the book! The novel is clever in its saying that pride and prejudice, no matter how well aware we are of it, is always present in each one of us.