Jane Austen and pride and prejudice
Scritto in inglese e in italiano: la vita e il romanticismo (4 pagine formato doc)
Jane Austen
Life
Jane Austen was the sixth child of the rector of the Stevenson Parish in Hampshire.
She had a quiet life. In 1801 the family moved to Both, but after her father died she came back to Hampshire. She remained there until 1817. She died in Winchester. She published six novel such as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice etc.
Pride and Prejudice is considered as Jane Austen’s most brilliant and happiest social comedy. Like all her other novels, the story revolves around the question of marriage, and particular the difficulties of finding a husband for a young woman from a respectable and modest family.
The novel focuses on the Bennet family, consisting of the Mr Bennet, his wife, and their five daughters. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet, who is the second of five daughters. The narrative opens with Mr. Bingley a bachelor, moves to Bennet family, with his friend Mr Darcy. Mr Bingley falls in love with Jane, the eldest of five daughters, and Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth. The relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy do not show up easy at first. Social barriers place them at odds. On the one hand there is the Darcy’s pride which undergoes a terrible blow when he realizes he is in love with a woman of lower class and with kinships so little "worthy".
On the other hand there is the Elizabeth’s prejudice against a man who initially has considered her okay and than asking her to marry him in such an offensive way. But throughout the story they both grow interiorly, they realize their own mistakes. After a lot of problems and misunderstandings Darcy and Elizabeth, Bingley and Jane get married. Their marriage creates a new social model where individual merit is recognized thanks to reason. A love based on reason is good not only the individuals themselves but also their families and community, Austen stresses the virtue of patience and persistence in love, as opposed to the impulsiveness and irresponsibility of Romantic passion.