Pride and Prejudice Personal Response

Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, is a great representation of how life in the 1800s would have been. Placement in society played a major role and most of her characters only did what society permitted them to do. The people who you were surrounded around either broke you or made you an influence on the town. The women seemed to look only for someone to marry them, not for someone to love them. The women in this novel, searched for men with wealth and power.

They only looked on the surface and did not care enough to look beyond. They seemed like all other women of their time, only looking for a man to call husband, and to keep them as accessories, rather than lovers.

This book, in my opinion, did not show many deep feelings, or any love involved, apart from Elizabeth. It showed that most women were materialistic and believed what you possessed made you as a person.

My favorite thing about this book is Elizabeth’s intelligent observations about the other characters. She is able to see through all the nonsense in her life. She had a mind of her own and she knew how to use it, she was not going to be swayed by women like Lady Catherine, who did nothing but judge those who she felt were not equivalent to her. Yet, in my opinion, one character is not enough to account for all the other character’s personalities as they are mostly superficial.