Pride and Prejudice

Thinking Activity

            This blog is in response to the thinking activity of the novel Pride and Prejudice assigned by Yesha Ma'am, The Department of english. In this blog I am going to discuss Character sketch of Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, comparison between the Movie and Novel Pride and Prejudice, Illustrations 0f the society of Austen's time, My chosen actors suitable for the movie, My favourite scene, comparison of Narrative stratagy of novel and movie.

★Which version is more appealing: Movie or Novel

    While comparing original novel and film adaptations, there always lies a question, Which version is more appealing. So, Click here to read my perspectives about this.

★Elizabeth Bennet

         The twenty year-old Elizabeth, sometimes Lizzy, sometimes Eliza, the second daughter in the Bennet family, and the most intelligent and quick-witted, is the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice and one of the most well-known female characters in English literature. Not only is she beautiful, with eyes that made her irresistible to Mr Darcy, but she has an exceptional personality. She is high spirited but self-controlled, always guided by her good sense, which few of the other female characters in the novel have. She is self-assured, outspoken, and assertive, but never rude or aggressive. 

       She is very different from her sisters and even other girls. She has her own opinion and that we can see in mostly in three scenes, first, at the ball, when she tells Lucas that she will never Dance with Mr. Darcy as he has rejected her, Second, when she rejects Mr Collins and third when she rejects Mr Darcy's proposal.

        In this novel she is shown as a headstrong woman, woman with pride, judgemental, mature, strong- opinions, controlled and honest character. She is portrayed as a headstrong girl and which glimpse we can find in the very first chapter of the novel. When Mrs. Bennet have conversation about Mr. Bingley, Mr. Bennet says that,

"I must throw in a good word for my Lizzy."

         Moving on when Mrs. Bennet says that Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor have so good you made as Lydia, Mr. Bennet replies that,

"They have none of them much to recommended them. They are all silly and ignorant like other girls, but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters."

          So, these lines of Mr Bennet in the very first chapter proves that she has something uniqueness within her than others. We can see that she is both proudy and Judgmental but at the end her this sort of prejudice melts with the revelation of Mr Darcy's truth of himself and his way of life. In chapter 5, when Mr. Darcy tells Mr Bingley, Elizabeth is not handsome enough to tempt him, she assures her friend Miss Charlotte Lucas that,

"I could not easily forgive his pride, if he has not mortified mine".

       This line presents both the emotions parallel, Female ego or we can say female expectations and judgemental tendency and prejudice towards him. The same thing, we see when Mr. Wickham spoils her ears. Now she is more prejudiced towards Mr. Darcy. Besides, she is a very caring sister. When Jane is ill, she goes to the Netherfield park to take care of her.

Later on her prejudice has converted into pride as she decides she will never accept Mr. Darcy's proposal as he has rejected her. But At the end of the novel, we can see that when Mr Darcy gives appropriate reasons why he has done the things, she forgives him and thus the novel ends happily. 

★Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy:-

           Colonel Fitzwilliam is the younger son of an earl and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lady Anne Darcy, making him a cousin of Anne de Bourgh and the Darcy siblings, Fitzwilliam and Georgiana.

          In the novel he is portrayed as a Man with pride (Male ego), introvert, observer, silent lover, superiority complex, and true lover. All these types of personality we can see from the beginning to the end with character development. In the beginning of the novel, he is portrayed as a very proudy person. Even at the ball party he tells his friend Mr Bingley about to dance with Elizabeth Bennett that,

"She is not handsome enough to tempt me."

      She was also the cause why Bingley left Netherfield park and so Jane Bennet. This we come to know when Mr. Fitzwilliam tells Elizabeth that Mr. Darcy has saved his friend from the relationship. All these things make him too proudy in front of Miss Elizabeth. 

            He didn't like Elizabeth but he always praises her eyes a lot. But as time passes he feels something for her. When he confesses his feelings to her, there is also a deep presentation of pride and class consciousness. When he says,

"In vain I have struggled. It will not do! My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. In declaring myself thus I'm fully aware that I will be going expressly against the wishes of my family, my friends, and, I hardly need add, my own better judgement."

         She rejects his proposal as, Darcy's Cousin Mr Fitzwilliam accidentally reveals to Elizabeth that Darcy has separated Bingley and Jane due to her low birth and lack of fortune. He did not know that Elizabeth and Jane were sisters. In this scene, we come to know that he was not proudy man but he can't connect socially very much like others. He gives appropriate reasons about Wickham and the relationship of his Friend Mr Bingley in the letter. After this justification, we come to know that Mr. Darcy first found Lydia and Mr. Wickham and helped them financially to get married. By the revelation of Lydia to Elizabeth about his help her prejudice breaks apart and thus accepts his proposal. Therefore in this novel, Jane Austen developed the character of Mr Darcy from his first rejection to marry Elizabeth Bennet.

★Illustration of the society of the time of Jane Austen:-

           Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was written in the Georgian Era which is a well developed book that demonstrates the society and cultural views of the time she was living. The original name of the book was called first impressions which incorporated the novel's main themes such as marriage, social class prejudice, pride and how the characters of this book can be portrayed through their point of view in this era. There are many things which present the time of our writer.

  

1. Social aspect:-

      The social class in England in the 19th century was influenced by the industrial revolution and the impact of the industrial revolution had a great influence especially in forming the structure of the society. They are

1. Upper class
2. Middle class
3. Lower Class

But Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice only reflects two structure of the society,

• Upper class : Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley
• Middle Class: Bennet Family

2.Cultural aspect:-

          Through Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen introduces the major theme of marriage and how the society's beliefs of marriage was at the time.. Jane Austen uses marriage in this book as a way for the reader to see the different characters' opinions on marriage and for the marriage goes into showing the societal views during this time period. Very first line of the novel is all about marriage and thus is the only thing on which the plot of the novel is based.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of wife."

         In the novel Mrs. Bennet is always busy getting her daughters married to perfect and wealthy suiters. This we can see by her behaviour and also by narrative of Austen,

"The business of her life was to get her daughters married; it's solace was visiting and news."

     When Lydia gets married to Mr Wickham, she behaves like she has won the battle.

        After the marriage, the wives tended to stay at home to manage the households and took care of the family. In this novel, Charlotte Lucas after becoming Williams Collins’s wife, she also tended to stay at home and managed the households.

          In the nineteenth century many people, especially the upper class, enjoyed an aristocratic excessive diet, and married women from this class enjoyed increasing leisure. The amount of reading and writing grew voluminously. It was common to judge everything materially, money and wealth became the standard of pride and dignity. Ball parties also illustrate social gatherings. At that time a girl should have some knowledge of music, painting and other things that we can see by the statement of Miss Bingley,

"She must have thorough knowledge of music, painting, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern Languages to deserve the world and something in her air and manner of Walking."

      The clothings are also illustrates the 18th century. Jane Austen’s characters are continually watching, judging and gossiping about others and, in turn, are watched, judged and gossiped about. All these presents the common way of life of people.

3. Religion:-

    Jane Austen represents William Collins as the religious person. He is a clergyman and he has a patroness, Lady Catherine. She always pays attention to his wishes, and consideration for his comfort, appears very remarkable. William Collins had already had the honor of preaching her. So, in this way Jane Austen illustrated her time in the novel Pride and Prejudice.

If you were a director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of a movie? Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters? 

          If I were a director or screenplay writer, i would make some changes. Like some scenes are omitted in the movie, which are very important to build the plot. I would reduce the melodrama a little from the beginning, when Mrs. Bennet asks Mr Bennet to permit and come along with them to the Netherfield park.

I would choose,

Elizabeth - Kriti Sanon or Shraddha Kapoor, 

Mr. Darcy - Hritik Roshan, Ajay Devgan

Mr. Bingley- Siddharth Malhotra, Shahid Kapur

Jane- Ananya Pande 

Mr. Collins - Rajpal Yadav (if I want comic character), and Ritesh Deshmukh 

Wickham:- Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sonu Sood 

 

Write a note on a scene you liked the most.

         A scene that I like the most is when Mr. Collins proposes to Miss Elizabeth and she rejects it very openly. The reason I like the scene is that in the time when the novel was written, women were supposed to get married to a man who was wealthy. Mrs. Bennet also wants the same, but Elizabeth presents her own opinion about her getting married to Mr. Collins. Another reason why I like this scene is that Mr. Bennet supports her daughter whichever decision she has taken.

 

Narrative Strategy of Novel and Movie:-

           Though both the movie and Novel are having the same story line, the narrative strategy of both are very different from each other. According to the beginning, middle and ending I have different narrative patterns. To justify my interpretation I will present tables of that,

         In the beginning of the novel we have narrative of novelist herself by the sentence.

"It is the truth universally acknowledge, that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in a one of wife."

         But the movie starts with the female protagonist Elizabeth reading a book, which shows Elizabeth as a literate girl and a girl who is interested in reading. We can also say that it depicts the development of her character from the beginning. Moving on to the character development and also the development of the story line there are many scenes which are having differences in dialogues and situations.  Narration is also very different from each other. At the end of the novel we find that the novel ends with the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth but at the same time the movie ends with an intimate scene between Mr Darcy and Miss Elizabeth but not with the marriage.

For a brief overview of the novel watch the given video.

To sum up my views of the Novel and movie Pride and Prejudice, I have tried here to illustrate my perspectives of various aspects. If you find any suggestions to my blog, do write in the comment section. I hope it will be helpful to you.

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