Controversy Of Pride And Prejudice

Jane Austen’s brilliant work Pride and Prejudice has been inspiring readers for over two centuries with her captivating story set in a crucial time period. The story was set in 1797, when many people did not have jobs as they were too worried about how much money they had while King George III on the English throne at the time the book was published. The definition of “social class,” according to Dictionary.com, is, “a broad group in society having common economic, cultural, or political status.” An example of the main class of that time, which was also known as the “Regency England” time period, was the gentry. The book did not focus much on the poorer class citizens of England at that time, but they were not forgotten. Austen’s popular novel

Darcy, was richer then the entire Bennet family but was oddly not “landed gentry.” Mr. Bingley inherited money through trade, but had just recently rented an estate called “Netherfield Park,” which is also the title of one of Jane Austen’s well-known work. This quote is near the beginning of the book when Bingley suggests to Fitzwilliam Darcy that he should dance with Elizabeth Bennet at the Meryton Ball. It shows why Elizabeth let her prejudices get the best of her, as when Mr. Darcy said this, it showed his persona at the time. He is very prideful of himself, and made himself feel socially above everyone at the ball, as he is only thinking of himself. Mr. Darcy says, “But not handsome enough to tempt me.” This makes the reader assume that he apparently has much higher expectations in the women he interacts with, and Miss Bennet is one of the least he would think highly of.

“Which do you mean?” and turning round, he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with

The only religion based issue that Jane Austen wrote about is the character of Mr. Collins. He is a clergyman, and most people scoffed at his ways of thinking including Mr. Bennet disliking Collins view of “Christian forgiveness.” Mr. Collins married Miss Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth Bennet’s best friend, even though it was hard for Elizabeth to understand why. She had just turned down the Mr. Collins marriage proposal, and thought it to be ridiculous that he would go proposed marriage just a day later. She also thinks that Charlotte is ridiculous for marrying Mr. Collins as he is not that good-looking, and the only reason she agreed was for his money, which Elizabeth strictly believed as wrong. Some characters go to church, but besides that, religion is rarely spoken of in Pride and Prejudice. The only other mention of religion in Pride and Prejudice is the fact the Jane Austen’s father was a clergyman as she lived in a rectory when she was growing up.

The marriage of Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins shows that marriage was also especially important to women of that time period as it was their life goal. They were told growing up even though were receiving an education at school, they were to nothing with it as men were going to then come into the picture. This is extremely wrong as an entire generation was raised in this way, so therefore people were not as smart then.