Secondary Characters In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

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Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, contains various characters whose functions support main characters and qualities of the two traits: pride and prejudice. The characters less obviously supporting the traits and characters, are the secondary characters. These secondary characters play a major role in assisting the main characters to exemplify the characteristics and contradict the traits to show the opposing sides. In other words, there are main characters who use the traits, pride and prejudice in an excellent way and some use it in an appalling way. In the novel Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen uses the secondary characters such as Charlotte Lucas and George Wickham to exemplify the characteristics of the title, pride and prejudice. Charlotte Lucas, is the best friend of Elizabeth Bennet, who is one of the main characters that takes pride in herself by judging the other characters actions (Austen 16). Charlotte assists one way by showing the pride of Elizabeth by being older and therefore, less likely to have opportunities to meet a suitor. Elizabeth uses her age as a comparison to Charlotte and gives her more youth making her more attractive to men. One possible suitor for Elizabeth, asks for her hand in marriage, but gets denied and then asks Charlotte the following day (Austen 99). This suitor is known as William Collins, who has no fortune in his name and is not handsome (Austen 56). The marriage between Charlotte and William is more of a deal of marriage, rather