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1、The Character of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice【关键词】伊丽莎白?班纳特；性格；偏见；转变I. Introduction.Jane Austen is a famous English woman novelist in 18th century.She was born in 1775 at Stevenson in Hampshire of middle class parents.She never accepted the formal school education. But the wide range of ac
2、tivities within the Austen family-country walks, charades, reading, writing stories and family plays, constituted a rich informal education for the children, and stimulated Jane Austens ambition to become a novelist. As a writer, she deliberately restricts herself to portraying the commonplace event
3、s of people of her own class, living rural lives that are barely touched by the momentous happenings of history.The authors knowledge of the world, and the peculiar tact with which she presents characters that the reader cannot fail to recognize, reminds us something of the merits of the Flemish sch
4、ool of painting. The subjects are not often elegant, and certainly never grand; but they are finished up to nature, and with a precision which delights the reader is Jane Austens masterpiece. This title is originated from one sentence in a book Evelina written by an English writer called Fanny Burne
5、y. The sentence is roughly like this“the whole unfortunate accident is the outcome of.” The initial title of the novel is“First Impressions” which was written between October 1796 and August 1797. Jane Austens appeared on the English literary scene in 1813. The author had worked on its realistic sty
6、le and content for more than fifteen years, for she was a perfectionist in her approach to writing. Her first novel was unlike any of the hundreds of others written at the time, which were mainly Romantic(filled with emotion and passionate) or Gothic(filled with horror). Austen was the first novelis
7、t to portray realistic characters by using the direct method of telling a story in which dialogue and comment take an important place. She used the method to dissect the hypocrisy of individuals and the society in which they played their games of love and courtship.Pride and Prejudice is a very popu
8、lar novel written by Jane Austen and it is read widely all over the world. It was written in 1813. In this novel, the authoress created a supremely spirited and attractive heroine, Elizabeth. Jane Austen herself said,“I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print
9、.”1 Her gaiety,light spirit,and courage,wit as well as good sense and good feeling make her stand above other characters in the book like a crane among chickens and come home to us readers. The novel is the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their five unmarried daughters. They live in the estate of L
10、ongbourn in Hertfordshire, a rural district about thirty miles from London. The family is not rich. And Elizabeth is the 2nd daughter of Bennets family and she is also“her fathers favorite daughter who having inherited his wit and intelligence”2“Elizabeth is much more spirited and independent than a
11、 twenty-year-old lady of her period would ordinarily be.”3 Although of these merits, she makes bad mistakes of judgment.“She let Wickhams manners and appearance biases her against Darcy.”4 She becomes a foolish person from a wise one. But finally, she regains her sense and overcomes the prejudice, f
12、inds her true loveDarcy. Elizabeth possesses the rebellious spirit, represents the typical woman image of her time who fight for the woman rights.II. The Merits of Elizabeths CharacterA. Wit and Sense of ObservationElizabeth is an intelligent young woman who is described as having“a lively, playful
13、disposition, which delighted in any thing ridiculous.” She often presents a playful good natured impertinence that does not offend. Early in the novel she is depicted as being personally proud of her mental quickness and her acuity in judging the social behavior and intentions of others.In the novel
14、, Elizabeth is the most outstanding person. She has more quickness of observation and is capable of having both complex impressions and complex ideas. Her sensibility and intelligence rarely fail her in her reading of human minds, observing life. She is very sober in doing things. No matter what she
15、 does or says, both in appropriate terms. So compared with her mother who” was a woman of mean understanding, litter information, and uncertain temper.”5 and her father who is able to adapt himself to different circumstances and is also very passive, indolent；and with her three sisters who are very
16、shallow, frivolous, capricious; and with her surrounding world which full of the foolish people, Elizabeth is the only person who owns the superior reason.Among all the girls described in the novel，Elizabeth is the special one. She is full of richer thoughts than Miss Bingley. Also Elizabeth is more
17、 magnanimous, plainer than her; Elizabeth is more beautiful than Charlotte. Compared with her, Elizabeth has greater ideal and higher pursuit. Elizabeth is cleverer, more courageous than her sisters. Compared with Jane whose manner is elegant and temper is mild, Elizabeth has the advantage of owning
18、 much sense. Unlike Jane who is so easily feel extremely flattered, Elizabeth can think more deeply than her. She advises Jane not too honest to see through the foolishness and dullness of those who pretend to be frank to her. At the very beginning, Elizabeth sees through Miss Bingleys who harbors e
19、vil intention. She makes the exact judgment about their tales in breaking the love affairs between Mr. Bingley and Jane. Elizabeth is out of the ordinary. And she knows much clearly than others with the worldly wisdom.B. The Spirit of Rebellion against Feudal SocietyIt can be imagined that Elizabeth
20、 with a certain amount of mental independence and wisdom would own a strong mind and would refuse to submit to others pressure and will and to be their appendage. Her ability to speak her mind to everyone and anyone sometimes causes conflict between her and the more prominent elders in society. Deta
21、chment and autonomy portray her brilliant image as a rebel of her times, longing for individual liberty and equality between sexes. Thus we are not surprised to find her firm refusal of Darcys first lordly proposal and total declination of Lady Catherines despotic demand on her acting the compliant
22、social inferior to which role Lady Catherine is relegating her.Elizabeth also makes good use of her cleverness and intellect to challenge the upper-class people who show contempt against her. She visits her sick sisterJane at Netherfield. Despite the bad weather, Elizabeth“walked three miles so earl
23、y in the day in such dirty weather, and by herself, was almost incredible to Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley.” 6 But its just such action which makes her in even higher spirit than ever before. And Mr. Darcy is much attracted by her at this point. When Miss Bingley condemns Elizabeth as a country folk w
24、hos such evil behavior show an abominable sort of conceited independence, a most country town difference to decorum and also she said to Darcy if this kind of adventure had rather affected his admiration of Elizabeths fine eyes. Mr. Darcy replied“Not at all, they were brightened by the exercise.” 7
25、Whats more, Elizabeths visit of her sister shows her rebellion of feudal society and affection of nature, which is one reason why Darcy falls in love with her.C. The Pursuit of Equal Happiness and MarriageIn the novel, Elizabeth rejects the pursuerDarcy at the beginning, because she does not like hi
26、m, even looks down upon him though Darcy loves her very much. In Elizabeths eyes, he is arrogant and unreasonable because he is rich and has high social status. Realizing that, Darcy begins to get rid of those bad habits quietly to crate her taste and get good impression and love of her. Because of
27、Darcys perfect behavior and good education, Elizabeth gradually eliminates the bias on Darcy. Then they spontaneously fall in love. So when Darcys second suitor is sent to Elizabeth, Elizabeth readily agree with, and they get married and have happy family lives.In Elizabeths attitude towards love an
28、d marriage, there exists a progressive social significance. Elizabeth is interested in finding a husband with compatible personality, rather than one with great wealth. She believes that love and marriage is closely associated with property and society for she cannot make a living herself, however l
29、ove and marriage cannot only decided by property and society, an ideal marriage should be based on true and equal love. She wants to“teach the admiring multitude” what connubial felicity really was“by her own example”. She likes a free choice, not dictated by economic pressure. She is penniless, but
30、 never ready to sacrifice every better feeling to worldly advantage. She declines to give Mr. Collins her hand because she knows they share not the same ideas and taste, and she takes pity on Charlotte for her capitulation before economic pressure and regards Charlottle the wife of Mr. Collins as“a
31、most humiliating picture.” She also holds a strong opinion against Lydias elopement, thinking it thoughtless, foolish and degraded. She stands for moral integrity in love affairs. In her eyes, the life-long company itself should be the very first consideration. She loves Darcy because the true love.
32、 Then she comes to feel that“he was the exact man who, in disposition and talents would most suit her.” and“it was a union that must have been to the advantage of both.” If Charlotte is a realist towards marriage affairs, here Elizabeth can be regarded an ideal of love.III. The Weakness of Elizabeth
33、s Character A. Assertiveness in her Own DiscernmentCapability for judgment is one of the charming, strong points of Elizabeth. She has“more quickness of observation and is capable of both complex impressions and complex ideas.” Her sensibility and intelligence rarely fail her in her reading of human
34、 minds, observing life and drawing out her correct first impression. However, her good discernment also make mistake. From the novel, the assertiveness of Elizabeths discernment can be show through her false first impression of Wickham and Darcy.Firstly, Elizabeths blind worship of Wickham is presen
35、ted through the quotations from the novel. The first impression of him on her was his appearance that” was greatly in his favor, he had all the best part of beauty, a fine countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing dress.”8 When Wickham talks with her about the relationship between Mr. Darcy and
36、him, his hypocritical words make Elizabeth“honored him for such feelings, and thought him handsomer than ever as he expresses them.”9 At Mrs. Philips supper party, Elizabeth feels Wickhams“manners recommended him to everybody whatever he said, was said well; and whatever he did, done gracefully.”10
37、So Elizabeth went away with her head full of him. After hearing Wickhams words, Elizabeth even does not think whether the words Wickham said are reasonable or not, she only thinks“it was not in her nature to question the veracity of a young man of such amiable appearance as Wickham- the possibility
38、of his having really endured such unkindness was enough to interest all her tender feelings.”11 At the last Elizabeths disgust of Darcy shows her blind worship of Wickham at Nether fields ball when Wickham is absent:“every feeling of displeasure against the former(Mr.Darcy) was so sharpened by immed
39、iate disappointmentAttention forbearance patience with Darcy,was injury to Wickham”12Secondly, Elizabeths first impression of Dacrys own deportment, his proud manner and insulting proposals, results from partly to her too quick response and partly to her“guilt” of credulityshe puts too much confiden
40、ce in Wickhams entirely false, slanderous remarks. When the pair first meets, they do not get on well. Elizabeth takes a particular disliking to Darcy after his haughty dismissal of her when they both attended a ball at Netherfield. He is considered in low regard by all who attended,” Everybody is d
41、isgusted by his pride.” From this point on, Elizabeth finds several more reasons to dislike him, including her belief that he treated Wickham badly, and that he successfully discouraged his friend Bingley from continuing his relationship with Jane.As Elizabeth is too confident to her sensibility, he
42、r bad impression of Darcy and worship of Wickham change her, who is the most sensitive and with great wisdom, from“the wise”to“the foolish”.B. PrejudiceIndeed, Elizabeth is full of prejudice which is the very element in her life. She openly declares,“There are few people whom I really love, and stil
43、l fewer of whom I think well.”13 And her prejudice against Dacry can prove this character of her.At the front part of the novel, the first appearance of Mr. Darcy is described like this:“He is at first singled out for attention and his looks admired because he is armored to have ten thousand a year.
44、 This makes him much handsomer than Bingley. However, by the end of the hall, he is found to have a forbidding, disagreeable countenance and is unworthy of comparison with his friend because of his bad manners.”14 Since Darcy is from the upper class, so it is unavoidable that he has pride in his min
45、d and superior in his behavior towards his new acquaintance. So when Mr. Bingley asks him to dance with Elizabethan unknown person to him, he says:“she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” After hearing these words, Elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings toward him. Her prej
46、udice against him arouses.There are also two things that make her bear prejudice against Darcy. One thing she holds against him is“what she assumes to have been his mistreatment of Wickham, who therefore finds it easy to exploit her prejudice by using insinuation as means of blackening Darcys charac
47、ter.”15“I wonder that the very pride of this is Mr. Darcy has not made him just to you!” The other thing that makes Elizabeth challenges Darcy is his behavior towards the combination between her sister Jane and Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth thinks that is Mr.Darcy who persuades or even controls Mr. Bingley
48、 to change his original mind of marrying Jane. When the crisis between Jane and Mr. Bingley appears, Elizabeth analyzed the reason to Jane that it must be Mr. Bingleys sisters“in conjunction with his friend(Mr. Darcy)” who influence and manipulate him. So Elizabeths prejudice against Darcy becomes s
49、tronger.At last,When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth,“Because of herdeeply-rooted dislike, her prejudice against him, Elizabeth is in the supremely powerful position of being able to refuse Darcy in the most effective way possible. She makes it abundantly clear that nothing, even a more gentleman-like manner of behavior, would have induced her to accept him.”16Nevertheless，human life is a complicated thing. To judge one person should acknowledge ones every sid
