Showing posts with label jane austen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jane austen. Show all posts

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is one of my all time favorite classics. 

It is a beautiful love story written with wit and sarcasm and filled with clever conversations and likeable characters. Here is a short review : 




The story revolves around the bennet family. Elizabeth Bennet is the main character and potragonist here.The Bennett family are living a calm and quiet life in Longbourn. 
News enters the house that a certain Mr. Bingley, a young man of good fortune, is going to become their neighbour.  Mrs. Bennett assumes this is the perfect opportunity to get one of her five daughters married off well. She is troubled considering things like - Will it be her eldest, the beautiful and charming Jane, who gets all of Mr. Bingley’s attention? Or is it going to be her less beautiful, but very sensible and witty sister Elizabeth, who will make the big match?

With the arrival of Mr. Bingley, his proud and mysterious friend Mr. Darcy, and, later in the story, clergyman Mr. Collins and Officer Mr. Wickham, Mrs. Bennett finds herself surrounded by desirable suitors for her daughters. With embarrassing simple-mindedness and not exactly subtle advances she tries her best to get those men’s attention for her daughters. And except Mr. Collins, she succeeds in having each of them married to one of her daughters by the end of the story: Mr. Bingley finds himself attached to Jane, while Mr. Darcy turns out to be the perfect husband for Elizabeth, and Mr. Wickham, the villain of the story, finally has to settle for Lydia, the youngest of the girls.

Mr. Collins, an unintentionally funny pastor and a cousin of Mr. Bennett’s, who is to inherit the Bennett estate after the death of Mr. Bennett, firstly sees it as his duty to propose to one of the Bennett girls. But after being rejected by Elizabeth, he finally turns his eyes on her good friend Charlotte Lucas, and marries her instead.
Looking at Jane, it seems predictable that she is going to have the least trouble with her man, because Mr. Bingley immediately falls in love with her, and she, too, is very fond of him. But due to her mother’s silliness and stupidity, and unfortunately also to Jane’s reservation, Mr. Darcy gets the impression that his dear friend is only being liked for his money, and that Jane’s only interest is to be married to a wealthy man. For this reason, he gives his friend the advice to leave her. Mr. Bingley follows this advice, and Jane remains heartbroken. But due to fortunate circumstances and the intervention of Mr. Darcy himself, they finally get together.

Talking about Mr. Darcy, there seems to be nothing that he and Elizabeth have in common at the beginning of the story: She has an uncomplicated, funny and witty nature; he is rather snobbish, proud and reserved. Almost each time they meet, things end up in a quarrel, and Elizabeth hates and teases him frankly. But her eyes open when Mr. Wickham, the former centre of her admiration, turns out to be a liar, and she has to admit that she had done injustice to Mr. Darcy, who is willing to forgive her. They finally get married and live happily ever after.

So thats the gist of it. Now what exactly is my opinion about the story? Well, Pride and Prejudice was a good read though Jane was kind of feeble minded and weak, and Mr. Darcy is brooding enough to be sufficiently interesting. I must agree Lady Catherine de Bourgh was a really...interesting character .Elizabeth Bennet I find to be very relatable as she is quick witted and intelligent but she isn't perfect - she has a very sharp tongue and hastily jumps to conclusions. The other characters - a tiresome mother, a detached father, two badly behaved younger siblings, and several snobbish, antagonizing women - all make the plot a good read.

Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters?

I was just going over my Classic Literature collection and suddenly a thought struck me - Whose work would you rather read - Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters, if asked to choose between the two ? Both are England's most famous female novelists of the victorian era who popularized romantic fiction and their books are popular classics.

Personaly, I love both authors but I think Jane Austen is a bit more "reserved" somehow - although she is clever and witty. The Brontes are more passionate in their writing, I believe. Jane Eyre is my all time favorite .

Jane Austen at times comes across as too "prim and proper" and kind of shallow. Her world is limited to social interactions which can get superficial at times. The Bronte sisters have definitely been more successful at capturing raw human emotions and desires, they aren't afraid to lay open the souls of their characters to be judged by the whims of readers. Jane Eyre is a personal favorite of mine and the love the protagonist feels for her Mr.Rochester is something that is simply beyond the emotional spectrum of Elizabeth Bennet.

Finally I came to the conclusion that  I have to go with the Bronte sisters. Austen's writing is beautiful and has so many good ideas involved. Those ideas were revolutionary for her era. Still, I love the way the Bronte sisters write, especially Charlotte. To me, writings seems even more of an art form when reading their books.

Do share what you all think in the coment box . :)