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Change In Pride And Prejudice Essay

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In the masterpiece that is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen there are many important and substantial ideas that reflect the virtues and the consequences of following or not following them. Jane Austen’s work has been applauded in it authentic feeling and the realistic way she captured emotions and character development. Austin depicts an important truth that can sometimes be overlooked in her book and that is people need to continually better themselves. These theme are most evident in the characters of Mr Darcy whom changes throughout the story and Mrs Bennett who does not and the consequences of both who made the decision whether consciously or not to change.
First there is Mrs Bennett who is portrayed as an antagonist of sorts in the …show more content…

In the beginning we are introduced to Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy as a wealthy and arrogant man. Austin portrays his change at first by having Darcy say “She is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me...You are wasting your time with me”(Austin 7) about Elizabeth then later he says “My feelings will not be repressed you must let me tell you how ardently love you”(Austin 129). Austin masterfully uses irony to portray the change in Mr Darcy. The author gives the sense that Darcy thinks that he is superior to the people around him because of his wealth and intellect. It also humanises him in that the reader can see him struggling to fix his flaws. Part of his struggle to be better can be seen in the quote “I certainly have not the talent that some people possess..of conversing easily with those I have never seen before”(Austin 121). In that quote it show the conflicted within Darcy between his pride and trying to connect with the people around him. It takes the heartbreak of Elizabeth to jar him into recognizing and fixing how he …show more content…

Both Darcy and Mrs Bennet are misguided in the beginning with Darcy thinking he is superior to everyone and Mrs Bennet trying to give her daughters a “perfect”life. Mrs Bennet is clearly at fault when her daughter run away with Wickham and blames everyone around her for her mistake. Darcy also is somewhat aloof and rude because of his narcissistic personality.
Changing in itself is not necessarily virtuous but can take a good or bad form yet it is necessary to continually evolve as a person. The results of changing or not changing can be seen Darcy obtained happiness and Bennett fell into the same old patterns of blaming others for her failures. While they seem to both have what they want Mrs Bennet still is not happy and will never be happy because she cannot stop falling in the same old habits. Such is the story of humanity with people trying to fix external problems in search for happiness with all they had to do was fix internal problems for eternal joy.
In conclusion Pride and Prejudice can unequivocally help the reader the necessity to continually change to better oneself in the pursuit of the virtues. For everyone has flaws and most can be fixed it only take self realization of these flaws to begin the process. This is an extremely important virtue to obtain because without it one will be stuck repeating the same mistakes in a cycle of

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