The Decesiveness of Prejudice

Mrs. Bennet who has five daughters hears about that a young rich man moves neighbourhood. She decides to marry off one her five daughters with the young man. Charles Bingley who is thought as the groom to the family, starts to show interest at the ball to Jane who is the oldest daughter of Bennet family. At the same time Elizabeth asks Mr. Darcy to dance but Mr. Darcy refuses her request because he doesn’t find her attractive. Upon the invitation which comes from Mr.

Bingley’s daughter, Mrs. Bennet decides to send Jane to the Mr. Bingley’s mansion. Together with the arrival of the soldiers into the town, Elizabeth’s interest is concentrated on the energetic and glamorous Mr. Wickham. In the one of the first intimacy between the two, Mr. Wickham tells Elizabeth that he has bad memories about Mr. Darcy that he has been subjected to great injustice. Then, Bingley family returns to London by leaving behind Jane heartbrokenly and Elizabet angrily.

After Elizabeth goes to visit her best friend Charlotte, Mr. Darcy sends a letter to Elizabeth which explains her the betrayal of Wickham in order to make her look at things from different angles. Then, Elizabeth goes for an outing with her uncle and her aunt to Mr. Darcy’s mansion in Pemberley which is like a museum and they see each other one more time. Elizabeth realizes that she is in love with Mr. Darcy and it allows both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy to review their past pride and prejudice for each other and take a step into a beautiful future. Elizabeth Bennet is the novel’s protagonist who lives in a country town with her family. Elizabeth is a very intelligent, vivacious and attractive woman who likes being herself. She also likes reading in her spare times and she is a knowledgeable girl who improved herself. On the other hand, her behaviour is sarcastic and proud. Mr. Darcy is one of the major characters in the novel. He is a well-educated person and comes from a rich family. Even if he is clever and honest like her, Darcy is quite arrogant and distant unlike Elizabeth.

His excess of pride causes him to have bad social interaction experiences. Based on the novel’s title which is ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and based on main themes in the novel, these themes may be seen the most outstanding ones. But ‘Love’ is also an important one in addition to ‘Pride and Prejudice’. Elizabeth and Darcy do something which they never do. They love each other even if they belong to different social and economic classes, different worlds, and circles of friends. In this novel Jane Austin wants to tell us that one doesn’t have to live in a palace to be able to fall in love with someone who lives in a palace. Love is not a concern of material things or people’s belongings. From an objective point of view this kind of love story can only be exist in novels, stories or one’s dreams. Here comes the first thing what Darcy and Elizabeth do which let to lead them by the ‘Decisiveness of Prejudice’. In everyday life this is something that happens to all of us.

For example, we see a person and even without knowing him, we develop a bad or a good attitude towards him just because of his appearance and actions. In other words, almost every aspect of our lives and many times we are directed by the decisiveness of our prejudice and we make social contacts according to that. The Bennet family is not as poor and uncouth as seen by Darcy’s family. Middle class is more appropriate in order to define their economic condition. In the first scenes of the film, there is a piano in the house which is being played by one of the Bennet’s. Looking at the decoration of the house, there are beautiful and expensive looking candlesticks. Even if their home’s exterior design and the girls’ clothes look old, essentially, they are trying to live like a noble family.

Most of the girls of the Bennet family listen to the doors when an important issue about marriage is being discussed and they want to get married to a single rich husband cause there were two ways to become rich instantly when you live in a middle class family in Jane Austin’s time which is still the same; either of the lottery or to get married to a rich husband. Moreover, Darcy is not that proud and arrogant. Darcy’s distant attitude and glances make her look like that. But he is just as humble as he falls in love with a girl in middle class family. Even if he makes ten thousand pounds monthly and having the half of the Derbyshire, he follows his heart about Elizabeth without paying attention to possessions. Also, Elizabeth doesn’t pay attention to possessions too. It can be a proof to this after Darcy says that ‘Elizabeth is not beautiful enough to tempt me’, Elizabeth says that ‘Even if Darcy has all of the Derbyshire, I will not be with him.’

She also says that ‘only real love can persuade me to get marry’. In fact, although Darcy and Elizabeth were both people who are in the same mindset, their prejudice caused them to bear a grudge against each other without fully knowing each other. Moreover, when Darcy thinks that jane is distant and shy to Charles, he interpreted the situation by being opinionated and caused Bingley to break up with Jane. And after this Elizabeth was violently angry at Darcy and refused his proposal. This would almost cause Elizabeth and Darcy not to marry. In conclusion, in our daily lives before we judge people with their voice tone, physical appearance or attitudes, we should think again about the reliability of our prejudice. Decisiveness of the prejudice should not decide our communication with people or our attitudes towards them. Otherwise, we may not have a second chance that Elizabeth gave Darcy.

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