Conflicts Arise in Pride and Prejudice

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Pride and Prejudice

Conflicts Arise in Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is a novel full of conflicts that revolve around love. Throughout the years many novels have followed the same love conflict patterns that are presented in Pride and Prejudice. A timeless love story—at first the both can’t help but hate each other creating a man vs. man conflict. After a while their hate turns into love. They both try to fight the passion, for it is not right to fall in love when they can never be together. This leads to a man vs. society and man vs. himself conflicts. As the story starts to progress even more and more conflicts build leaving the reader in the mercy of the author.

Pride and Prejudice is a novel full of quick judgments and unfair thinking by many characters. Mr. Darcy is quick to make a judgment on Elizabeth just by her looks and knowing that she is a social inferior to him. When his friend Mr. Bingley comes to see if he can get his friend to dance and have a good time Darcy shows this by saying, “Which do you mean?” and turning round, he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”Little did Mr. Darcy know that Elizabeth had overheard this conversation and began to create a dislike toward him. Elizabeth’s negative impression on Mr. Darcy creates a man vs. man conflict between both of them.

Mr. Darcy a man of wealth due to his high birth from a well-established family ends up falling in love with Elizabeth Bennet, who comes from a middle-class family. In the early 1800s in which this novel takes place the difference between the upper first class and the middle class was huge. The fact that Mr. Darcy even proposed to Elizabeth Bennet was considered an unsuitable match. Jane Austen created a man vs. society conflict. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth find themselves going against society for love but in doing so they both lost respect from others. The lines between classes are strictly drawn. The Bennet’s who are middle class that socialize with the upper class is still viewed as social inferiors and are treated as such throughout the novel. Jane Austen shows that having both love and happiness will overcome class, boundaries and prejudice by the end of the novel when the men vs. society conflicts are looked past.

The third conflict that is presented throughout the novel is man vs. himself. Both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth fight against themselves. They feel themselves falling in love and try to talk themselves out of it. Each makes judgments that stand in the way of their happiness too. For example when Elizabeth hears about how Mr. Darcy talked his friend out of marring Jane, Elizabeth’s older sister, she makes up her mind that she has a strong dislike towards Mr. Darcy. When Mr. Darcy tells her that he is in love with her she had push her own feelings so far aside that told him no. Mr. Darcy who was used to having everything was now faced with the truth he, himself had made a mistake. They each time and time again our faced with personal problems. Jane Austen wanted people to see that the problem that kept Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy apart for so long wasn’t just there first dislike towards each other or society putting walls between them but the fact that they both weren’t ready to admit that they were in love.

The author keeps the conflicts going throughout the novel so you don’t lose interest and by doing so Jane Austen created a love story. This love story will be read for many years for it is the perfect example of how love can be hard but it will also allow you to overcome anything. These conflicts are seen in everyday life and that is way I think they help play such a powerful role in Pride and Prejudice.

Submitted: February 22, 2010

Commercial Fiction pride and prejudice