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Elizabeth Bennet is the central character in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. She is the second daughter in a family obsessed with marrying into wealth, but she believes in marrying for love and respect. She initially dislikes Mr. Darcy, but they eventually fall in love. Elizabeth is a feminist who stays true to her principles and is guided by her own sense of what is right. She marries Darcy and represents a major breakthrough in feminist literature.
Elizabeth Bennet is one of fiction’s most celebrated heroines, created by English author Jane Austen. Miss Bennet is clearly the central character of Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice and represents a major breakthrough in feminist literature.
Miss Bennet is the second child in a family of five daughters. Her mother is obsessed with marrying girls into wealth and prosperity, as their property is entrusted to male heirs and, consequently, she will go to a distant cousin of hers. So their means are limited, as is the society they live in. Although the Bennets are the daughters of a gentleman, the frequent social atrocities committed by her mother, who is more than once described as “vulgar”, reduce the daughters’ chances of marrying “well”.
Since marriage was still a business relationship at the time Austen wrote the novel, the concept of marrying for love was relatively new. Despite her encouragement to marry the cousin to whom Bennet’s state will devolve, Miss Bennet refuses a marriage to him because he is silly, ridiculous and there is no way she can respect him.
Indeed, Miss Bennet and her older sister Jane both support the idea of marriage for love and marriage to a respectable partner. In this idea they are greatly encouraged by their father’s example of marrying a woman he could not respect.
Miss Bennet soon comes into contact with Mr. Darcy, a man she thinks is so proud, she cares little what he looks like. Indeed, she is soon convinced that Darcy cannot stand her. She watches Darcy amused halfway through the novel, and also observes her friend Charlotte accepting her obsequious cousin, Mr. Collins’, proposal of marriage on the conventional grounds.
While visiting Mr. and Mrs. Collins, she is extremely surprised to receive a proposal of marriage from Mr. Darcy. She rejects him, because she is aware that Darcy has been working to separate her beloved sister from her friend, Mr. Bingley. Furthermore, Miss Bennet believes that Darcy acted poisonous towards her friend Mr. Wickham.
Miss Bennet soon discovers that in truth Wickham has behaved very badly towards Darcy, though she makes no apologies for separating Jane from Bingley. However, chance trips have brought Miss Bennet and Darcy back together, and Elizabeth begins to care for him, as she fully realizes her true character and that he sincerely loves her.
Miss Bennet’s career ends with her marriage to Darcy and Jane’s marriage to Bingley. She therefore she can be read as if she remained true to her principles and married for love. Her reward is marriage to a man who sincerely loves her and who is also extremely wealthy.
The character of Miss Bennet is that of a young woman who thrives on her mistakes, is more than intelligent in conversation and who delights in the inconsistencies in others. She is, though she operates in her limited sphere, one of the first feminists. More importantly, she stays true to her principles and is not shaken by what the world thinks she should be doing, and is instead guided by her own sense of what is right. This makes Miss Bennet a still much loved character today, and goes a long way towards explaining the popularity of Pride and Prejudice.
