Reading Response 1: Characters

In my opinion, Jane Austen is a master at creating characters. Pride and Prejudice is a prime example of this, as it contains several of the most memorable characters I have ever read about. The most obvious main characters are, of course, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. However, when I am reading Pride and Prejudice I tend to look deeper into the character fish pond. The fish (characters) that catch my eye aren't the ones that jump out of the water, flashing their rainbow scales, but the fish with more muted brown/grey tones resting near the bottom.

The first, and my personal favourite, of these shy fish is Mr. Bennet. I find that Mr. Bennet thinks of his wife and three youngest daughters as silly, and in need of a reality check, but he adores his two eldest daughters, Jane and Elizabeth. He is definitely Elizabeth's favourite of her two parents, probably because she takes after him and he protects her from her mother's intentions. This theory is tested soon after Mr. Collins (a cousin of the girls) asks Elizabeth to marry him, to which she declines... repeatedly. Mr. Bennet's opinion is made very clear when Elizabeth is called upon to discuss the proposal with him; "An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." (117). In this passage Mr. Bennet reminds me of my own father, how he is ultimately aware of his daughter's feelings and opinions in a way that Mrs. Bennet could never be.

Another of these shy brown fish is Miss Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte is Elizabeth's best friend, they have been close for their whole lives, and I find that they are a lot alike. The only major difference is the fact that Charlotte is a lot more sensible than Elizabeth. Now, I am not saying that Elizabeth is foolish or stupid, I am merely stating that Charlotte seems to be more in tune with her time period's social norms than Elizabeth. I think that Jane Austen had a specific reason to give Elizabeth a best friend, because she already had her sister Jane who could have easily filled that role. In my opinion Charlotte's purpose is to contradict Elizabeth's nature, the way that Charlotte balances Elizabeth's nature. Elizabeth seems to have been born in the wrong century, she should have lived in our time, when women get to choose if we want to marry and who we want to marry. Charlotte accepts that she should marry for money, and has never wanted to fall in love "...I hope you will be satisfied with what i have done. I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask only a comfortable home..." (132). Elizabeth doesn't understand this, and neither does Jane, which is why I think Charlotte is an important character when looking at Elizabeth's part in the novel.