“He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman's daughter. So far we are equal.” Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 novel by Jane Austen, a story of how two lovers not only bridged the gap of class but threw away their proud and subjective views towards one another to be together. Reading this book, what stood out to me was how the simple narration accurately portrayed 19th century life.
 
Elizabeth Bennet is the second daughter of five of Mr. Bennet, a gentry with a modest income. She is known for being intelligent and quick, and her beauty only second to her eldest sister, Jane. Elizabeth’s mother is the representation of an ordinary 19th century housewife, and often her sole goal in life is to marry her five daughters to rich and agreeable gentlemen, which seems ridiculous to Mr. Bennet. Because of her obsession, and society’s abundance of gatherings like balls, Elizabeth and her sisters attend local dances regularly from a young age to find suitors. During these balls, Elizabeth meets a young man, Mr. Darcy, whom she finds particularly disagreeable due to his proud demeanour and affluent upbringing, resulting in his evident disdain towards ordinary dancers in front of him. At the same ball that night, Elizabeth’s elder sister Jane meets an extremely agreeable young man named Mr Bingley, and they fell in love immediately.
 
Coincidentally, Mr Bingley is good friends with Mr. Darcy, and through her sister’s acquaintance with her lover, Elizabeth sees Darcy much more often. However, she finds that she likes him less and less as the days go by as Darcy is cold and distant towards the people around him. In a shocking turn of events, Elizabeth’s sister Jane, who is convinced of sharing her future with Bingley, discovered that he left for London for the winter. It turns out Mr Darcy persuaded him to leave with him, as he is not convinced of Jane’s feelings for Bingley. Miss Bingley, Bingley’s sister, was also eager to leave with her brother, but rather because of her disdain towards Jane’s inferior birth and connections. In a vicious disapproval of her brother’s potential marriage, Miss Bingley tells her friend, “I have an excessive regard for Jane Bennet… But with such a father and mother, and such low connections, I am afraid there is no chance of it.” This further highlights the prejudice held by privileged citizens towards a person of lesser entitlement.
 
At one of the balls she attends, Elizabeth meets a handsome, charming, and gracious young soldier named Mr Wickham, and discovers that he lived with Darcy’s family as a child. Despite his close acquaintance with the family, Wickham only appreciated the goodwill of the late Mr Darcy, who treated him like his son. His relationship with Darcy and Miss Darcy, the sister, was incredibly sour, as Wickham believes that “pride never deserts them”. Wickham relates that Darcy kept him away from the fortune he was entitled to by the late Mr Darcy, and with his pride, Darcy also changed his sister’s goodwill towards Wickham when she was young. After hearing this tale, Elizabeth is deeply compassionate for the losses of Mr Wickham, hating the ugly pride of Darcy.
 
Mr. Collins , a distant nephew of Mr. Bennet, is an unwelcome addition to the Bennet family initially; upon realising that the Bennet's property will be in his hands after the death of the elderly couple, Collins, feels indebted to pay the family a visit. Learning of the beauty of the Bennet sisters, Collins feels it would be respectful, even generous, to marry one, seeing as it would mean the Bennet property would remain partially theirs. After arriving, he is civil and generous with his compliments, but as time passes, he becomes more and more like a pompous pest hanging around the sisters. Collins proposes to Elizabeth, but to his shock, and that of Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth firmly rejects the proposal, claiming, "You could not make me happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who could make you so."
 
Throughout the novel, Jane Austen illustrates different types of marriages that occur between diverging classes, starting with the ridiculous Mr. Collins, who is always so full of his witty praises and gestures. 
 
After being rejected rather ungraciously by Elizabeth, Collins is still determined to find a wife. He soon begins to talk with Elizabeth’s best friend, Charlotte Lucas, a rational girl of twenty-seven. Collins, who is easily satisfied, proposes to Charlotte, who is more than eager to be married. In this scene, Jane Austen portrays the most unadorned marriage of the middle class: as Charlotte says, “I am not romantic, you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.” After the marriage, the young couple moves into a modest house on the outskirts of London and lived an undisturbed life, only occasionally visited by family, friends, and Mr. Collins’ patroness, the Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
 
Following this, it is Elizabeth’s overly energetic fifteen-year-old sister. Lydia, who has a passion for soldiers, takes the opportunity to go to Brighton with Mrs. Forster, the wife of a colonel. During her two weeks in Brighton, Lydia meets Wickham by a campfire and strikes up an unlikely relationship with him. Soon after, Lydia is delighted to hear Wickham’s proposal of marriage and accepts it; the young couple sends a letter home to the agitated Bennet family announcing their desire to get married. Here, Mr. Wickham is portrayed as a cheat, with the readers knowing of how he tried to seduce Darcy’s sister. He also lacks money because of his gambling addiction, and therefore needs the marriage to be held in London to pry more cash away from the poor Mr. Bennet. Just when the family is sinking into despair, Mr. Darcy stepped in as the hero. Because of his hate for Wickham, and his newfound compassion for the unfortunate, he offers to pay Wickham the money he wants. This marriage is, despite the eagerness on both ends, a marriage to save Lydia’s dignity as much as for Wickham’s money. If it is not completed, Lydia would lose her womanhood and be condemned to shame. Austen uses Lydia to depict the thousands of young women at the time who committed to marriage at too early an age and find it impossible to turn back on their promise.
 
Jane Bennet is Austen’s portrayal of a kind girl. She is compassionate, forgiving and always sees the best in people. However, she is heartbroken from the disappearance of Bingley to London and finds it hard to make excuses for his wrongdoings. In January, Jane finds it impossible to happily spend Christmas without his presence, so she travels with her aunt to London. Despite her efforts, and after her third week in the city, it becomes apparent that he does not wish to converse with her. She travels back to the country to calm her mind and to forgive and forget the past.
Jane thinks that she will never cross paths with Bingley, but suddenly, almost a year later, he returns to the town and visits the Bennet family. He confesses his feelings for Jane and admits that he was wrong to leave her. Upon realising that Jane has been in London to visit him, Bingley is absolutely bewildered, claiming that he would have seen her. In a string of confessions, Mr. Darcy apologises for his offence: he kept Bingley away due to being unconvinced of Jane’s true feelings. All is forgiven, and Mrs. Bennet is pleased that her eldest daughter is about to marry a rich man. With this marriage, Austen illustrates that class and wealth can be cast aside for love, even in the rigid social hierarchy.
 
  At the beginning of the book, Mr. Darcy fancies Elizabeth; he is charmed by her beauty and wit but despises her upbringing. “He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger of falling in love.” However, as the novel continues, Darcy throws away his prejudice regarding Elizabeth’s birth and wants to spend his future with her. Nevertheless, Elizabeth hates Darcy, for his pride, for his treatment of her sister, and the misfortunes suffered by Wickham on his behalf. So, when Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, he is savagely rejected.
 
Darcy is heartbroken, betrayed and humbled; he writes a letter to Elizabeth stating the reasons behind his seemingly unforgivable acts. Elizabeth is hesitant to believe him, however, but after a visit to Darcy’s country home with her aunt and uncle, she changes her arrogance into awe. The housekeeper and long-time friend of Darcy compliments him thoroughly on his kindness and generosity, and even more surprising is the shy Miss Darcy, nothing like the pride-filled girl Wickham described her to be. In an act of humility, Darcy invites Elizabeth’s uncle, Mr. Gardiner, on a fishing trip in his nearby lake. Elizabeth is surprised by how down-to-earth Darcy is.
 
The last straw of uncertainty towards Mr. Darcy breaks when he finds Lydia and Wickham and pays the £10,000 Wickham is demanding for the marriage to save the Bennet family from disgrace. This makes Elizabeth like him more and more, even feeling ashamed of her initial prejudice towards his character. Mr. Darcy proposes to her a second time; Mrs. Bennet, of course, is very pleased. Elizabeth and Darcy is the novel’s fairy-tale ending: two separate individuals, one rich and one poor, overcoming their pride and prejudice to finally be with each other in the end.
 
I would thoroughly recommend the novel to history lovers and romantics like me!