England, under the first rule of James, was a greatly altered time compared to our modern society. Many of the values upheld during this period have now been discarded and forgotten. Jane Austen grew up in the Romantic period and experienced a divided world, whether by education, class, status, fashion, ability, gender and etiquette. His novel, Pride and Prejudice, is considered one of the great classics of English literature. Austen engages readers by pushing them to live in her world for a while and experience a society filled with matchmaking, romance, marriage, and gossip. Each of his characters is so distinctive and has a clearly delineated caricature. Each of their different values conveys a different thought of time. Pride and Prejudice deals with the nobility and most of the social aspects that consume these people's lives. There were so many expectations about how you would behave in public, but obviously not all of them were kept. Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas are four characters who hold such strong beliefs about social norms. These characters are expressed so descriptively and through their personalities readers can learn how many societal standards have been received. The female heroine, through whose eyes most of the third-person omniscient novel is seen, is Elizabeth Bennet. While he accepts and recognizes many social expectations, particularly good manners, he largely defies others. Jane Austen is most likely channeling her opinions through this character and commenting on the lifestyle and values she was raised with. One of the reasons Mr Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth is because she has an intelligence and open-mindedness, "you have always been dis... middle of paper... news of these ideologies." While Elizabeth accepts many of the norms of the period, she also challenges the purpose of marriage and is straight-minded. Her self-confident personality does not acknowledge the fact that she has less wealth than many others and is constantly scorned for interfering with her happiness. He does not allow the social expectations of his times to hinder his strong beliefs and his destiny in life. Pride and Prejudice is so different from most other novels of the early 19th century that Jane Austen must have had very alternative points of view. The heroine Elizabeth defies the most social expectations of the time and turns out to be the happiest of all the characters. This theme must have opened the minds of romantic readers, perhaps to how society should be and this I believe is why this novel is one of the great classics of English literature..
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