by queenajasmina

Created on: January 22, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

A Comparison of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice and the New Movie

Overcoming One's Pride for Self-Revelation

People marry for many reasons. Some people marry because they have to. Others marry for fun. Some marry for material gain, while others may actually marry for love. In the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, marriage is the most important thing in the character's lives. The movie Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright, also emphasizes the importance of marriage. However, those who truly marry for love have more to worry about than just planning the nuptials. To be able to love someone, one must know and understand themselves. The book did a good job of emphasizing the theme of self-revelation; however, the movie could have expressed this theme better if the scenery was not such a major focus.

Elizabeth, the protagonist, encounters self-revelation as the novel progresses. It seems ironic that she does so, since in the beginning of the novel she feels that she knows who she is. She even tells Jane of her blindness to people. She says,

"Oh, you are too great apt you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. The entire world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in my life; with your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others!"(P.10)

This entire statement is ironic in itself, because later on in the story, she comes to realize that she is the one who has been blind all along. She begins to realize this in the thirteenth chapter of the second volume after Mr. Darcy proposes to her and she bitterly rejects him. Later the next day he gives her a letter defending himself of her accusations. When she first begins to read the letter she still has prejudice against Darcy, and she refuses to finish reading it. However, she reluctantly continues to read it anyway, repeatedly until she finally begins to believe that Darcy could be telling the truth. His facts contained details, and explained everything of which Mr. Whickham told her so vaguely. As soon as she realizes his letter was truthful, she becomes ashamed of herself.

"How despicably I have acted! I, who have prided myself on discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! Who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity, in useless or blameless distrust. How humiliating is this discovery! Yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been I love, I have courted prepossession

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