When I first know this book by watching the movie long before, I just considered it to be a love story. But now after reading the book myself, I find it’s far more than a love story , it’s also the illustration of the society in Britain in the 18th century.
Pride and prejudice are two weaknesses in our personal qualities。 Elizabeth and Darcy couldn’t avoid that ,either。 Darcy is a rich young man and used to be very proud, he always feels superior to the county people. His proud leave a bad impression on Elizabeth, a clever and beautiful girl and who always had her own opinions. then in the course of nature, she began to have prejudice on him, and kept misunderstanding him under Wickham’s evil speaking. Finally, they reconciled and get married.
From their love story I realize that it’s stupid to judge a person just by the first impression and always have prejudice on the person who you dislike, and pride sometimes will make you far away from the people. From the book, we can see, because Darcy’s proud, he offended the girl he loved, and because of the prejudice, Elizabeth was failed to see the merits of Darcy, but fortunately, they didn’t miss each other finally. Their love was romantic and also realistic.
It’s a romantic love story indeed, but at the same time, the author Austen didn’t confined her aim just to telling love stories. In fact, in most cases, the marriage in her book was not the result of love, but the result of economic needs. After reading this book, I know a truth that a poor woman must be in need of a husband, a wealthy man. Just like the first sentence said in the book: “It is a truth well known to the world that an unmarried man in possession of a large fortune must be in need of a wife.”
For instance, from the marriage between Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, we found that their marriage totally depended on the position, money, and the background, not the love. Most women choose the men who can satisfy their material comforts to be their husbands at that time, just like Charlotte Lucas. She married Mr. Collins although she shared no common interests with him. She didn’t love him while she married him indeed. She persuaded herself to tolerate her husband’s strange and foolish behavior, and her only comfort was her big new house and rich material life. While in my eye, it’s really unfortunate to rest hope on the material comforts for her rest life. Although sometimes it’s necessary to consider the property, position, and background in the marriage, it’s wretched to marry just for the property, position and background. Charlotte Lucas married for the possession not love, and on the other hand, Mr. Collins married her because he needed a wife, not for love, either. Their marriage seemed to be necessary but not happy. But how to maintain the marriage without love? Charlotte Lucas adopted a most efficient way----to pay no attention to her husband no matter what he did, and turn a deaf ear to what he said. Since she didn’t love him, she didn’t need to care about him, either.
The marriage of Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins represented most of the marriages at that time. Most women and men got married for money and power. The marriage had nothing to do with love. The wives were regarded as the beautiful vases for decoration. The husbands took the “vases” with them to the social occasion everyday while thinking about their career advancement in their heart and never cared about the feelings of the “vases”. And what caused this? The essential reason was the low social position of the women. The women were treated badly at that time. They had no work, and had no ability to maintain the life, so the marriage was the most efficient and popular way for them to keep their lives. Even the ladies in the upper class only played the role of a housewife.
