Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice is still among the top of the world famous literature now. Indeed, after reading the novel, I feel that it is definitely a must-read book in one’s life. The elegance of language and the character of Elizabeth Bonnet struck my heart deeply. The main theme in the novel is that love can overcome pride and prejudice. Mr. Darcy’s love for Elizabeth propels him to put aside about his pride and neglect their class differences. Similarly, Elizabeth’s love for Darcy makes her forget about her prejudice about him and agrees to the marriage despite the disapproval and dislike of Darcy’s family. Austen grants them a good ending by saying that Darcy’s family members eventually accept Elizabeth because of her true love for Darcy.
In real life, I wonder, how many of these stories can be true? True love does exist, I believe in it, but people’s faith for love has been diminished. There are many instances in our society today where girls marry rich men not because of love but because of their property, and men are attracted by beautiful appearances instead of personalities. Girls (note that I don’t use women here) feel proud to have a rich husband, and automatically filter out men who are less sociable and eloquent as rigid, boring cavemen. People pay too much attention to appearances and fame and forget that they’re spending the rest of the lives with the person not their face. That is why divorce rates are so high nowadays. Perhaps because of this, marriage and divorce do not play as important to a person’s reputation anymore. The purity of love depicted in Pride and Prejudice cannot be found in modern society anymore.
Yes, it does sound a little sad.
–Kary Huang
It is sad how love is no longer regarded as important as how Elizabeth and Darcy portrayed it. Their love for one another is difficult to find nowadays and seems like it only belongs in a fairy-tale novel. However, I believe that we should educate adolescents on the importance of marrying for love, not for money or fame. Being in love and happy is more important then living a life full of money, pride and status. But along with all this power is also misery. How can there be happiness when there is a marriage with no love?