傲慢与偏见-人物性格发展

How the Author Develops Character’s Personality

张轶崴20144716

1. Summary

The story gives us the emotional development of the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, who learns the lessons of making hasty judgements and comes to appreciate the differences between the superficial and the essential. The themeslie in the depiction of manners, education, marriage and moneyin the British Regency.

Elizabeth Bennet, as the protagonist, is the character who stands in for the reader. She is devotedly loyal to her family, most particularly to her sister Jane, and holds a principled determination to marry only for love. She is tested more than once. Mrs. Bennet, as the protagonist’s mother, doesn’t gain too much ink for her personality. But her typical reactions on her daughters are remarkable for a personality development.

In the following article, I will use these two examples to state my consideration of how the author develops characters’ personalities.

2. Elisabeth’s Personality

1) By reactions towards events

Elisabethis considered as the most pure and innocent person among all the characters in this novel whose sayings may be the first thing for analyzing her personality.

Early in the book, her loyalty to her family collides with her determination to marry for love in the moment her cousin William Collins proposes marriage to her. When they held the first dance party in the room to welcome Mr. Bingley, Elisabeth didn’t dance all the time because of the lack of male, which attracted Mr. Darcy. In this plot, we notice that she doesn’t show too much willing for a husband while the rich young man became the target of different families. Elisabeth, who believes love brings a happy relationship, keeps her attitude of marriage----must base on love. Unlike the other people’s greedy minds of money, as the simple girl as we see, her

pure wish is to have a perfect marriage.

2) By encounter with the other family

Elisabeth is also a mature, independent woman, which can be seen especially in the encounter with the other families’ members such as Miss Bingley and Miss Darcy who have prejudice of Elisabeth. When Jane fancied Mr. Bingley and got ill at Blingley’s house, Elisabeth showed her elegant manner and magnificent love with her sister, which even intensified the prejudice for Miss Bingley doesn’t like her. at the same time Mr. Bingley invited Elisabeth for a dance, she just “smiled, but made no answer”. Deep in her mind, she knew that Miss Bingley disliked her, and to avoid conflicts, she merely spoke in the room. What a smart girl!

She also knows how to give the prejudice back. In the volume 3 chapter 3, Miss Darcy wanted to humiliate Elisabeth by asking “Pray, Miss Eliza, are not the Militia removed from Meryton? They must be a great loss to your family.” Elisabeth instantly comprehended that Wickham was in her thoughts. She presently answered the question in a “tolerably disengaged tone”. In the front of Mr. Darcy, Miss Darcy words hurt nothing but herself.

I use these two encounters because they impressed me most, and they both choses Elisabeth as the center.

3. Mrs. Bennet’s Personality

1) By the conversation

Mrs. Bennet doesn’t have too much talk compared with Elisabeth, but she still has a charming personality for I wander what kind of woman can raise five entirely different daughters.

The conversation between Mrs. Bennet and her husband is the start of the book. In the last part of chapter one, the author described her character as “mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper”, which leads the following content. In the opening talk, she used several “Mr. Bennet” as her husband’s name, a “dear” before her daughters’ names or nick names. We can figure it out that she is not a mean woman who only cares about the money, but also a typical housewife who sacrificed her whole life for a happy family.

In the volume three chapter fourteen, after a quarrel between Elisabeth and Lady Catherine, she said “She is a very fine-looking woman!” answering her daughter’s “She did not choose it, she chose to go.” Obviously, she didn’t notice what happened, however, as a mother, she was supposed to know her daughter well even from a glance. Elisabeth words was straight and simple, showing that she was angry and depressed, which was ignored by her mother. From this, I will give a naïve and child-like impression for Mrs. Bennet, for she is easily affected by a thing that makes her happy----in the plot is the relationship between Elisabeth and Mr. Darcy and his aunt’s coming.

2) By the attitude for her daughters’ marriages

Marriage is the topic in this novel, so it’s important to stick it out. When Mrs. Bennet mentioned the arriving of Mr. Bingley, the first description was “a single man of large fortune”. And then, she showed it clearly that she was “thinking of his marrying one of them”. She also described Elisabeth “not a bit better than the others”. It is unacceptable for me to see a mother saying like that, comparing daughters’ looks when they should be equal to their mother. About their marriages, Mrs. Bennet cares more on the male’s side----is he rich or noble, at least a man who would inherit big fortune.

We can draw a conclusion that Mrs. Bennet focus on material situation in a marriage, so she must be a sophisticated woman. Though, we can’t judge her according to this, for everyone has a reason. What’s more, she considered her daughters’ marriages a fast line to enrich the Bennet family, which made her a selfish woman. But when Elisabeth engaged with Mr. Darcy, she also showed her soft part that she really loves her daughters.

4. Conclusion

These two characters are not enough to make a beautiful writing skill. Because of the limitation of words, I chose Elisabeth and Mrs. Bennet to express that Jane Austen had a deep think of marriage knowing how to picture a character in splendid plots. With these colorful expressions, we the readers have a strong feeling about the theme. The characters are not perfect, and they are not supposed to be so. A real person will

have shortcomings that may be showed in various occasions.

Overviewing the novel, I notice that Jane gave every character plots to support his personality. Even a servant in the garden would have a sentence instead of a simple adjective, no need to mention the protagonists. The plots she chooses may not be so special or unique, but will be well-related to a normal life that people might experience at that age.