Pride and Prejudice- The Relevance of The Classic in Today’s Society
Pride and Prejudice, a great classic by the satirical Jane Austen, is succinctly a story of a mother seeking daughters for her five daughters. It is seen through the eye of the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet or Lizzy, the second daughter of the Bennets. The segregation of the society into the “wealthy, better educated individuals” and the “lowly laity” is still relevant.
In the novel, Caroline Bingley looks down on the Bennets as people with vulgar manners, no sense and lower social standing. She mocks at their lowliness and considers herself to be superior. Likewise, in today’s society people with less salaries and poor education are mocked by the upper class and the wealthy girls tend to think of poor girls to be less “pretty” or with less “class”. Another character, Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a rich self-important woman use to getting her own way and her having the habit to give her unwanted and highly critical opinion to everyone ,her likes are still widely found. Another issue taken up in this book is that the economic dependence of a woman in a society on a good husband to attain respect, high social standing to be considered important.
However, nowadays, thanks to our feminist leaders of the past century, this has changed in some parts of the world but in some, it still remains the same. Women are still considered to be objects of no economical importance and burdens to be married off as soon as possible. The idea of marriage based on marriage is also explored. Women marrying for love and adoration and not for social standing, economic depends and practicality is highly practised in today’s world and very favourable. It also touches on another theme- the importance of the environment in the shaping of an individual’s personality. People with wealth and instruction are sometimes the most horrible people to be with- extremely overbearing and haughty- and on the other hand, people with no formal eduction can be charming and honest.
A personality depends on the environment and the circumstances in the persona’s life along with the attitude.
