Antithetical Love in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, the main characters of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, hate each other upon their first meeting but by the end of the novel are happily married. Elizabeth Bennet, protagonist, is developed through her interactions with antithetical characters: sisters and mother. Mr. Darcy is developed through events in the novel, his friends, and the Bennet family. Societies view creates irony and further contrasts which help to bring the novel to its climatic ending. Jane Austen is a very reclusive writer. Who is known for covering up her work if interrupted, because she did not want anyone to know she was a novelist. She also did not want anyone to see her work until it was completed (â€Å"Jane† 232). Jane Austen†¦show more content†¦Darcy. Mr. Darcy is prideful, rich, reclusive, and of high society where Elizabeth is cordial and of the common people. Mrs. Bennet is very selfish, controlling, and dramatic, yet Elizabeth is down- to- earth. Lydia Bennet is immature and elopes while Elizabeth is mature and looking for love. Jane, the oldest sister, says she wishes to marry for love yet she marries for money. The contrasts between Elizabeth and her family set her apart as if she is special. Elizabeth Bennet serves two roles in the novel. The two roles create irony and continue to show the antithesis. â€Å"Elizabeth is either a proto-feminist or a fairy-tale heroine† (Copeland 54). She is a proto-feminist in that she is very modern in her thinking. For example, she is looking to marry for love which is very modern in her time. Women of her status were to marry for money as to go up in social class. She is also the fairy-tale heroine because she gets both love and money in Mr. Darcy. She is the heroine because she is deciding on the right man to marry, but begins with a misconception before her successful marriage (Anderson 233). The two roles are created through her being the narrator but only for part of the novel. Most of the time when she is narrator, she is seen as a proto-feminist. When she is not narrator, Elizabeth is mainly seen as the heroine because at this point in the novel Mr. Darcy and she are falling in love. Cold, malicious, and haughty