Jane Austen s Pride And Prejudice - 2493 Words

Just as you cannot love anyone else until you love yourself, you cannot be true to anyone else until you are true to yourself. The novel Pride and Prejudice illustrates a powerful message of being true to oneself through the powers of the author s own outlook. As opinionated women of her time, Jane Austen voiced her views through her own writing. Even though the objective of the book was to entertain readers, Austen never failed to wittily use plot and characters to express her own stance. Her distinctive own style of writing has left future generations something to scrutinize over. In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote â€Å"to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou canst not then be false to any man,†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦The path to finding oneself relies on the on being true to oneself. Many cruise by life following societal standards without questioning oneself. This allows one to be average and normal. While many are afraid of be ing an outcast, some are willing to take the risks and challenge society; in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy show examples of defying the standards of society to fight for their own beliefs. During the beginning of the novel, the Bingley sisters criticize Elizabeth for walking in the rain to see her sick sister, Jane. One of the sisters exclaim, â€Å" To walk three miles, or four miles, or five miles, or whatever it is, above her ankles in dirt, and alone, quite alone! † (8.10). For them as â€Å"very fine ladies† (4.11), it was considered inappropriate for a lady to walk alone in mud although it was for the sake of her sister. However, Elizabeth allowed herself to be the subject of judgments if it meant helping her family. Later in the book, she makes a decision that is frowned upon by people around her. She rejects Mr. Collins who is a cousin of her father. A sole objective a women in the eighteenth century was to get married to a respectable man. E lizabeth despite a good marriage opportunity rejects Mr. Collins. She believes that marriage without love is doomed to misery. Through Elizabeth, Austen successfully conveys feminine individuality. Austen deliberately portrays Elizabeth`s