Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is known to hold one of the most perfect love stories in English literature. The struggle for love between Darcy and Elizabeth, as in any good love story is one where the two must get away from and overcome a number of situations before they can, beginning with the tensions caused by their own personal qualities. Joe Wright (the producer of the film) makes us see the hardship their love endures throughout the movie with camera angles changing and music setting the type of mood, such as the very first time they dance and everything is tensed up until the rest of the people in the room seem to disappear and it is only Darcy and Elizabeth left dancing which then frees them up. He aims to portray the way people lived in their hierarchy and what people thought of others and he shows how one class would look upon another.

Elizabeth’s pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression; this is shown when they first meet and Elizabeth directly says to Darcy “Dancing. Even if one's partner is barely tolerable.” As she says this, the cameras move in towards Mr. Darcy’s face to see that it is blank and speechless. This does not help Darcy’s prejudgment against Elizabeth’s poor social standing and blinds him for a while of her many qualities. Then again it could also be that Elizabeth is guilty of misjudging and Darcy of his pride, where a few moments after declining Elizabeth to a dance he says to Mr. Bingley directly about Elizabeth but unaware that Elizabeth is listening “Barely tolerable, I dare say. But not handsome enough to tempt me. You'd better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles. You're wasting your time with me.”

Meanwhile, countless smaller obstacles to the awareness of the love between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, including Lady Catherine’s attempt to control her nephew (Mr. Darcy) such as where she approaches Elizabeth and states “Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter. Do you think this union can be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth?” then once again a few days after the first encounter where she asks Elizabeth “Now tell me once and for all: Are you engaged to him?” “And will you promise never to enter into such an engagement?“ Elizabeth angrily replies, “I will not and I certainly never shall. You have insulted me in every possible way, and can now have nothing further to say.”

Miss Bingley’s snobbery, Mrs. Bennet’s idiocy and Wickham’s deception also add to those things that keep the two apart. Darcy and Elizabeth’s realization of a shared and sensitive love seems to imply that Jane Austen views love as something free of these social forces, as something that can be captured only if an individual is able to get away from the effects of hierarchical society. I believe that this may also be the idea of Joe Wright (Director of the movie). He only lets us view love between the two when they are away from everything, not surrounded by people telling them what they can and can’t do. At the same time he puts an emphasis on the social hierarchy, one scene where this is displayed is when it flicks from the clean shining house of Mr. Bingley to the Bennets house which is dirt covered and we see Mr. Bennet walking a pig through it. Jane Austen also shows another aspect of marriage in those times, using the character of Charlotte Lucas, who marries the ignorant Mr. Collins for his money to show that the heart does not always have a say on marriage.

On a whole I believe that with the facts stated above it is clear that both Jane Austen and Joe Wright suggest that love is an energy separate from society and that it can overcome even the most difficult of circumstances.