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The Path To Self Discovery In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

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The path to self discovery is the most terrifying, yet the most rewarding journey a person can experience. Jane Austen portrays this journey throughout her novel Pride and Prejudice. All through the novel the reader gets to endure the ups and downs of this journey with Elizabeth Bennet. She begins off the book very prideful on the fact that she is different than her society. As well, she prides herself on knowing people and being able to read them very easily, unlike her older sister Jane. As the novel progresses we get to see her flaws, her positive attributes and how she deals with discovering new things about herself. She hates Darcy for being so prideful, but then she begins to question if maybe she was just too prejudice.
Aside from having this ability, so she thinks, to know people she also knew she was different than her society which plays a big role in how she sees herself. The society they live in pressures girls to get married for the status and the money. Elizabeth wanted to get married for love. She has a conversation with her friend, Charlotte, about Jane and Bingley’s relationship. Charlotte believes “happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance” (18), and that Jane needs to be extra verbal about her feelings or Bingley will lose interest. Although Charlotte cannot be blamed for her view on love, elizabeth thinks very differently. Elizabeth says “your plan is a good one where nothing is in question, but the desire of being well married” (17).

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