Help with a Term Paper on Elizabeth Bennet
Debate whether Elizabeth would be considered a remarkable woman in modern-day united states
One of the admirable qualities for which Elizabeth Bennet is most famously known and remembered is her stance on marriage – her insistence on marriages of love and her dismissal of marriages of convenience and comforts.
But in today’s modern world, and present day and age, where almost everybody marries because of love, would Elizabeth still get a special place in the society for her stance on marriage or would she be lost in throngs of million girls who are seeking love out there?
I think the immortality that she enjoys comes from her strong personality and playful character that was so unique in the rigid society of 19th century England. In her time when marriage was an accepted and encouraged way to improve one’s social and financial status, she fought in her own way to be free to choose to marry a man she loves and respects. She refused to believe that marriages can always bring happiness (Weinsheimer 16).
It takes a lot of courage and bravery for a girl in Lizzie’s social and financial status to refuse a marriage proposal that can raise her rank quite agreeably. But that’s exactly what she does when she refuses to marry Mr. Collins, a distant cousin, and heir to her father’s estate. Quite truthfully and humorously, she says to him, “You could not make me happy, and I am convinced I am the last woman in the world who would make you so” (Austen Chap-19).
Apart from her reasons for getting married, it was her head-strong attitude and her unshakable self-confidence that differentiated her from all the other heroines of her time. She did not conduct herself in a manner that was expected of her unless she deemed it fit. She was independent, had a mind of her own and spoke up for herself always. In a society that was rigid and had very strong ideas about how a nicely brought up girl should behave, she was always very lively and had an opinion on everything which she always expressed. Her “humour is astute, bold and often raucous” (Bird).