How could I have got so far into my series of Helen's Heroines and not yet have written about Elizabeth Bennet? She is surely one of the most well-known female characters in English literature and also one of the most loved. If the name Elizabeth Bennet means nothing to you (!) she is from arguably the most famous of novels by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.
So where do I start in summarising in a few hundred words a character that has been written about for decades? (I have to admit to a small case of writers block here just for a little while until I pulled myself together.)
Elizabeth has some really admirable qualities. She is intelligent, clever, converses brilliantly and isn't intimidated by anyone - even those of a superior class to her own. She is honest, lively and has a clever wit. She rises above the bad behaviour, the spitefulness and general nonsense that pervades the time she lives in, instead with her father, she mocks her mother and sisters for their silliness.
Her ability to mock along with her tendency to judge on first impressions are her few faults. She looks favourably upon Wickham, although he is not all he appears. She views the dashing Mr. Darcy with disdain, initially because she overheard his remark about her appearance but then also because she believed the false accounts of what Wickham says about him.
Her strength of character is demonstrated not just by overcoming her prejudices against Darcy, but also earlier in the book when she resists the proposal of marriage from Mr. Collins - despite her mother's threats. This is in contrast to her friend Charlotte who accepts the proposal from Mr. Collins even though she neither loves him or respects him but because she doesn't want to become an old maid.
I think the reason why I haven't written about Elizabeth until now is because I was slightly in awe of her. In the end I decided to do as she would do, "My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."
More Helen's Heroines
