Elizabeth Bennet

For other people with similar names, see Elizabeth Bennett.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy by Hugh Thomson, 1894

Elizabeth Darcy (née Elizabeth Bennet) is the protagonist in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She is often referred to as Eliza or Lizzy by her friends and family. Elizabeth has been portrayed by Greer Garson in the 1940 film adaptation of the novel, by Elizabeth Garvie in the 1980 BBC mini-series, by Jennifer Ehle in the 1995 television series, by Keira Knightley in the 2005 film adaptation, and by Ashley Clements in the online modernized YouTube adaption.

Elizabeth is the second child in a family of five daughters. Though the circumstances of the time and environment require her to seek a marriage of convenience for economic security, Elizabeth wishes to marry for love.

Elizabeth is regarded as the most admirable and endearing of Austen's heroines. She is considered one of the most beloved characters in British literature because of her complexity. Austen herself described Lizzy as "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print."

Background

Elizabeth is the second eldest of the five Bennet sisters of the Longbourn estate, situated near the fictional market village of Meryton in Hertfordshire, England. She is 20 years old at the beginning of the novel. Elizabeth is described as an intelligent young woman, with "a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous". She often presents a playful good-natured impertinence that does not offend. Early in the novel she is depicted as being personally proud of her wit and her accuracy in judging the social behaviour and intentions of others.

Her father is a landowner, but his daughters cannot inherit because the estate is entailed upon the male line. Upon his death, Longbourn will therefore be inherited by his cousin and nearest male relation, Mr. William Collins, a clergyman. This future provides the cause of Mrs. Bennet's eagerness to have her daughters married off to wealthy men.

Elizabeth is her father's favourite, described by him as having "something more of quickness than her sisters". In contrast, she is the least dear to her mother, especially after Elizabeth refuses a marriage proposal from Mr. Collins. Elizabeth is also often upset and embarrassed by the impropriety and silliness of her mother and three younger sisters.

Within her neighbourhood Elizabeth is considered a beauty and a charming young woman with "fine eyes", to which Mr. Darcy is first drawn. Darcy is later attracted more particularly to her "light and pleasing" figure, the "easy playfulness" of her manners, her mind and personality, and eventually considers her "one of the handsomest women" in his acquaintance.

The second daughter in the Bennet family, and the most intelligent and quick-witted, Elizabeth is the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice and one of the most well-known female characters in English literature. Her admirable qualities are numerous—she is lovely, clever, and, in a novel defined by dialogue, she converses as brilliantly as anyone. Her honesty, virtue, and lively wit enable her to rise above the nonsense and bad behavior that pervade her class-bound and often spiteful society. Nevertheless, her sharp tongue and tendency to make hasty judgments often lead her astray; Pride and Prejudice is essentially the story of how she (and her true love, Darcy) overcome all obstacles—including their own personal failings—to find romantic happiness. Elizabeth must not only cope with a hopeless mother, a distant father, two badly behaved younger siblings, and several snobbish, antagonizing females, she must also overcome her own mistaken impressions of Darcy, which initially lead her to reject his proposals of marriage. Her charms are sufficient to keep him interested, fortunately, while she navigates familial and social turmoil. As she gradually comes to recognize the nobility of Darcy’s character, she realizes the error of her initial prejudice against him.

In popular culture

Elizabeth Bennet has become one of the most famous heroines in the history of English literature, known for her intelligence and independent thinking from the expected ambitions of her society. These qualities and her timeless romance with the proud Mr. Darcy have carried over into various theatrical retellings. Helen Fielding's novel Bridget Jones's Diary, as well as the film series of the same name, is a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, with Elizabeth as Renée Zellweger's title character. In Gurinder Chadha's Bollywood adaptation, Bride and Prejudice, Aishwarya Rai plays the Elizabeth character, Lalita Bakshi. In the 2008 television film Lost in Austen, actress Gemma Arterton plays a version of Lizzy who switches places with a modern-day young woman. Emma Stone is currently rumored to star as the zombie-slaying Elizabeth Bennet in the film version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a popular novel by Seth Grahame-Smith.

The character has most recently been used in 'The Lizzie Bennet Diaries', a project which is partly headed by YouTube vlogger Hank Green, and depicts Elizabeth (played by Ashley Clements) as a modern-day woman in America posting video blogs about her life along with her friend 'Charlotte Lu' a character based on Charlotte Lucas.

Depictions in film and television

Further information: Jane Austen in popular culture: Pride and Prejudice

Film

Year	Actress	Role	Film	Notes
1940	Greer Garson	Elizabeth Bennet	Pride and Prejudice
2003	Kam Heskin	Elizabeth Bennet	Pride & Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy	A Modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
2004	Aishwarya Rai	Lalita Bakshi	Bride and Prejudice	A Bollywood adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
2005	Keira Knightley	Elizabeth Bennet	Pride & Prejudice	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated — Empire Award for Best Actress Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated — London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actress of the Year Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress

Television

Year	Actress	Role	Television programme	Notes
1938	Curigwen Lewis	Elizabeth Bennet	Pride and Prejudice	Television film
1949	Madge Evans	Elizabeth Bennet	The Philco Television Playhouse	Season 1, episode 17: "Pride and Prejudice"
1952	Daphne Slater	Elizabeth Bennet	Pride and Prejudice	TV mini-series
1957	Virna Lisi	Elisabeth Bennet	Orgoglio e pregiudizio	An adaptation in Italian.
1958	Jane Downs	Elizabeth Bennet	Pride and Prejudice	TV mini-series
	Kay Hawtrey	Elizabeth Bennet	General Motors Theatre	Episode: "Pride and Prejudice". Originally aired 21 December.
1961	Lies Franken	Elizabeth Bennet	De vier dochters Bennet	An adaptation in Dutch.
1967	Celia Bannerman	Elizabeth Bennet	Pride and Prejudice	6-episode television series.
1980	Elizabeth Garvie	Elizabeth Bennet	Pride and Prejudice	5-episode television series.
1995	Jennifer Ehle	Elizabeth Bennet	Pride and Prejudice	Six-episode television series. Won - British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
	Dee Hannigan	Elizabeth Bennet	Wishbone	Season 1, episode 25: "Furst Impressions"
1997	Julia Lloyd	Elizabeth Bennet	Red Dwarf	Season 7, episode 6: "Beyond a Joke"
2001	Lauren Tom	Elizabeth Bennet	Futurama	Season 3, episode 10: "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"
2008	Gemma Arterton	Elizabeth Bennet	Lost in Austen	A fantasy adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in which modern woman trades places with Elizabeth Bennet.
2012-2013	Ashley Clements	Lizzie Bennet	The Lizzie Bennet Diaries	Web series. A modern adaptation in which the main character tells the story of Pride and Prejudice through video blogs.
2013	Anna Maxwell Martin	Elizabeth Darcy/Mrs Darcy	Death Comes to Pemberley	Three-part series based on P.D. James's novel about events after Pride and Prejudice.

Bibliography

• Austen, Jane (1907). Pride and Prejudice. Dent.
• Howells, William Dean (1901). Heroines of Fiction, Volume 1. Harper and Brothers. pp. 37–48.
• Nardin, Jane (1973). Those Elegant Decorums: The Concept of Propriety in Jane Austen's Novels. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-87395-236-7.