Elizabeth Bennet
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Template:Infobox Jane Austen character
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 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.[1] She is considered one of the most beloved characters in British literature[2] because of her complexity. Austen herself described Lizzy as "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print."[3]
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.[4] 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 for the Rosings Estate in Kent owned by Lady Catherine de Bourgh. 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. Her mother tends to contrast her negatively with her sisters Jane and Lydia, who she considers superior in beauty and disposition, respectively, and does not understand her father's preference. Elizabeth is 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 best-known female characters in English literature.[citation needed] 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. 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 Darcy overcome all obstacles[citation needed] — including their own personal failings — to find romantic happiness. Elizabeth copes not only 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 Wickham and then 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.
Analysis
From the beginning, opinions have been divided on the character, Anne Isabella Milbanke gave a glowing review of the novel, while Mary Russell Mitford criticizes Elizabeth's lack of taste.[5] The modern exegetes are torn between admiration for the vitality of the character and the disappointment of seeing Elizabeth intentionally suppress her verve[6] and submit, at least outwardly, to male authority.[7]
Susan Morgan regards Elizabeth's major flaw to be that she is "morally disengaged" - taking much of her philosophy from her father, Elizabeth observes her neighbours, never becoming morally obligated to make a stand.[8]
An unconventional character
In her letter to Cassandra dated 29 January 1813, Jane Austen wrote: "I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least I do not know".[9] This mix of energy and intelligence, and her gaiety and resilience make Elizabeth a true Stendhal heroine according to Tony Tanner, and he adds that there are not many English heroines that we can say that of.[10]
In popular culture
The character of Elizabeth Bennet, marked by intelligence and independent thinking, and her 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.
Lily James is set 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.[11]
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
Film
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. |
References
- ^ William Dean Howells 2009, p. 48
- ^ "SparkNotes: Pride and Prejudice: Analysis of Major Characters". sparknotes.com. Retrieved 19 September 2010. [unreliable source?]
- ^ Wright, Andrew H. "Elizabeth Bennet." Elizabeth Bennet (introduction by Harold Bloom). Broomall: Chelsea House Publishers , 2004. 37–38 . Google Book Search. Web. 22 October 2011.
- ^ Pride and Prejudice. Chapter 29.
- ^ In a letter to Sir William Elford dated December 20, 1814.
- ^ Morrison, Robert, ed. (2005). Jane Austen's Pride and prejudice : a sourcebook. New York, NY [u.a.]: Routledge. p. 83. ISBN 9780415268493.
- ^ Lydia Martin 2007 , p. 201.
- ^ Morgan, Susan (August 1975). "Intelligence in "Pride and Prejudice"". Modern Philology. 73 (1): 54–68.
- ^ "Jane Austen -- Letters -- Other excerpts from letters in Austen-Leigh's "Memoir"". pemberley.com.
- ^ Tanner, Tony (1986). Jane Austen. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University press. p. 105. ISBN 9780674471740.
- ^ Dave McNary. "'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' Casts Lily James, Sam Riley, Bella Heathcote". Variety.
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.
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