Pride and Prejudice April Vacation Blog

            The meaning of the title Pride and Prejudice relates to the main topic of the book; social classes. During the first part of the novel the characters focus on their social standing, and the women in the Bennet family often seem self-conscious of their family and their lack of money. Their discussions about marriage and possible suitors is a lens into the time period, because the focus on marriage illustrates that women only had the option of getting married and that finding a wealthy suitor was their only hope of creating a better life for themselves.  Relating back to the title, the women of lower social status in the book seem to have to give up their pride in order to be accepted by characters in the upper social class. The word prejudice in the title connects to the text, because everyone in the book is judging one another based on their rank in the socially constructed class system. For example Miss Bingley has a haughty attitude toward the Bennet family, because she knows that the family does not have a lot of money. Many characters of lower social status also automatically believe that any person with money is better than them.

            After reading Mr. Collins’ proposal to Elizabeth in context, his proposal is much worse than I originally thought. First of all, Elizabeth was not even Mr. Collins first choice. Mr. Collins wanted to propose to Jane, but Jane was being pursued by Mr. Bingley at the time. Mr. Collins appears to be under the pretense that any woman that he proposes to will say yes. Mr. Collins and Elizabeth have also known each other for a very short period of time, and Mr. Collins does not even pursue Elizabeth in a romantic fashion. Elizabeth is completely blind-sided by his proposal—not in a good way, and she tries to make him stop several times, but he thinks she is only saying no, because she wants to be pursued. Mr. Collins states “ ‘That it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their favour; and that sometimes the refusal is repeated a second or even a third time’ ”(Chapter XIX, 73). Mr. Collins makes it seem that Elizabeth is just being a stereotypical foolish girl, when in reality she literally means no, with a zero possibility of her answer ever being yes. Mr. Collins vexes Elizabeth even more, because he makes too many assumptions about what she wants, and in reality he is completely wrong about her. Mr. Collins is so much in his head that he does not even realize that there is a possibility that Elizabeth will refuse to accept his proposal. In fact, he is the character acting foolishly in the scene, because he is overanalyzing her answer. The scene is like today’s advice that if a boy is mean to a girl then he likes her. Well, I hate to break it to you Mr. Collins, but maybe she’s just not that into you.