Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth Bennet

Elizabeth Bennet is the protagonist in the novel, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She is referred by her close friends and family as ‘Eliza’ or ‘Lizzy’ and is the second daughter out of 5, she is considered the favourite daughter by her father and the least favourite by her mother. Her character qualities include that she is lovely, clever, quick witted. The reader is positioned to admire her strong opinions, independence and wit. Elizabeth overcomes the conventions of her class-bound society to find romantic happiness with Mr Darcy. Along the way she has to push aside the society pressures of finding a husband, she rejects Mr Collins as she does not love him. This rejection of his offer as she refuses to marry unless she is in love would be an appealing character trait to many readers who would relate this.  Even though at the beginning of the novel she has a mistaken impression of  Mr Darcy as a rude, overly proud but as the novel progress she realises her inaccuracy in her initial prejudice against Mr Darcy as he is actually a man of noble character.