In Pride & Prejudice, there are two main issues that backbone the novel: pride & prejudice and love & marriage. .
"Jane Austen has nothing to say to the twenty-first century reader. Her novels are dated and irrelevant". Discuss this criticism in relation to Pride & Prejudice.
In Pride & Prejudice, Elizabeth and Mr Darcy dance a very cunning dance, each mislead about the other and misunderstood by the other. They both help to create a wall of misapprehensions and misunderstandings between them, and it isn't until Mr Darcy's proposal, do we as the readers find out about any desire to overcome this wall. Not only a twenty-first century reader, but a nineteenth century reader could have pointed out just how undesirable this situation is.
Jane Austen has created a fairly complex story to surround a fairly simple moral: never judge a book by its cover. Put aside your pride and prejudices, and get to know a person before judging them. This timeless moral is in itself very relevant to the twenty-first century reader. .
To the twenty-first century reader, "never judge a book by its cover" is an overused mantra repeated over and over again in every second book you pick up, there even as a minority in every movie u go to, there in every television show u turn on. In her time, Jane Austen was probably a pioneer in the idea of not being judgemental in her time, but in the twenty-first century, the idea has been overdone. It no longer makes for an interesting storyline. In this area, Jane Austen has nothing to say to the twenty-first century reader. .
Another issue present in the novel is the issue of love and marriage. In Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen's view of love has become the basis for the typical love story. Boy meets girl. Girl hates boy. Boy proves himself to girl. Girl falls head over heels for boy. Now, Pride & Prejudice obviously isn't as rushed as the analogy, but the main gist is the same. Elizabeth doesn't fall head over heels for Mr Darcy when he rescues Lydia, but she changes her mind about him, which eventually leads to her falling in love with him.
