After reading Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a complex novel that relates the events surrounding the relations, lives, and loves of a middle-upper class English family in the late nineteenth century.
In Pride and Predjuice life is not all fun and games. There are many pressures in life: mothers with high expectations for a good marriage and a girl's own expectation of what life and hopefully marriage will be like.

The first sentence in this book is impressive. It reads: “It is a truth well known to all the world that an unmarried man in possession of a large fortune must be in need of a wife”. The undertone is very clear: the foundation of the marriage at that time is not emotion but possession.

The characters have their own personalities. Mrs. Bennet is a woman who makes great efforts to marry off her daughters. Mr. Bingley is a friendly young man, but his friend, Mr. Darcy, is a very proud man who seems to always feel superior. Even the five daughters in Bennet family are very different. Jane is simple, innocent and never speaks evil of others. Elizabeth is a clever girl who always has her own opinion. Mary likes reading classic books. (Actually she is a pedant.) Kitty doesn’t have her own opinion but likes to follow her sister, Lydia. Lydia is a girl who follows exotic things, handsome man, and is somehow a little profligate. When I read the book, I can always find the same personalities in the society now. That is why I think this book is indeed the representative of the society in Britain in the 18th century.

Compared to the past, although the marriages of economic needs have decreased rapidly, the concept of “money determines everything” is still rooted in some people’s mind. A lot of parents try hard to interfere their children’s marriages. Education background, possessions, jobs remains the main reason that may influence one’s marriage. Marry for money is still a big problem in our society. We can’t help thinking: can money determine everything?

After reading the book, I think I have understood more about the word ‘prejudice’. Even though I considered prejudice to be a very bad thing, I'm a prejudiced person myself. I didn’t have a good impression on the movie so I didn’t read the book until now. I only like to do the things I like. Every time I meet somebody or something, my thoughts about it depend merely on my past experience and my mood of the time. I'm a person thinking by heart not by brain. What is worse, I didn’t consider that as a bad thing. I thought everyone was like that. Everyone has his special way to observe the world. So it's individuality, not prejudice. But something is wrong here. Though everyone can judge in whatever way he likes, he can't ignore others. You can like what you like and hate what you hate, but you should be objective when you meet the external world. I think we should consider things in a well-rounded way, not just whatever we want but also that is acceptable by others.