Pride and Prejudice essay †a comparison of Elizabeth and Lydia Essay

Elizabeth white avens is the second eldest of Mr. and Mrs. Bennets cardinal daughters. Lydia is the youngest. The unless thing these two siblings front to shake off in reciprocal is their family. The girls contrast starkly.Lydia Bennet has a rather childish and fun lovable disposition. She comes across as a little lacking in give-and-take and her own bring forth even goes as far as to foretell her one of the silliest girls in the country. As well as assigning that she is silly and ignorant like other girls.Elizabeth on the other hand is mature, kind, condole with and rather more in her fathers party favour than her younger sister. He seems particularly fond of his little Lizzy and tells his wife that she has roundthing more of quickness than her sisters.Throughout the invigorated the girls opposing personalities ar demonstrate. Lydias flirtatious and frivolous ways are actually apparent at the beginning of the bracing through her behavior towards the soldiers. Eli zabeths wisdom shines through at the first ball in the novel, when she overhears Mr Darcy describing her to Mr Bingley as tolerable entirely not handsome enough to ask round me. Elizabeth however takes this on the chin, and instead ridicules him by recounting the story to her friends and laughing at his rudeness and arrogance. Her conduct is estimable, a lesser girl would have been devastated to hear herself described in such(prenominal) an unflattering and uncomplimentary way, and in this instance we truly see her good manners and sense of maturity. some(prenominal) Elizabeth and Lydia are confident and outspoken girls although in rather different ways. Lydia tends to say exactly what she conceive ofs without practically consideration, whereas Elizabeths words are always thoughtful and quick witted. Her observance and good sense make her mostly a consistently accurate judge of typeface. For example she recognises the inappropriate behaviour of some members of her family, li ke her mother and Lydia, and feels embarrassed. Also she realises Mr Collins unsuitability for her and refuses his suggestion, despite it oblation her notable financial stability. She alike takes a dislike to Lady Catherine De Bourgh, irrespective of her influential position, and houses up for herself and her family. However, in the case of Mr Wickham and Mr Darcy, her perception was originally misguided, and later she recognises her mistakes.Lydia on the other hand does not have such a fit sense of judgement. She believes that Wickham genuinely loves her and will marry her, when his intentions were only to elope with her. She was so gullible that she ran away with him and her only saving dress was Mr Darcy forcing Mr Wickham to enter into unification with her.Lydia rushes headfirst into her affair with Wickham and claims to love him, although in universe she barely knows him.Elizabeth is completely different to her sister and by no sum hurries into her romance with Mr Dar cy. She demonstrates at several stages in the novel that she does not require a pretentious and sh abide relationship or marriage for practicality, moreover wants to find a true love match. Her cousin Mr Collins is truly admiring towards Elizabeth and asks for her hand in marriage. The acceptance of this proposal would have offered Elizabeth a sound life as Mr Collins had a good house and very sufficient income. But having no physical or mental haulage to the man, Elizabeth tells how, in regard to his proposals it is impossible for me to do otherwise than decline them. Mr Darcy also asks for Elizabeths acceptance of his hand. At the stage when he makes his first proposal to Elizabeth she believes him to have wronged Mr Wickham and feels a deeply rooted dislike for him and so declines his proposal. In this instance she follows her heart, despite Mr Darcy earning ten thousand a year and having a very respectable status and estate.Neither Lydia nor Elizabeth really set to the expe ctations of the ball club that they live in. They are both different to the mould of average women of the setting, but in their own ways. Lydia is less discreet than her elder sister and sure as shooting makes a name for herself with her flirtatious and attention seeking tendencies. She is only xv years of age and many people scorn her for socialising with men, tending balls and such like. Lady Catherine De Bourgh is a prime example of this and tells Elizabeth that it is very rum Lydia being out at only fifteen years of age.another(prenominal) far more s screwdalous way in which Lydia does not conform to the values of her society is her elopement with Wickham. She runs away with him to London without a single safeguard for her family or the disgrace it might bring to their name. She believes all that he tells her unimpeachably and is certainly very niaive. She is ignorant with regard to her familys feelings and her actions outrage her father and cause her mother to be interpr eted ill immediately. It places their national in such confusion and forces Mr Darcy to pay out a true sum of cash to the penniless Wickham. Lydias behaviour was not the average and Elizabeth tells how her conduct has been such as neither you, nor I, nor anybody can ever deflect which implies that the elopement has tarnished the Bennett name lastingly.At the magazine the novel was written, women were expected to become courtly in things such as art, unison and reading. Elizabeth is suitably talented at playing the piano and has a good notion of fingering and Darcy tells how no one admitted to the privilege of hearing her can think of anything wanting. She is also a swell reader and so all in all is kind of an accomplished girl. Lydia though does not, as far as I can tell, deliver much talent or interest in the areas of music and arts. She seems rather preoccupied with the soldiers in neighbouring Meryton, clothes, balls and gossip.Although Elizabeth is generally well liked and passing thought of, she does not completely live up to expectations in her society. As I have discussed previously she doesnt, like most girls of the time, consider money an important enough reason to marry and hence refuses two marriage proposals. In this period, women were considered second class citizens in society, as equality had not yet been established between the sexes. This makes Elizabeth an even more remarkable character as she is by no means intimidated by Mr Darcy and is gifted and assured enough to tease and mock him, questioning his actions and picking him up on his past wrongs.Her disposition is so confident that she has enough assent to stand up for herself and express her views cleverly regardless of the company she is keeping. This is demonstrated when she stands her ground when confronted by Lady Catherine De Bourgh, telling her in no incertain terms that her prospective marriage to Mr Darcy is none of her business. In the period that the novel was writte n, this would not have been considered acceptable conduct as Lady Catherine is of much higher social status than Elizabeth. Lady De Bourgh explains how she has not been accustomed to lyric poem as this and goes on to ask Elizabeth do you know who I am?Elizabeth also causes a minor stir when she walks three miles from Longbourne to Netherfield. It was unusual for ladies of the time to walk so far unaccompanied they would usually have taken a carriage. This is a way in which Elizabeth takes a subtle stand and resolves to do as she pleases regardless of what people may think. Miss Bingley tells how Elizabeth seems to show an abominable sort of conceited independence.The main character of the novel is Elizabeth Bennet and much of the story is portrayed through her eyes, leading the reader to favour her. She is the heroine of the novel and the main narrative is her story in particular. I think that Jane Austin meant for her to be a particularly likeable character, as she shows admirab le and dignified conduct throughout. She is the sort of woman that many people would drive to she has intelligence, beauty, talent and is a kind and compassionate sort of person. She does not allow herself to simply be dictated to, but has the strength of personality to do and say as she sees fit, and for these reasons I think that she earns almost all readers approval.I do not think that Jane Austin intended us to applaud of Lydia. Her behaviour certainly was not approved of by the characters in the agree as she acted without any consideration for others. She was self centred, reckless and stupid. However, I do not think that Lydia is a bad character that we are meant to strongly dislike, but on the contrary, we are meant to be entertained by her antics. She adds a touch of scandal to the story making it all the more enkindle and in the end it is her carelessness in not thinking onwards she speaks that lead to Elizabeth and Mr Darcy finally uniting.The two sisters are very d ifferent therefore and are both portrayed to opposite extremes. Elizabeths responsibility and great qualities are magnified by Lydias outrageous behaviour at the other end of the scale. I think that without Lydias character Elizabeth would not seem quite so exemplary, and without Elizabeth to live up to, Lydia would not seem such an immature and thoughtless character.I personally prefer Elizabeth and I think this is a feeling that most readers would share. I think she is an noble-minded role model who overcomes many obstacles to find truly deserved pleasure in the story. Although I dont particularly dislike Lydia, I think that she is a silly and annoying character who lacks all the exalt qualities possessed by her older sister, Elizabeth Bennet.