ABSTRACT
Pride and Prejudice is a masterpiece of Jane Austen who was a famous woman writer in the early 19th century. By describing Bennet’s five daughters’ different attitudes to marriage, the author reveals her unique view on woman’s attitude towards love and marriage in that realistic age. The novel highlighted the character of Elizabeth to express the author’s pursuit of self-realization and her awareness of feminism. This paper first explores Elizabeth’s personality in the terms of plot, conversation and comparison between other figures, especially on Elizabeth’s self-esteem, intelligence, reason, pursuit of freedom and equality. Then this paper sums up the deep causes of Elizabeth’s which are affected by internal factors, external factors as well as the influence of Austen’s feminism. From the above analysis, readers might get a deep understanding of the image of Elizabeth.
Keywords： Elizabeth; character; internal and external causes; feminism; influence
Contents
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Introduction of the author 1
1.2 Plot of Pride and Prejudice 2
2. The manifestations of Elizabeth’s character 3
2.1 Reason 3
2.2 Self-esteem 4
2.3 Intelligence 5
2.4 Rebellion 6
3. The causes of Elizabeth’s character 8
3.1 The external factors 8
3.1.1 Social environment factor 8
3.2 Internal factors 9
4. Influence of Austen’ s feminism 11
5. Conclusion 12
Acknowledgements 13
References 14
