Jane Austin and Pride and Prejudice

Last night, some of my friends and I watched Pride and Prejudice… the version with Keira Knightley. In the movie (and the book), Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet both love and hate one another. Their hate is fueled by pride and the prejudice formed against initial impressions. The way that Jane Austen portrays love is unique to that of other authors and is seen through the movies based on her books.

It seems like everyone today wants to watch movies like “The Notebook”, “Titanic”, “Pearl Harbor” and movies that, in my opinion, seem more like lust than love. They basically make out, have sex, and either get married or die. The characters are overcoming external obstacles rather than internal, which makes it seem like relationships can only be stopped from outside forces.

Jane Austen uses internal conflicts rather than external. Although her writing is somewhat outdated because of the writing style and difficulty to connect, her characters are real. People act the way that she writes her characters to be. In my opinion, it is much more likely that a relationship will fall apart because of internal conflict rather than external. Another thing which is unique about her characters is that there does not need to be some big kissing scene. Most of these chick flicks have at least one, but “Pride and Prejudice” utilizes a series of intense moments where you can feel the emotions without action.

I don’t believe it’s the writing that makes Jane Austen famous, but more of the universality of her characters. Despite the fact that her characters were written almost 200 years ago, they are still real in any time period. They live through their personalities rather than just pure action, which is a rarity in writing. I think this is why Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite movies.