| Elizabeth Bennet | |
|---|---|
 | |
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Real Name |
Elizabeth Bennet |
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First Appearance |
Pride & Prejudice (1813) |
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Original Publisher |
T. Egerton, Whitehall |
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Created by |
Jane Austen |
Origin[]
Elizabeth Bennet is the protagonist in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She is often referred to as Eliza or Lizzy by her friends and family. Though the circumstances of the time and environment push her to seek a marriage of convenience for economic security, but Elizabeth wishes to marry for love.
Elizabeth is regarded as the most admirable and endearing of Austen's heroines. She is considered one of the most beloved characters in British literature because of her complexity. Austen herself described Elizabeth as "delightful a creature as ever appeared in print.
Elizabeth is the second eldest of the five Bennet sisters of the Longbourn estate, situated near the fictional market village of Meryton in Hertfordshire, England. She is 20 years old by the middle of the novel. Elizabeth is described as an intelligent young woman, with "a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous". She often presents a playful good-natured impertinence without being offensive. Early in the novel, she is depicted as being personally proud of her wit and her accuracy in judging the social behavior and intentions of others.
Her father is a landowner, but his daughters cannot inherit because the estate is entailed upon the male line (it can only be inherited by male relatives). Upon Mr Bennet's death, Longbourn will therefore be inherited by his cousin and nearest male relation, Mr. William Collins, a clergyman for the Rosings Estate in Kent owned by Lady Catherine de Bourgh. This future provides the cause of Mrs Bennet's eagerness to marry her daughters off to wealthy men.
Elizabeth is her father's favorite, described by him as having "something more of quickness than her sisters". In contrast, she is the least dear to her mother, especially after Elizabeth refuses Mr Collins' marriage proposal. Her mother tends to contrast her negatively with her sisters Jane and Lydia, whom she considers superior in beauty and disposition, respectively, and fails to understand her husband's preference. Elizabeth is often upset and embarrassed by her mother's and three younger sisters' impropriety and silliness.
Within her neighborhood, Elizabeth is considered a beauty and a charming young woman with "fine eyes", to which Mr. Darcy is first drawn. Darcy is later attracted more particularly to her "light and pleasing" figure, the "easy playfulness" of her manners, her personality and the liveliness of her mind, and eventually considers her "one of the handsomest women" in his acquaintance.
Public Domain Literary Appearance[]
- Pride & Prejudice (1813)
- Old Friends and New Fancies (1913) (the first sequel to Jane Austen's novels, also including characters from all other five novels)
Public Domain Theater Adaptations[]
- The Bennets: A Play Without a Plot, Adapted from Jane Austen's Novel ' Pride and Prejudice," by Rosina Filippi (1901)