From the beginning, opinions have been divided on the character.
Anne Isabella Milbanke gave a glowing review of the novel, while
Mary Russell Mitford criticizes Elizabeth's lack of taste. The modern
exegetes are torn between admiration for the vitality of the character and the disappointment of seeing Elizabeth intentionally suppress her verve and submit, at least outwardly, to male authority. In Susan Fraiman's essay "The Humiliation of Elizabeth Bennett", the author criticises the fact that Elizabeth must forgo her development as a woman in order to ensure the success of "ties among men [such as her father and Darcy] with agendas of their own". The Bennet sisters have only a relatively small dowry of £1,000; and as their family's estate will pass out of their hands when their father dies, the family faces a major social decline, giving the Bennet girls only a limited time in which to find a husband. About feminist criticism of the character, the French critic
Roger Martin du Gard wrote that the primary purpose of Austen was to provide
jouissance (enjoyment) to her readers, not preach, but the character of Elizabeth is able to manoeuvre within the male-dominated power structure of
Regency England to assert her interests in a system that favours her father, Mr Darcy, and the other male characters. Gard noted that the novel hardly glorifies patriarchy since it is strongly implied that it was the financial irresponsibility of Mr Bennet that has placed his family in a precarious social position. Unlike the more superficial and/or selfish characters like Lydia, Wickham, Mr Collins, and Charlotte, who regard marriage as a simple matter of satisfying their own desires, for the more mature Elizabeth marriage is the cause of much reflection and serious thought on her part. The British literacy critic Robert Irvine stated that the reference in the novel to the militia being mobilised and lacking sufficient barracks, requiring them to set up camps in the countryside dates the setting of the novel to the years 1793–1795 as the militia was mobilised in 1793 after France declared war on
Great Britain and the last of the barracks for the militia were completed by 1796. Irvine argued that a central concern in Britain in the 1790s, when Austen wrote the first draft of
Pride and Prejudice under the title
First Impressions was the need for British elites, both national and regional to rally around the flag in face of the challenge from revolutionary France. It is known that Austen was working on
First Impressions by 1796 (it is not clear when she began working on the book) and finished off
First Impressions in 1797. Irvine states that the character of Elizabeth is clearly middle-class, while Mr Darcy is part of the aristocracy. Irvine wrote "Elizabeth, in the end, is awed by Pemberly, and her story ends with her delighted submission to Darcy in marriage. It is
gratitude that forms the foundation of Elizabeth Bennet's
love for Fitzwilliam Darcy: caught in a reciprocal gaze with Darcy's portrait at Pemberly, impressed with the evidence of his social power that surrounds her, Elizabeth 'thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before' ... Elizabeth's desire for Darcy does not happen
despite the difference in their social situation: it is
produced by that difference, and can be read as a vindication of the hierarchy which constructs that difference in the first place". Irvine observes that Darcy spends about half his time in London while for people in Meryton London is a stylish place that is very far away, observing that a key difference is when one of the Bennet family is ill, they use the services of a local apothecary while Mr Darcy calls upon a surgeon from London. In this regard, Irvine argued that the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy stands for the union of local and national elites in Britain implicitly against the challenge to the status quo represented by the French Republic. By contrast, the American scholar Rachel Brownstein argued that Elizabeth rejects two offers of marriage by the time she arrives at Pemberley, and notes in rejecting Mr Collins that the narrator of the novel paraphrases the feminist
Mary Wollstonecraft that Elizabeth cannot love him because she is "a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart". Brownstein notes that it is reading Darcy's letter following her first rejection of him that leads her to say "Till this moment, I never knew myself". Brownstein further states that Austen has it both ways in depicting Elizabeth as she uses much irony. After Elizabeth rejects Darcy and then realises she loves him, she comments "no such happy marriage could now teach the admiring multitude what connubial felicity really was" as if she herself is aware that she is a character in a romance novel. The American scholar Claudia Johnson wrote that this was a surprisingly strong statement for a female character in 1813. In the same, Elizabeth defends her love of laughter as somewhat life-improving by saying: "I hope I never ridicule what is wise or good". In the same way Austen avoids the issue of filial obedience – questioning of which would have marked her out as a "radical" – by having Mrs Bennet tell her daughter she must marry Collins where her father says she must not. Susan Morgan regards Elizabeth's major flaw to be that she is "morally disengaged" – taking much of her philosophy from her father, Elizabeth observes her neighbours, never becoming morally obligated to make a stand. Elizabeth sees herself as an ironic observer of the world, making fun of those around her. Elizabeth's self-destination is one of scepticism and opposition to the world around her, and much of the novel concerns her struggle to find her own place in a world she rejects. At one point, Elizabeth tells Darcy: "Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laught at them whenever I can". Though Elizabeth is portrayed as intelligent, she often misjudges people around her because of her naivety – for example, misunderstanding the social pressures on her friend Charlotte to get married, being taken in completely for a time by Wickham and misjudging Darcy's character. After hearing Wickham's account disparaging Darcy's character, and being advised by her sister Jane not to jump to conclusions, Elizabeth confidently tells her "I beg your pardon – one knows exactly what to think". However, Elizabeth is able to see, albeit belatedly, that Wickham had misled her about Darcy, admitting she was too influenced by "every charm of air and address". Gary Kelly argued that Austen as the daughter of a
Church of England minister would have been very familiar with the Anglican view of life as a "romantic journey" in which God watches over stories of human pride, folly, fall and redemption by free will and the ability to learn from one's mistakes. Kelly argued that aspects of the Anglican understanding of life and the universe can be seen in Elizabeth, who, after rejecting Darcy and then receiving his letter explaining his actions, rethinks her view of him, and comes to understand that her pride and prejudice had blinded her to who he really was, marking the beginning of her romantic journey of "suffering and endurance" that ends happily for her. After seeing Pemberley, Elizabeth realises Darcy's good character, and sees a chance to become part of society without compromising her values. At Pemberley, Elizabeth sees the "whole scene" from one viewpoint and then sees the "objects were taking different positions" from another viewpoint while remaining beautiful, which is a metaphor for how her subjectivity had influenced her view of the world. Like other Austen heroines, Elizabeth likes to escape into the gardens and nature in general when under pressure. For Austen, gardens were not only places of reflection and relaxation, but also symbols of femininity and of England. The American scholar Alison Sulloway wrote: "Austen had seen and suffered enough causal exploitation so that she took the pastoral world under her tender but unobtrusive fictional protection, just as she felt protective towards human figures under the threat of abuse or neglect". Beyond that, Napoleon had often talked of a desire to make England's fair gardens and fields his own, speaking as if England "...was a mere woman, ripe for his exploitation", so for Austen, the beauty of the English countryside served as a symbol of the England her brothers serving in the Royal Navy were fighting to protect. Notably, Elizabeth is not guided by financial considerations, and refuses to seek favour with the wealthy aristocrat Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Despite Mr Darcy's wealth, Elizabeth turns down his first marriage proposal and only accepts him after she realises that she loves him. Johnson wrote that given the values of Regency England, it was inevitable and expected that a young woman should be married, but Elizabeth makes it clear that what she wants is to marry a man she loves, not just to be married to somebody, which was a quietly subversive message for the time. In the early 19th century, there was a genre of "conduct books" settling out what were the rules for "propriety" for young women, and the scholar Mary Poovey argued in her 1984 book
The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer, which examined the "conduct books", that one of the main messages was that a "proper young lady" never expresses any sexual desire for a man. Poovey argued that in this context, Elizabeth's wit is merely her way of defending herself from the rules of "propriety" set out by the conduct books as opposed to being a subversive force. Unlike the conduct books which declared that women should look back on the past as a way of self-examination, Elizabeth says: "Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure". Johnson wrote that changes in expectations for women's behavior since Austen's time has led many readers today to miss "Elizabeth's outrageous unconventionality" as she breaks many of the rules for women set out by the "conduct books". The liveliness of Elizabeth also extends to the physical sphere, as she displays what Johnson called "an unladylike athleticism". Johnson wrote: "Elizabeth's relationship with Darcy resonates with a physical passion...The rapport between these two from start to finish is intimate, even racy". Johnson wrote that the way in which Elizabeth and Darcy pursue each other in secret puts their relationship "on the verge of an impropriety unique in Austen's fiction".
An unconventional character In her letter to Cassandra dated 29 January 1813, Jane Austen wrote: "I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least I do not know". Austen herself wrote to Cassandra about one fan of her books that "Her liking Darcy & Elizth is enough". The book notes that "Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies" are what delight Elizabeth, which Brownstein noted also applied to Austen as well. This mix of energy and intelligence, and her gaiety and resilience make Elizabeth a true
Stendhal heroine according to
Tony Tanner, and he adds that there are not many English heroines that we can say that of.
Elizabeth Bowen, however, found her charmless, whilst to
Edmund Crispin's fictional detective
Gervase Fen she and her sisters were "intolerable...those husband-hunting minxes in
Pride and Prejudice". ==In popular culture==