Is Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice a Convincing Heroine?

A heroine or hero is a boy who is brave, honest, selfless, and trustworthy and will possibly risk their life for someone else.

My book is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It is set in 1803 and portrays every mother’s worry of trying to marry off her daughters. This is particularly difficult in Mr and Mrs Bennett’s case who have five daughters between the ages of 15 and 23. Elizabeth is the second eldest and is the main character in this book. The book shows the stress that is put upon young women in upper middle class England to marry well.

Elizabeth is the heroine in this book for a number of reasons; she is a very headstrong girl and speaks her own mind and is not intimidated by wealth like Lady Catherine De Burgh. “Upon my word,” said her Ladyship, “You give your opinion very decidedly for one so young.” She is also not like her other younger sisters and some other ladies in the village who flirt very much and expose their families to ridicule and they all want to marry rich men. However, Elizabeth and her elder sister Jane both want to marry for love and not money, “If I could love a man, who would take me for a mere fifty pounds a year, I shall be very well pleased”.

She stands up and defends her family even though sometimes they embarrass her. “But what of your uncles and aunts? Do not think me ignorant of their condition!”. Elizabeth replied; “Lady Catherine, on marrying your nephew I would not think myself as quitting the sphere in which I have been brought up in. He is a Gentleman I am a Gentleman’s daughter, so far we are equal”.

However some people may say she is too opinionated and says what she thinks at every opportune moment. Also her intuition on Mr. Wickham was wrong, he was so charming and handsome he also had everyone else deceived by his lies about Mr. Darcy and his sister Georgiana.

Sometimes she was too reserved about letting the true character of Mr. Wickham’s out in the open, Jane said; “Surly there can be no occasion for exposing him so dreadfully, what is your opinion?” Elizabeth replied, “That it ought not to be attempted. Mr Darcy has not authorised me to make his communication public. If I endeavour to undeceive people as to the rest of his conduct, who would believe me?”. She also had made a fixed opinion of Miss Darcy before she had met her, she just believed what Wickham told her; “Tell me, what sort of girl is Miss Darcy?” asked Elizabeth, Wickham replied; “I wish I could call her amiable, but in these past years she has become too much like her brother.”

I will conclude that Elizabeth Bennet is a heroine in this book. Even though she has fault about believing Mr. Wickham so was everyone else. Some people think heroes and heroines have to have no fault at all, but that is impossible, everyone has some fault.

If you compare her to Sally Lockhart, Elizabeth is more of a heroine than Sally. Elizabeth may not be physically strong but she is completely alone apart from her sister, who even sometimes cannot tell her everything. Sally, however, has lots of people round her who she can trust with what she is doing. She is fortunate of what she has, like shares in businesses and the like. So in my opinion Elizabeth Bennet is a heroine.