Sydney's Contemporary Relevance

Section 3

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen incorporates many themes that we can easily relate to our society. Just by looking at the title, you can tell what the whole issue of this book can be. Prejudice is used many times like when Elizabeth thinks Mr. Darcy is the guy that has too much pride and doesn’t care about anything. Turns out, Darcy was this sweet guy who knew how to treat her right.

Today in our society, people tend to judge others without even realizing it. It’s just the way our society is today. Making judgements/ being prejudice doesn’t help build a relationship very well. Society has made a great impact on us. Media has influenced us to listen/ see what they do or say. For instance, many artists create songs with prejudice being involved. In my opinion, I really don’t like how society can easily change who we are. We’re turning out to be the people we’re not. Plus we’re not respecting God’s creation.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy looked past their first impressions of each other and got to know each other. Even though these two are just characters from a novel, I believe Jane Austen made the story line like that so we can use it in our daily lives and realize that there’s more to a person that from what you hear. People in our world today need to stop and think of each other and how we are all the same because we are made by God.

Chantelle's Contemporary Relevance

SECTION 4

Prejudice is Pride

                The novel Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen deals with many themes that relate to our society today. Elizabeth Bennet’s first impression of Mr. Darcy causes her to become prejudice towards him, leading to an unexpected chain of events. It is evident that from the title of the novel, pride and prejudice will be key aspects of it. Pride according to Jane Austen “relates more to our opinion of ourselves.” (Austen, 21), where as prejudice is when one preconceives attitudes, opinions, or feelings towards something or someone beforehand without full reason or knowledge. Elizabeth is forced to let go of her prejudice impression of Darcy of being a man full of pride, in order for their love to prevail. Mr. Darcy must let go of his pride in order for him to get the woman he truly wants; Elizabeth.

                In our society, prejudice is seen every single day and even though we may not admit it, we can be prejudice towards people without even noticing. It is seen throughout the novel as a stumbling block to relationships. When one makes a judgement about another without even taking the time to know them, it is unfair and changes everything. Choosing to be prejudice is ultimately prideful because you deduce without knowing. Your pride and thoughts of yourself make you feel entitled to preconceived opinions when in reality we have no right to judge another person. Prejudice has affected society and the world as a whole in ways that don’t benefit anybody.

                Today, media would have to be one of the most influential aspects that affect our prejudice towards others. Most of our prejudice opinions have probably stemmed out of what media feeds into our lives. From the music we listen to, to the movies we watch, and the magazines we read, we are surrounded by stereotypes that convince us of the “truth” of who people are. Stereotypes affect us more than we think and reason us to make an opinion of a person or group of people who we don’t even know. Whether it be racial background, appearance, or status we as a society tend to judge.

                We as people part of the society must do our part to overcome prejudice together. Love overcame the obstacles Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy faced, and we must do our part out of love. We need the truth and once we come to the realization who we are and what we are in need of, it should drastically change our lives and stop our prideful prejudice.

Contemporary Relevance

By: Ashley Jose

Section 2

                       After I had read this phenomenal novel, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, I realized that there were many issues and themes within the novel that can relate to our society in different ways. I enjoyed reading this novel a lot because of the relevance it has to our society yet it still manages to maintain the old English feel. The contemporary relevance in this novel is that people today continue to hold prejudices towards each other.  It is human nature to create judgments when first meeting but sometimes our judgments towards other people can hurt them. These prejudices hurt people’s chances to communicate and grow as a community. Even in the society we live in today, we can all learn from Elizabeth’s mistake and be more careful about the prejudices we form before we learn the truth about a person.

                      

                       Elizabeth assumed a feeling of prejudice towards Mr. Darcy after their first encounter. She assumed him full of pride and rude. Although she thinks this way, there had been some understanding of her dislike towards Darcy. He had called her “tolerable” and refuses to dance with her. Later on in the book, Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy is confirmed when she realizes he ruined her sisters happiness by breaking up her relationship with Mr. Bingley. These are many of the examples of Elizabeth’s prejudice. I understand it was rude of Mr. Darcy to not dance with anyone except those he already knew, but if Elizabeth took the time to know him, the reason may have been he was shy rather than proud. Instead of concluding he had been proud, she could have assumed he did not feel comfortable dancing with strangers.  It seemed as if many individuals in this novel that had seen Darcy in the ball had thought negatively towards him and his pride. The theme of class definitely plays a huge role in this scene because they thought he was an arrogant jerk because he stands in a higher social class than the Bennett’s.

             I decided to choose this topic because many of us whether we are in school, work, home, or just walking around in a park, we all feel the need to judge or put others down. It may sometimes not be your intention to do so but rather because of the pride we have within our self. An example of this is making a rude comment or making fun of someone because they are different. Whether it is their cultural background, skin color, name, appearance, religion, we are equal and we shouldn’t let our pride blind us from learning the truth. If we are able to overcome our pride, we may also be able to see the good and find true happiness of life as Elizabeth did with Darcy.  As W. Triesthof once said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”            

Contemporary Relevance Marina Section 1

First impressions are the first thing people see in a person. They are very important however one impression leads to another and it soon becomes judgements. Why do we, as human beings, feel the need to create an assumption of those that we don’t even know? As our human nature we are full of pride, prejudice and judgment and we chose to lose control of it.

                Pride was major theme in this book because it prevented characters from achieving happiness. Pride was the main reason why Darcy and Elizabeth relationship was difficult. Darcy had a lot of pride in his position of society and Elizabeth had pride in her life as well. However in the end of the novel both characters learn to not to have so much pride in themselves and not let it get in the way of their true feelings for each other.

                Prejudice is another major and quiet important theme in the novel because prejudice is what affected many different relationships between the characters, not only with Elizabeth and Darcy but others as well. Darcy had to overcome all the stereotypes that society says about social classes just to be aware of his true feelings for Elizabeth. Since I started to read the novel, I realized that Elizabeth thinks her prejudice against Darcy is with good intentions; however I believe that she was equally as guilty. The overcoming of their prejudice in this book is slowly revealed through many different situations and is later taken over by the power of love.

                The reason why I discussed both of these themes is because they play a huge rule in our society today. They are perfect examples of how many of us act towards one another. We all feel the need to judge or put down others just to make ourselves feel better. We may not do it out of bad intentions but rather because we have pride or a certain prejudice. An example of this would be not talking to a certain individual or thinking they are not ‘normal’ because they are different than you; whether it is in the 18th century or the 21st century. Regardless of our careers, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, the colour of our skin or racial ethnicity, we are all the same. We are all equal and we should not let our pride and prejudice blind us from viewing our fellow humans as our equal, they are not above us or below us. Until we learn to move past our pride and prejudices we will never see the good in others or in life, we will never find the true happiness of life.