I Smell Trouble.

Pride and Prejudice is a typical love story. If we don’t consider that it talks about a different society and people live according to different “rules”, it still narrates the relationship between characters and flirting is abundant during the novel. As any love story there are two characters that stand out more, in this case we know those are Miss Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. From the beginning of the novel we know this. She is, of the five sisters the one that has the worst relationship with her mother and is thought to be a “headstrong foolish and girl” by her (84). That makes her different to her sisters that always follow the rules and live the way their mother wants them to live. Mr. Darcy is introduced as “the proudest most disagreeable man in the world” (6). They stand out from the rest of the people that seem to be normal for the society.

The first encounter between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth is at the ball. She was the only girl not dancing and before Darcy and her even spoke a word she had insulted her indirectly saying there was no “another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with” (7). From this moment I noticed a sense of attraction from Elizabeth. Even though he was rude, there was something about him that called her attention. When Elizabeth and Jane stay at the Bingly’s place for a few days attraction between these two also appears. Even Miss. Bingly noticed it and wanted Elizabeth to leave because she “suspected enough to be jealous” (38).

There has not come a point in the novel yet where the characters accept they like each other. But Austen does give us hints that there is some attraction. So it would be perfect, a perfect love story. Jane would marry Mr. Bingly and eventually Darcy and Elizabeth would end up together. That was what I thought until Mr. Wickham appeared and caught Elizabeth’s eye. It would still be a love story but a more complicated one. I think that Wickham and Darcy will fight for Elizabeth and she would have to choose one of them. To make it more interesting, Austen makes them hate each other, and before we actually know their whole story she gives us hint. They were in town, the sisters were with Wickham and his friend Mr. Denny and when they see Darcy “Mr. Wickham after a few moments touched his hat-a salutation to which Mr. Darcy just deigned to return” (55). I guess Mr. Darcy has a right to hate him. His father did prefer Wickham over him. But since Lizzy does seem to like both characters I smell a problem will arise.