Pride and Prejudice

The passage which best relates the theme of Pride and Prejudice, 
by Jane Austin, is on page 125, in the middle of the page. This is 
where Mr. Darcy is proposing to Elizabeth, and is informing her of the 
inferiority of her family and connections. This passage is significant 
because it is one of the few times where the characters openly 
acknowledge that the sole purpose of a person's life is to achieve a 
high salary and a high social position. 

 It is evident from every point of the story that all people care 
about is marrying into a higher social rank. And even for those who 
are comfortable with their current status, it is imperative that they 
only marry someone of at least equivalent rank. This idea possesses 
every character in the story and seems to motivate every action that 
is taken. 

 The superficiality of this idea goes so far as to break the 
bonds of love. Darcy is willing to insult a girl as he is proposing to 
her, just to inform her of the what he has to go through in order to 
stoop to someone of her level. Regardless of what Darcy thought
his chances were at acceptance, he was still addressing a girl that 
barely knows him, and actually dislikes him. That is not a situation 
where insults are likely to bring results. 

 This point is compounded because Elizabeth only gets slightly 
insulted by this comment. Her initial refusal of Darcy was based
almost totally on his actions towards Jane and Bingley's relationship, 
and his treatment of Mr. Wickham. However, she is barely perturbed by 
this comment of Darcy regarding her family. This is so strange because 
one would expect Elizabeth to at least be equally mad for personal 
insults as well as for what was done to others. 

 Pride and Prejudice ends with Elizabeth and Darcy each 
overcoming their anger against each other, and falling in love. 
However, this touching scene is ruined because of the appearance of 
Lady Catherine. She demands Elizabeth to marry Darcy, and tells Darcy 
that it would look very negatively on his family if he were to marry 
someone as "low class" as Elizabeth. So even one's family is willing 
to break up "true love" in order to maintain rank. 

 This theme runs throughout the entire story and really destroys 
the entire thing. Other stories, such as Romeo and Juliet, have the 
same sort of "forbidden" marriages, and since those arrive out of real 
situations, they add more interest to the story. Here, it is simply 
prejudice by rich people against poorer people, which only detracts 
from the writing. So while this theme may have existed in reality 
during Jane Austen's lifetime, it should not have been included in the 
story.