II. The Proposal of Mr. Darcy
     "It's is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." It is the very famous opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice. It indicates that money could be one of the most important causes in marriage. People thinks that single men would need a wife after they inherited the great money. By that time, girls have a kind of marriage market for hunting a husband. Obviously, the marital relationship was based on poverty. We know that Elizabeth will marry Mr. Darcy eventually, but their marriage isn't like the previous condition I mentioned. It begins with the proposal from Mr. Darcy in chapter 34. And now I am going to talk about the proposal. 
     Mr. Darcy is from upper class and a wealthy family. He owns a big castle called Pemperly. Most people don’t like him because he doesn’t smile and he looks so proud even when he proposes to Elizabeth. First of all, I think Mr. Darcy must have thought through his action clearly for long time and finally he decides to tell his feeling to Elizabeth. Actually, he is very conceited that he will win his goal without rejection because of his wealthy and upper social status. But he is wrong. With his plain tone and face, I think nobody will accept such dull and proud request. It tells, " He spoke well, but…, and he was not eloquent on the subject of tender than pride." And then it said, "his sense of her inferiority - of its being a degradation - of the family obstacles which judgement had always opposed to inclination…." In these passages we find that class differences sometimes will be a problem in marriage. But I think it doesn't matter that Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are in different class. He was sensible and practical man with a high sense of worth and responsibility, compassionate, yet reserved. Since he wants to get married with Elizabeth, he does love her and makes his personal decision instead of listening to other people. Meanwhile, most upper class people have a certain degree of pride in mind. I think Mr. Darcy is absolutely proud of his background of upper class. And Elizabeth is from a middle class family and should be inferior to him. On the contrast, Elizabeth has her own pride and she will not marry a man only for his great possession. Elizabeth is shocked by the sudden and surprising expression of Mr. Darcy. Although she didn't like Mr. Darcy at all, she still had to response for the compliment of such a man's affection. However, Elizabeth lost her compassion in anger till roused to resentment by Mr. Darcy's subsequent language. She has to refuse him but in an indirect way. Hearing of Elizabeth's rejection, Mr. Darcy's complexion became pale with anger. And then here comes the verbal fighting and argument between two anger characters and the combination of high feeling and great wit is exhilarating. Of course, Elizabeth doesn't accept the first proposal from Mr. Darcy because she has prejudice on him for the first impression. However, Elizabeth and Darcy are capable of learning from their humiliating experiences and growing. 
 

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