【正文】 utation with the more refined (and snobbish) darcys and bingleys. austen pokes gentle fun at the snobs in these examples, but later in the novel, when lydia elopes with wickham and lives with him out of wedlock, the author treats reputation as a very serious matter. by being wickham’s lover without benefit of marriage, lydia clearly places herself outside the social pale, and her disgrace threatens the entire bennet family. the fact that lydia’s judgment, however terrible, would likely have condemned the other bennet sisters to marriageless lives seems grossly unfair. why should elizabeth’s reputation suffer along with lydia’s? darcy’s intervention on the bennets’ behalf thus bees all the more generous, but some readers might resent that such an intervention was necessary at all. if darcy’s money had failed to convince wickham to marry lydia, would darcy have still married elizabeth? does his transcendence of prejudice extend that far? the happy ending of pride and prejudice is certainly emotionally satisfying, but in many ways it leaves the theme of reputation, and the importance placed on reputation, unexplored. boundaries and prejudice the theme of class is related to reputation, in that both reflect the strictly regimented nature of life for the middle and upper classes in regency england. the lines of class are strictly drawn. while the bennets, who are middle class, may socialize with the upperclass bingleys and darcys, they are clearly their social inferiors and are treated as such. austen satirizes this kind of classconsciousness, particularly in the character of mr. collins, who spends most of his time toadying to his upperclass patron, lady catherine de bourgh. though mr. collins offers an extreme example, he is not the only one to hold such views. his conception of the importance of class is shared, among others, by mr. darcy, who believes in the dignity of his lineage。 miss bingley, who dislikes anyone not as socially accepted as she is。 and wickham, who will do anything he can to get enough money to raise himself into a higher station. mr. collins’s views are merely the most extreme and obvious. the satire directed at mr. collins is therefore also more subtly directed at the entire social hierarchy and the conception of all those within it at its correctness, in plete disregard of other, more worthy virtues. through the darcyelizabeth and bingleyjane marriages, austen shows the power of love and happiness to overe class boundaries and prejudices, thereby implying that such prejudices are hollow, unfeeling, and unproductive. of course, this whole discussion of class must be made with the understanding that austen herself is often criticized as being a classist: she doesn’t really represent anyone from the lower classes。 those servants she does portray are generally happy with their lot. austen does criticize class structure but only a limited slice of that structure. __those between darcy and elizabeth and between bingley and jane in a sense, pride and prejudice is the story of two courtships?those between darcy and elizabeth and between bingley and jane. within this broad structure appear other, smaller courtships: mr. collins’s aborted wooing of elizabeth, followed by his successful wooing of charlotte lucas。 miss bingley’s unsuccessful attempt to attract darcy。 wickham’s pursuit first of elizabeth, then of the neverseen miss king, and finally of lydia. courtship therefore takes on a profound, if often unspoken, importance in the novel. marriage is the ultimate goal, courtship constitutes the real workingout of love. courtship bees a sort of forge of a person’s personality, and each courtship bees a microcosm for different sorts of love (or different ways to abuse love as a means to social advancement). . two ways of pride: positive and negative the two major themes of jane austen39。s pride and prejudice are summed up in the title. the first aspect can be traced in the actions and statements of all of the work39。s major and many of its minor characters. pride is the character flaw that causes elizabeth bennet to dislike fitzwilliam darcy upon their first meeting. she perceives in him a cold aloofness that she attributes to his own inflated opinion of himself. yet elizabeth herself also suffers from the same flaw。 her pride in her own ability to analyze character is such that she refuses to reevaluate darcy in the face of evidence in his favor. the concept of pride can be defined in two ways: positive and negative. possessing positive or right pride is to have selfrespect, honor, and integrity. on the other hand, wrong or negative pride is defined as showing arrogant or disdainful conduct and haughtiness. mr. fitzwilliam darcy displays the positive side of pride while mr. bennet possesses wrong or negative pride, and a lack of pride itself in some cases. darcy is responsible for his sister, himself, his estate, and his family name. he takes pride in these things and does anything he can in order to protect them. but mr. bennet who is responsible as a father of five daughters, a husband, and the holder of reputable conduct in the family, does not take pride in his family or his responsibility。 mr. bennet instead ridicules the members of his family and in turn does not control their unruly actions. pride and prejudice was the representative work of jane austen. it gave a vivid expression of the reactionary and traditional country life and people’s minds during 18th centuries and 19th centuries in britain to us. this great novel not only attracted thousands of readers in austen’s time, but also gave a special feeling to today’s people. in order to make much more people know the book, the paper shows the main idea of the pride and prejud