Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Bennet
The heroine
The quick-witted second Bennet daughter, who trusts her own judgment and is not shy about saying so. She laughs at what she cannot change and stands her ground against anyone, however grand.
Elizabeth, called Lizzy by her family, is twenty and the second of five Bennet sisters at Longbourn in Hertfordshire. She is lively, observant and independent, with an expressive face and a gift for turning an insult into a joke. She is her father's favorite, Jane's closest confidante, and the one person in the household who can see exactly how silly everyone is behaving.
What Elizabeth wants is simple to say and hard to find: a marriage based on respect and real affection, not on money or convenience. Her neighbors find her teasing and a little too sure of herself. Her great flaw is the one the title points to. She forms opinions quickly, enjoys being clever about them, and is slow to doubt herself.
“Indeed, sir, I have not the least intention of dancing. You wanted to despise my taste, but I love to thwart such designs.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Elizabeth overhears Mr. Darcy call her only tolerable at the Meryton ball, and she is happy to dislike him from then on. Charming Mr. Wickham tells her a sad story about Darcy, and she believes every word. She laughs off Mr. Collins's proposal, refuses it firmly, and is shocked when her friend Charlotte accepts him instead.
At Hunsford, Darcy proposes and she rejects him, accusing him of ruining Jane's happiness and Wickham's fortune. His letter shows her how badly she misjudged both men, and she admits she never knew herself until that moment. At Pemberley she meets a changed Darcy, and when Lydia's disgrace is quietly repaired she learns who was behind it. She stands up to Lady Catherine, accepts Darcy's second proposal, and marries him in a double wedding with Jane.
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