What did the book (or movie) Pride and Prejudice teach you?

Question

So true Red Hot Chili Pepper

PS If you are a fan of the band and are not married I HIGHLY recommend having Hard to Concentrate played at your wedding if/when you do get married. It ties all the feelings of marriage in to one nice little package.

Answer 1

I love Jane Austen's novels & read this 1st in high school, (I'm 20 now), I wish I had a Mr. Darcy-I'm not even gonna lie!

Answer 2

oh i really love that movie, one of my absolute favorites.

it taught me that stubbornness and pride can blind you from love.

it doesn't matter how rich or how poor you are, if you have that connection and sparks fly, go for it, don't look at the statistics and what people would hold against you. love is blind.

Answer 3

Did you know this question made it to the home page of Y!A?  Hope you get blown away with great answers!

This won't be one of them.  I just loved the story; I didn't learn anything from it.  I still watch the original movie as often as possible just to watch Dame Edna May Oliver spar with the magnificent Greer Garson.

ETA:  There's a Bollywood version, set in modern day India, London and LA, called "Bride and Prejudice" which is also very entertaining.

Answer 4

It taught me how to step back and look at myself- how blinded we get because of first impressions, how tempted we are by what we think we can't have, and how quickly we are forced to eat our own words when we misjudge someone.

Answer 5

It taught me that Jane Austen is one of the most brilliant writers in the English language.  The movies are all dreadful, except for the 1940 one with Laurence Olivier which isn't bad.

Answer 6

I've read the book and have one of the movies on DVD (1995 version with Colin Firth ~ the best!!). I love this movie! It taught me so many important lessons but in a nut shell that words, morals and character DO matter. Our society, as a whole, seems to be so lacking in character these days. ♥ ∞

Answer 7

I got put through it in school: evidence, to my mind anyway, that education where I am favours girls, and I am only half joking!  This book puts boys into a coma!  Penetrating observations of Victorian middle-class manners don't exactly excite me.  Then I got put through the dreary drivel of several of the Bronte sisters works.

From a pure literary standpoint, I had no issue, but any social commentary derived from P and P is usually revisionist, modern and either feminist or left-wing driven.

I still ended up at the top of my class though, proof positive that s**t could be turned into gold!

Answer 8

Nothing that I didn't already know, actually. It just reinforced my ideas of sexism in the class system.

Answer 9

You know I just seen the movie last night on cable. It taught me to be patient and not give up on something that could turn out to be special.

Answer 10

Always go to g*y Pride and don't be prejudiced

Answer 11

EDIT: Baba Yaga, I just watched Bride and Prejudice the other night ~ it is a really enjoyable movie and well worth a watch!

~*~*~*~

For a lesson in what good writing is, P&P is one of my all time favourite books :-)

I love the spare and elegant use of prose in the book. While this is a hallmark of Austen's writing, she is at her peak in P&P, in my opinion (Emma fans will disagree, I'm sure).

P&P is also one of the best examples of the various methods by which information can be conveyed to the reader without obvious narratorial interference.

It's a cleverly constructed and beautifully written book.

As a sub-text observation, it does also show the confined nature of English society in Austen's era, and the insularity of the aristocratic classes. At the same time Austen continually reinforces the sense of obligation the 'upper ten thousand' have to maintain the order of things by being good role models, being of service to each other and the poor, and by being active and interested land owners.

Women in all Austen's works are ~ in many instances ~ virtually observers of their own lives, a device which enables her heroines to stand out as very refreshing and vital, against a background of insipidity and 'proper' behaviour.

While Austen could not be called a critic of her time or class, she was a wry and careful observer, who was able to display the faults of certain 'types' of person in a humorous and affectionate way.

I think I've probably re-read P&P once a year or so since I first read it over 30 years ago, and every time I do, I recall why I enjoyed it so much the first time, and chuckle and sympathise all over again with characters I have come to know very well, and to feel something of the affection I believe Austen herself did for them.

Cheers :-)

Answer 12

I don't know that it really taught me this as I have yet to see a real-life example, but it made me want to believe that there is more to people than the hardened exterior they show the world.  Darcy protects himself from being misused through his feelings of innate superiority.  Elizabeth protects herself from feeling inferior by turning an overly critical on those around her.  Yet, that is not who either of them are underneath.  That message alone is worth reading the book, and then Jane Austen does us one better by enabling her protagonists to overcome their "pride and prejudice" and recognize the inherent goodness in each other.  Darcy and Elizabeth are essentially two cynics who find true (if sometimes difficult) love.  That's what makes it this cynic's favorite book.

Answer 13

I saw the Wishbone version of it when I was a kid, didn't care much for it though.  It was one of Wishbone most boring episode too.

Just IMO

Answer 14

That Kiera Knightley is extremely annoying and why would they want to make a remake from a film which is good enough....