Possible Essay Topic

Whenever I have to write an essay, I get a little stressed. What am I going to write about? It has to be perfect. Then I tell myself I have to chill. Enjoy the book. The ideas will come naturally. Luckily, this has never failed. I started to write down quotations I found insightful. Then I realized almost all of them talked about the same thing: happiness.

All the characters in the book want to be happy. This makes me respect Pride and Prejudice a little more. It isn't just a chick novel after all.

Two types of happiness. In this blog I will focus on happiness due to love.

"Mr. Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband. Without thinking highly either of men or matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want."

Charlotte: "I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins's character, connection, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state."

Although the couple believes they will be happy, other people, such as Elizabeth don't. Although she disagrees with her friend, she feels the necessity to act happy about the subject:

"Elizabeth, feeling it incumbent on her to relieve him from so unpleasant a situation, now put herself forward to confirm his account, by mentioning her prior knowledge of it from Charlotte herself; and endeavoured to put a stop to the exclamations of her mother and sisters by the earnestness of her congratulations to Sir William, in which she was readily joined by Jane, and by making a variety of remarks on the happiness that might be expected from the match, the excellent character of Mr. Collins, and the convenient distance of Hunsford from London. "

Mr Collins believes Charlotte will make him happy:

"Charlotte to name an early day for making him the happiest of men."

For Bingley and Jane:

"Even Elizabeth began to fear—not that Bingley was indifferent—but that his sisters would be successful in keeping him away. Unwilling as she was to admit an idea so destructive of Jane's happiness..."

Mr. Bennett remarks Jane is in love. "Next to being married, a girl likes to be

crossed a little in love now and then."

Ms. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy

Darcy for Elizabeth:

"If his own vanity, however, did not mislead him, he was the cause, his pride and caprice were the cause, of all that Jane had suffered, and still continued to suffer. He had ruined for a while every hope of happiness for the most

affectionate, generous heart in the world; and no one could say how lasting an evil he might have inflicted."

There are many more insights on happiness in the novel. These are just a few I happened to have noted on a piece of paper. Very possible essay topic indeed.