Pride and Prejudice

I have not seen the movie yet or finished the book, but here is the Pride and Prejudice trailer if you all want to check it out :)
The families and characters in Pride and Prejudice are proper and good families. They just want the best for their daughters. Little things such as manners or hints about liking someone are very different than nowadays. They are more soft spoken and not up-front about it. They hint at it and basically say in a proper way that if a woman likes a man, she has to "help" him see that. For Jane, she likes Mr. Bingley and had supper with him for nights in a row. The mothers do not think Bingley can tell that Jane likes him, but Jane's sister, Elizabeth, disagrees. She argues that if Jane were merely eating dinner with him she would not have learned much about him, however, much can happen in four evenings spent together. The family debates about happiness and marriage in their posh way, and I cannot help but pick out the differences between then and now. It's all so different.

The language contributes to the "old" yet traditional feel of the novel as well. For example, Austen writes "it is impossible that every moment should be employed in conversing together"(19). Also, "They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation" (19). Of all the recent books I've read that were written in this millennium, none read quite like this. It has a proper tone and way of stating things. Their meanings are more in-depth and have to be interpreted more so than the newer pieces of literature that just plainly states what the protagonist is thinking.

Also, I think it's funny that Austen writes that her characters go to parties. I can't help thinking about parties nowadays and what parties then would be like. This novel takes place in the late 1700s to the early 1800s. Parties then compared to now would most likely be ballroom dancing with champagne, and maybe a couple "ruffians" may stay up all night and then leave drunk on a horse whereas compared to now, we  may get drunk and drive cars home. People get drunk at a party and do crazy stuff that should never get posted on social media... but it does. There's most likely loud music, parents are out partying too, and the kind of dancing that is happening is certainly not ballroom dancing to make it plain.

Overall, I like how the novel is taking it slow with the relationships. People then like to get to know the person before anything life-changing happens. It was more personal then because they did not have the technology that we have today. They could not text their husband or wife or girlfriend or boyfriend. Instead, they actually had to rise from the sofa and ride on horseback if they wanted to see each other. The lack of technology also strengthened their communication skills because they had to plan in advance.