In Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice, love and marriage are important issues in the lives of all the characters. Marriage for the gentry, at the time the novel was written, was very influential on status, and this book deals with the gentry and their attitudes towards love and status. Elizabeth Bennet is seen as a strong and trustworthy character in Pride and Prejudice due to her views on love and reasons for marriage.

Even in the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice, we hear that, "Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters", from her father, Mr Bennet. This shows that Elizabeth is a favourite of Mr Bennet, and he considers her to have more intelligence than his other daughters, although "none of them have much to recommend them." Her strength of character is shown in chapter III when she is shunned by Darcy yet "she...