This allows her to stand back and offer judgements on certain situations. She shares her capacity for irony with her father and the narrator. She likes to laugh at people, including herself. (See Chapters 8,9, and 11, when she is looking after Jane at Netherfield, in her conversations with Bingley, his sisters and Darcy). She is Mr Bennet’s favourite daughter and her ‘quickness of mind’ is made evident in her witty and teasing conversations, where she often adopts striking and independent views. The novel is concerned with pride and with prejudice and she and Darcy are the main players. Her personality, her attitudes and her development throughout the novel bring together the story and all the other characters. She is the main focus of our interest, she is the novel’s heroine, even though she makes mistakes and is not particularly heroic.

8.5/10 Bethany Cox.Elizabeth is the central character in Pride and Prejudice – indeed it could be said that Elizabeth is Pride and Prejudice. Overall, a beautiful film, not quite as good as the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility with Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson, but worth watching for the detail that obviously took a lot of effort to get right.

Then again, it's been a long time since I read it, so I could be wrong. If anything, the film could have done with being twenty minutes longer, as I felt there wasn't quite enough content from the book. I liked the way the film dealt with the period look and the social differences, and while there was a lot of the pride I would have liked to have seen a little more of the prejudice. I liked Matthew MacFadyen as Mr Darcy, with his handsome looks and all that, but I will say I do prefer Colin Firth's interpretation from the sublime 1995 mini-series, Firth seemed to adopt a more likable and sympathetic approach to the character. Donald Sutherland (yeah, you saw right) was quite charming as Mr Bennett if you put his awkward accent aside.

The film is certainly handsome looking, with some truly beautiful locations and costumes, with a nice script and some excellent performances from Keira Knightly as Lizzie and in particular Judi Dench as Lady Catherine. The book by the wonderful Jane Austen is definitely better than the film, dealing with the consequences of love, and the social differences of the late 18th century.

Mr darcy from pride and prejudice