Pride and Prejudice/The Notebook Comparison Essay

The novel, ​Pride and Prejudice ​by Jane Austen undergoes very similar themes to

the film ​The Notebook ​by Nicholas Sparks. Some themes that are focused on

indefinitely through both the film and novel is that marriage is everything, love can come

from feelings of hate and love conquers all.

​ ndeavors the idea that ́ marriage is everything ́

The novel ​Pride and Prejudice e

through the eyes of Mrs. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet dreams that all of her daughters are to

not only marry, but marry rich. “Is he married or single?” (Austen 1). These words

spoken by Mrs. Bennet were brought up often creating this final theme. In the film, ​The

Notebook ​the theme carries through as well. Allie ́ s mother acts like Mrs. Bennet in that

she did everything to prevent Allie from marrying Noah (a poor, white male) and only

wanted her to marry Lon (a rich, white male). In one scene in the film, Allie ́ s mother

shows Allie the man she fell in love with who happened to be a poor, white man as well.

She then went on to say that she broke it off to marry Allie ́ s father due to the chance of

having a better life, a sure hint of a life with money rather than one without. Although

you could infer that the mother ́ s most definitely only wanted the best for their children,

the way they show it is very selfish and unmotherly. This theme that ̈marriage is

everything ̈ shows true in both stories being thoroughly identified by the mother ́ s.

Another theme noticeably seen throughout the film and the novel was that ̈love

can come from feelings of hate ́ . In the novel Pride and Prejudice, t​ here are many

feelings of bother love and hate but one main love story that assembled off of hate and

that was Elizabeth and Darcy. “From the very beginning—from the first moment, I may
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almost say—of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest

belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others,

were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events

have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that

you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry” (Austen

135). Stated by Elizabeth after the proposal by Darcy, Elizabeth was completely

flustered due to how much the two of them hated each other just to be ended in

marriage. In the film, ​The Notebook, ​Noah shot his shot about five times before he

attempted to trick Allie into going on a date with him. Even after they started dating they

would get into many arguments but through it all, their love grew stronger from it and

they ended up happy together in the end.

The last theme that is true throughout the film and the movie is that ́ love

conquers all ́ . In both the film and the novel, there are very clear class differences that

soon do not matter. In the novel ​Pride and Prejudice,​ there are two stories where this

holds true. The ‘forbidden love’ between both Jane and Bingley and Darcy and

Elizabeth are strong even though there are class differences. Between Darcy and

Elizabeth, Darcy does make fun of Elizabeth in the beginning of the novel because he is

much higher in wealth than her but as he gets to know her more, his love for her grows

much stronger and above all, wins. In the movie ​The Notebook​, the same happens with

Allie and Noah. Although Allie is much wealthier than Noah, she is finally tricked into a

date with him and from that they are inseparable. Love truly conquers all between these

two stories not worrying about class differences and people in their lives trying to break
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them up because of it. If you are truly in love with someone, nothing else should matter,

and these stories hold true to that.

In the novel ​Pride and Prejudice ​by Jane Austen, Austen holds similar themes to

​ he themes focused on include, marriage is

Nicholas Sparks’ film, ​The Notebook. T

everything, love can come from feelings of hate and love conquers all. Throughout

these two stories, the writers do an amazing job of incorporating love and enemies to

further the stories of their characters. These three themes hold true throughout the two

stories and develop a sense of similarity between them.

Works Cited
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Austen, Jane. ​Pride and Prejudice​. Routledge/Thoemmes, 1994.