The true meaning of “Pride and Prejudice” (and Zombies)

I put off watching Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for a while now because of the zombies in it, but I finally watched it. I think I finally understand the meaning of the title…

Pride

Years ago I had to watch one of the (original) versions movie for a school project. I was a lot younger than I am now so I just watched it and let it go. I don’t remember much of the original plot. Although something in this zombie-version of the movie got my attention. Mr. Darcy is an arrogant jerk for most of the movie so when he proposed to Elizabeth Bennet I thought, “you go girl for saying no to him!” The way he proposed was also not romantic at all. I mean you can’t propose to a woman by insulting her first. That’s just unheard of!

At the end of the movie miss Bennet she saves Mr. Darcy’s life and he proposes to her again. This time you see it in her eyes: she wants to say yes but her pride is preventing her from doing so. This part of the movie made me finally understand (part of) the title of the movie. Pride first keeps Mr. Darcy from being nice to Elizabeth Bennet even though he feels that his heart beats for her and her alone. At the same time pride keeps miss Bennet from immediately jumping up and down and screaming yes from the top of her lungs, like her sister, Jane Bennet, had just done when Mr. Bingley proposed.

Prejudice

Honestly, when I first watched the original movie in my teenage years and even before I just googled it, I didn’t know what the word “prejudice” meant. I’m pretty sure I googled it as well when I first watched Pride & Prejudice, but I must have forgotten it. Anyway, for those of you who don’t know, prejudice means prior judgement or belief without bias.

When I googled this meaning I understood the part of “prejudice” in the title. Prejudice also partially refers to Mr. Darcy. He thought the woman he fell in love with wasn’t worthy of him. He also thought that Jane Bennet didn’t really love Mr. Bingley and convinced him to leave her behind, thus breaking both their hearts.

And… Zombies

I’m not going to say much about this part, because the zombies didn’t make a great impression on me, since I’m not a big fan of the horror/thriller genre. It was a funny twist though when Mr. Wickham brought Elizabeth Bennet to the zombie church without telling her that there were zombies there.

In my opinion, the zombies didn’t add much to the storyline and the whole zombie apocalypse thing after the end credits that hints towards a part 2, should have been skipped. There should not be a part 2 of this movie…

What Pride and Prejudice teaches us

It took a zombie version of Pride and Prejudice to teach me this, but I think this movie teaches us the following:

• If you love someone, just tell them
• Don’t let pride keep you from true happiness
• Try to be unbiased in life, because people may just surprise you
• Don’t give up: she might just accept your proposal the second time around
• Don’t change who you are for someone else. In the words of Elizabeth: “I would never exchange my sword for a ring… the right man wouldn’t ask me to.”

Honorable mentions

I noticed some things in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies that I think are worth mentioning:

• None of the men in the head cast are called by their first name: Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Wickham, Mr. Bingley and Mr. Collins
• Elizabeth Bennet is considered less feminine than Jane Bennet although their posture doesn’t differ much
• I think that because she is constantly reminded that she’s not the prettiest, Elizabeth has confidence issues: she mentions that a woman is either highly trained or highly refined and never both
• The actress playing Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Lena Headey) is the same actress from the TV series Game of Thrones.