<P> The British literacy critic Robert Irvine stated that the reference in the novel to the militia being mobilised and lacking sufficient barracks, requiring them to set up camps in the countryside dates the setting of the novel to the years 1793 - 1795 as the militia was moblised in 1793 after France declared war on the United Kingdom and the last of the barracks for the militia were completed by 1796 . Irvine argued that a central concern in Britain in the 1790s, when Austen wrote the first draft of Pride and Prejudice under the title First Impressions was the need for British elites, both national and regional to rally around the flag in face of the challenge from revolutionary France . It is known that Austen was working on First Impressions by 1796 (it is not clear when she began working on the book) and finished off First Impressions in 1797 . Irvine states while the character of Elizabeth is a clearly middle - class while Mr. Darcy is part of the aristocracy . Irvine wrote "Elizabeth, in the end, is awed by Pemberly, and her story ends with her delighted submission to Darcy in marriage . It is gratitude that forms the foundation of Elizabeth Bennet's love for Fitzwilliam Darcy: caught in a reciprocal gaze with Darcy's portrait at Pemberly, impressed with the evidence of his social power that surrounds her, Elizabeth' thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before'...Elizabeth's desire for Darcy does not happen despite the difference in their social situation: it is produced by that difference, and can be read as a vindication of the hierarchy which constructs that difference in the first place". Irvine observes that Darcy spends about half his time in London while for people in Meryton London is a stylish place that is very far away, observing that a key difference is when one of the Bennett family is ill, they use the services of a local apothecary while Mr. Darcy calls upon a surgeon from London . In this regard, Irvine argued that the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy stands for the union of local and national elites in Britain implicitly against the challenge to the status quo represented by the French republic . </P> <P> By contrast, the American scholar Rachel Brownstein argued that Elizabeth rejects two offers of marriage by the time she arrives at Pemberley, and notes in rejecting Mr. Collins that the narrator of the novel paraphrases the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft that Elizabeth cannot love him because she is "a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart". Brownstein notes that it after she reads Darcy's letter following her first rejection of him that leads her to say "Till this moment, I never knew myself". Brownstein further states that Austen has it both ways in depicting Elizabeth as she uses much irony . After Elizabeth rejects Darcy and then realizes she loves him, she comments "no such happy marriage could now teach the admiring multitude what connubial felicity really was" as if she herself is aware that she is a character in a romance novel . Later, she tells Darcy in thanking him for paying off Wickham's debts and ensuring Lydia's marriage might be wrong "for what become of the moral, if our comfort springs from a breach of promise, for I ought not to have mentioned the subject?". Brownstein argues that Austen's ironical way of depicting Elizabeth allows her to present her heroine as both a "proto - feminist" and a "fairy - tale heroine". </P> <P> Susan Morgan regards Elizabeth's major flaw to be that she is "morally disengaged" - taking much of her philosophy from her father, Elizabeth observes her neighbours, never becoming morally obligated to make a stand . Elizabeth sees herself as an ironic observer of the world, making fun of those around her . Bennett's self - destination is one of skepticism and opposition to the world around her, and much of the novel concerns Bennett's struggle to find her own place in a world she rejects . At one point, Elizabeth tells Darcy: "Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laught at them whenever I can". Though Elizabeth is portrayed as intelligent, she often misjudges people around her because of her naivety - for example, misunderstanding the social pressures on her friend Charlotte to get married, is taken in completely for a time by Wickham and misjudges Darcy's character . After hearing Wickham's account disparaging Darcy's character, and being advised by her sister Jane not to jump to conclusions, Elizabeth confidently tells her "I beg your pardon - one knows exactly what to think". </P> <P> However, Elizabeth is able to see, albeit belatedly, that Wickham had mislead her about Darcy, admitting she was too influenced by "every charm of air and address". Gary Kelly argued that Austen as the daughter of a Church of England minister would have been very familiar with the Anglican view of life as a "romantic journey" in which God watches over stories of human pride, folly, fall and redemption by free will and the ability to learn from one's mistakes . Kelly argued that aspects of the Anglican understanding of life and the universe can be seen in Elizabeth who after rejecting Darcy and then receives his letter explaining his actions rethinks her view of him, and comes to understand that her pride and prejudice had blinded her to who he really was, marking the beginning of her romantic journey of "suffering and endurance" that ends happily for her . </P>

Who is elizabeth best friend in pride and prejudice