Importance of the rural estate in Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield ParkThe world of Jane Austen's novels is a world of rural estate. Its central characters are members of the parish or landed gentry and their lives and adventures often revolve around the local estate and the people who live there. One of Austen's main literary principles was to write only about the things she knew in her own life, and the world of the landed gentry was a world to which she had access. However, in his novels, the rural estate serves a greater purpose than as a mere backdrop to his characters' lives. Austen uses the rural setting to give the reader insight into the personalities of her characters and to discuss the political, religious, and aesthetic ideas of the time. One of the most obvious functions of the country estate in Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park is to reflect the character of its owners and inhabitants and thus provide a symbolic representation of their values ​​and personality traits. When Elizabeth Bennet visited Pemberley, she was impressed by what she saw: it was a large, handsome stone building, standing well on elevated ground and backed by a ridge of high wooded hills; - and in front, a stream of some natural importance has grown, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal nor falsely decorated. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place for which nature had done so much, or where natural beauty had been so little counterbalanced by clumsy taste. (p.267) This description occurs at a time when Elizabeth is forced to reconsider her opinions of Darcy. She has already read his response to Wickham's insults about her character, but still believes that Darcy is a man of excessive pride, a belief which is overturned during his visit to Pemberley, and this view of the estate is the first step in its opinion transformation. The information the author gives us allows us to begin to question our assumptions about Darcy and follow the process taking place in Elizabeth's mind. This description of the estate tells us about many aspects of Darcy's character. The beauty of the house and grounds gives us the impression that perhaps he has justification for the pride he displays..