37 It shows that the Bennet family can solve the conflict between them and
Mr. Wickham. Furthermore, their family name is getting better when two of Mrs. Bennet’s daughters get married to the rich men in the town. Jane Bennet gets
married with Mr. Bingley, while Elizabeth Bennet gets married with Mr. Darcy. From all the conflicts they have, they struggle to solve the conflicts and they can
live happily ever after. The Bennet family proves that when they have some serious conflicts,
which seem difficult to be solved, the best way to overcome and solve the conflict is by trusting the family and their relatives. Although, they can do it alone, it is
better if they solve it together with the other members of family and their relatives, since it is a family problem. The Bennet family faces the conflict
together because they need to know whether Mr. Wickham loves Lydia or not. Lydia is one of the family members and they need to help Lydia. It is not only for
Ly dia, but it is also for the sake of family’s name. The Bennet family’s name can
become worse if they do not want to struggle together to solve the conflict of their family members. Thus, the literal meaning of the Bennet family
’s struggle is that a conflict that cannot be solved without a help from family, it takes trust and faith.
b. The True Meaning of Bennet Family’s Struggle
This part continues the discussion about the meanings of the Bennets’
struggles from the true meaning part. The conflict here is between the Bennet family and Mr. Wickham. Before having conflict with the Bennet family, Mr.
Wickham always spreads a fake story about Mr. Darcy. He tells a fake story about
38 Mr. Darcy to everyone he meets. He makes a conflict between himself and Mr.
Darcy because he is jealous. Lewis Coser defines conflict as “a struggle over
values and claims to scarce status, power and resources in which the aims of the opponents are to neutralize, injure, or eliminate their rivals
” as cited in Billings, 1976, p. 533. Mr. Wickham wants to injure Mr. Darcy
’s name. The truth is that Mr. Wickham is the real troublemaker. The Bennet family also has to struggle
very hard to overcome the conflict when they have a conflict with him. It is because they finally know the real character of Mr. Wickham and his real
personality. The marriage between Wickham and Elizabeths younger sister, Lydia, is a
marriage for financial gain. Collins 1974 believes there are certain things that every group wants to pursue, those are wealth, power, and prestige. After running
away with Lydia with no intention of marrying her and destroying both her reputation and all possible future options for her, Wickham is bribed by Mr.
Darcy to marry her. Wickham has two options. He can work for his own living. However, with his laziness and general lack of character, he thinks it is better to
marry a woman that he does not love for the money. His punishment is to live the rest of his life with Lydia Bennet, a woman
with whom he may never be happy. A marriage to a man only for the sake of money is at many times the last thing that many women can hope for in life.
Meanwhile, Mr. Darcy helps the Bennet family in finding Mr. Wickham and Lydia Bennet. He also forces Mr. Wickham to take the responsibility and helps
Mr. Wickham to pay for the marriage. Mr. Darcy uses his power, so that Mr.
39 Wickham obeys his order. Weber 1968 defines power
as “the ability to impose one’s will on another, even when the other objects” p.72.
The Bennet family is really helped by Mr. Darcy. It also changes Elizabeth’s mind about Mr. Darcy. The Bennet family’s struggles would not be
successful if Mr. Darcy does not help them. Thus, the true meaning of the Bennet family
’s struggles is the power to make the powerless obey them and the power of family in the society to solve the conflict together.
The Bennet family’s struggles cannot be done if they do not have the power to survive and a will to stay strong.
As long as there are social relations that produce oppressed beings, it will be needed and possible to attack these relations by fighting the oppression.
The writer has discussed the meanings of the Bennets’ struggles from Jane
Bennet’s life problem, Elizabeth Bennet’s life problem, and also the Bennet family’s life problem. The writer has described the meanings of the Bennets’
struggles in solving their life problems, through literal and true meanings. From the literal meaning and the true meaning of
the Bennets’ struggles, the writer could say that a struggle has many meanings that can be described. However,
what the writer can see from the Bennets’ struggles in Pride and Prejudice is
surviving from the oppression and the high class society, doing the best to solve the life problems, and searching for the right answer to solve the conflicts or to
help the oppressed people.
40
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter is the conclusion of the study. It is aimed to conclude the answers of problem formulations. Furthermore, this chapter is divided into three
parts. Those are the conclusions of the study, implication of the study and suggestions. Implication provides ideas on the result of the study which are
related to education in general. Suggestions are for the future research related to the study.
A. Conclusions
Having analyzed the meaning of struggle from the Bennet family in chapter IV, the writer has come to the conclusion of the study. This study deals
with the meaning of struggle and it has two formulated problem . Those are “How
are the Bennets and their life problems descr ibed in the novel?” and “What are the
meanings of the Bennets’ struggles in solving their life problems?” Then, the
writer directly provides the answers from those formulated problem as the conclusion of the study.
The first answer is about the description of the Bennets and their life problems in the novel. In the novel, Mr. Bennet is described as a wise and patient
man who never forces his orders to his daughters, who also has a good sense of humor, and who is fond of many books. Mrs. Bennet is described as a woman
who has weak understanding and strict mind. She is very obsessed to marry off
