I wouldn't summarise it as being about status hierarchies either, because that's not what summarising is. I could describe Lord of the Rings as a low-fantasy epic novel about war, spirituality and the feudal system, but that's not a summary.
> Claude 3 […] Gpt4-o […]
That's a description of the title, plus the knowledge that it's in the romance genre. That's not really what the plot is about. For a start, the stuff going on elsewhere is at least as plot-relevant as the titular Fitzwilliam Darcy / Elizabeth Bennet interactions. It's forthright criticism that overcomes the pride, reformed conduct that overcomes the prejudice (if you can even call it that), and their engagement near the end is due to mutual appreciation and respect. With the confident implication that this happy engagement will lead to a long and loving marriage, the curtain falls – but love has no impact on the plot of the book (ignoring the background Mr / Mrs Bennet relationship, whose interactions kick the whole thing off, and the one-sided Lydia / George Wickham subplot… I guess we could say that Mr Darcy loves Lydia? But his actions there have a lot to do with maintaining the social status of various parties).
There's no point giving specific criticisms of AI slop, but I'll do it anyway.
> "Love overcomes class prejudice and personal pride."
It's personal prejudice and class pride. There's no class prejudice to be found in the novel, as far as I remember.
> "Love transcends class and prejudice in early 19th-century England."
At a stretch, you could say that Mr Darcy's mild infatuation "transcends class", but it's communication (chiefly, a letter received at the beginning of chapter 13) that overcomes Elizabeth's “strong prejudice”. Not love. (And the prejudice isn't transcended: it's eliminated, as a prerequisite for any kind of positive feeling to blossom.)
Ask the bots to state the theme of the 19th-century romance novel “Cutlasses and Nationalism” in 10 words or fewer. You'll get comparable results.
Well, here's the non GPT version of the book, my personal interpretation: From what I remember of Pride and Prejudice the plot involves various women choosing to marry for economic reasons, lust, or love, in a society that gives them little to no economic opportunities outside of marriage and therefore pressures them to marrying for economic reasons.
The protagonist refuses to marry for wealth but in "have your cake and eat it too" fashion, fate rewards her with the love of a wealthy man as a reward for supposedly not caring about marrying a wealthy man.
A character marries for economic reasons and is comfortable but bored in life. Another character has out of wedlock sex and is punished by the hand of fate and miserable.
I'd argue saying it's about "status hierarchies" is not particularly informative.
I can see where you're coming from, and I'd say your first paragraph is spot-on. Although, talking about “the hand of fate” is missing a lot, I think. Elizabeth's success comes from her authenticity (see https://www.existentialcomics.com/comic/46), Mr Darcy's comes from his bettering himself, Lydia gets conned (and Mr Darcy arranges a marriage to at least preserve her social status, since happiness wasn't really an option for her after that)… Really, the only person in the story who gets what they're initially after is Mrs Bennet, and possibly Elizabeth (I don't remember whether she was against marrying someone wealthy, or just objected to marrying for wealth).
> I'd argue saying it's about "status hierarchies" is not particularly informative.
Saying it's about "status hierarchies" is only slightly more informative than saying it's about humans. (Note: there are plenty of books about neither.) I brought up Pride and Prejudice to begin with in order to make this point.
> I'd wager 1% or less of readers, if asked what the novel would summarize it as being about status hierarchies.
I would be inclined to agree.
> It is said that fish do not see water, nor do Polar bears feel the cold. Native writers on subjects like those the present work deals with do not even think that anything which has been happening daily in their own immediate surroundings ever since their infancy can possibly be worthy of notice;
I'd wager 1% or less of readers, if asked what the novel would summarize it as being about status hierarchies.
Claude 3 when asked to state the theme in 10 words or less said:
"Love overcomes class prejudice and personal pride."
This sounds like Claude thinks it's about at least 3 concepts.
Gpt4‐o says the theme is "Love transcends class and prejudice in early 19th-century England."
If this is a representative book about what people in love are thinking about, there's clearly a bit more to it than status hierarchies.