pride and prejudice

criticism.

Jane Austen has depicted pride in her minor (functional) characters

as a means of demonstrating it's importance as a theme of this novel. Lady

Catherine is one of the main offenders, her airs, arrogance and pride are

fuelled by other characters like Mr Collins who is put there to satire

proud people and their followers. Another important character to note is

Mr Darcy. He is an extremely important character in this novel, a major

character, and I think that the fact that he was perceived to have been '

proud' at the beginning of the novel by the reader, Elizabeth, and the

community of the shire, and our perception, along with Elizabeth, of his

character, has changed throughout the novel points to Jane Austen's

criticism of pride and snobbery (insinuating that once pride is done away

with (and along with it, prejudice) a character becomes much more

favourable. (Note that Lady Catherine does not sway from her proud arrogant

position, from beginning to end of the novel, this partly to provide a

contrast between the supposed arrogance of Mr Darcy at the beginning of the

novel, and his behaviour by the end.)

Throughout this novel we are shown the arrogant and haughty

dispositions of the upperclass of this society. (We are also shown the

exceptions to the rule, namely Mr Bingley and Miss Darcy.) These people are

exceedingly proud of their great fortunes and estates and as a result of

the emphasis at that time on monetary issues, they are prejudiced (and

commit acts of prejudice) towards their financial, and social, "inferiors".

An example of this is the beginning of the novel, the ball, when Mr

Darcy snubs Elizabeth Bennet in an act of prejudice. He refuses to dance

with her on account of her not being "handsome enough to tempt me." After

being described throughout the chapter as being "the proudest, most

disagreeable man in the world" because he would not socialise ("he danced

only once with Mrs Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being

introduced to any other lady, and spent the rest of the evening walking

about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party") his

refusal to dance with Elizabeth Bennet is consistent with the rest of his

snobbery and it is logical that he is slighting Elizabeth Bennet because he

is excessively proud and does not feel that her handsomeness is worthy of

his.

Another example of proud character executing prejudice on an

"inferior" candidate is Miss Bingley and Mr Darcy's conspiracy against Mr

Bingley and Miss Bennet's courtship and inevitable marriage. Together, Mr

Darcy and Miss Bingley decide that Mr Bingley and Jane are not suited and

therefore should not be married because Jane's background is not worthy of

Mr Bingley's rich, socially handsome estate. Firstly, Mr. Darcy influences

Bingley to leave Netherfield, then Miss Bingley "fails" to tell him of

Jane's prescence in London (although she knows that it would be of great

interest to him.) It is because of their pride, and their warp perception

of their own, and in this case their brother or friend's pride, that

influences to think they would be "doing the right thing" by keeping Jane

and Mr. Bingley apart.

Lady Catherine's bullyin of Elizabeth (at the end of the novel) in

an effort to dissuade her from marrying Darcy is a result of her feeling

that her own daughter was entitled to Mr. Darcy more than Elizabeth (who

was not worth as much socially or in monetary value.) She argues "are the

shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?" This is an act of extreme

arrogance stemming from her prejudice against Elizabeth. Lady Catherine, as

a result of her pride, believes she is more important than everyone and

that everyone else should respect and honour them (in this case Elizabeth)

by rejecting a proposal from a man who she loves and who loves her. This

obscene assumption on Lady Catherine's behalf is as a result of her

prejudice towards the Bennets because of their lower income, and social

status. The prejudice against them for such a reason is rooted in her own

arrogant pride.

In the case of the characteristics pride and prejudice (two key

themes of the novel) I think that pride comes in for the sharper criticism

by Jane Austen. I think this because of her personification of pride (in

characters like Lady Catherine) and the fact that the prejudice which does

occur in the novel is accompanied by, if not rooted in pride. Through the

incidents spoken on above, prejudice has been shown to be a result of

arrogant pride and because it is an underlying emotive in the prejudiced

actions of the characters I feel it is more sharply criticised.