Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

An overly proud person looks down on people and as long as he looks down, he cannot see that which is above him. On the other hand, an individual with too little pride has an attitude of mediocrity and this hinders self-realization. Disproportionate pride blinds moral judgment, creates intolerance and deters relationships. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin is a novel that portrays individual characters who demonstrate a lack of balance in the way they perceive themselves and as a result they create ruin.

Pride and Prejudice tells the most cherished love stories that take place in the small English village of Longbourne, England, and it is primarily the story of relationships with interactions of characters that suffer and cause suffering because of disproportionate pride. Elizabeth Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Lady Catherine Debourgh are characters who have excessive pride that blinds their moral judgment and causes damage to their relationships. Charles Bingley, Jane Bennett and Charlotte Lucas are Austen’s characters who possess an attitude of mediocrity that compromises their ability to maximize fulfillment in their lives.

Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of the novel is the second daughter in the Bennet family who is lovely, clever, honest, virtuous and witty. In spite of her admirable qualities, Elizabeth allows excessive pride to create a destructive prejudice towards Fitzwilliam Darcy, the son of a wealthy and well-established family, and this prejudice causes Elizabeth to jeopardize his love. From early on, Elizabeth demonstrates how her pride leads her to misjudge Darcy when he shows an interest to dance with her. Elizabeth’s pride causes her to react defensively and refuse Darcy’s honest advances...

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... Instead, Charlotte accepts from Mr. Collins his proposal of marriage “solely from the… desire of an establishment” (Austen, 121). Charlotte’s non-existent pride creates a lack of self -confidence, and this leads to poor judgment with a disastrous outcome.

The world is filled with people who are either too arrogant or others who live with too little self-esteem. Through the characters in her book, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen portrays the way in which attitudes of too much pride or too little self- realization can cause ruin. Some like Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are fortunate enough to become aware of their disproportionate pride and are therefore are able to achieve happiness in their relationship. Sadly, others like Charlotte Lucas never have an awakening and remain unfulfilled for a lifetime. Equilibrium of outlook is a good rule to live by.