“Pride” and “Prejudice” are both depicted as qualities that each character needs in proper balance. “Pride” and “Prejudice,” are potentially dangerous qualities that Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet must overcome or avoid if they are to build a successful life together.
Although Mr Darcy is often referred to in the novel as prideful, pride is not his failing. He appreciates his heritage and wants to live up to it, but he does not lord the position he holds over other people. As Mrs Reynolds points out, “some people call him proud,” but she has never seen him display unseemly pride to her, to the other staff members, or to anyone in the neighbourhood of Pemberley (233). Instead, Mr Darcy’s most serious failing is his prejudice.
Darcy prejudges those around him based on minimal contact with them combined with the behaviour of their relations. He considers Jane Bennet to be an inappropriate marriage partner for his friend Bingley because of the behaviour of her mother and younger sister, ignoring the fact that Jane, herself, behaves appropriately. He also jumps to the conclusion that Jane cares for Bingley more as a meal ticket than as a man because of his prejudices against women of her class; women, he assumes, must be more interested in marrying for money than for love. His prejudices catch up with him, however, when he finds himself falling in love with Elizabeth. She and Jane belong to the same class, even to the same family. If he is to accept the fact that he and Elizabeth would be a reasonable match, he must face his prejudices and conquer them. He must admit that he was wrong to judge Jane on the basis of her social position and family connections. He must recognize the need to judge individuals as individuals, not as members of particular groups of people.
Mr Darcy and Elizabeth are both proud of their individual heritages. Elizabeth is as proud of having been born the daughter of a gentleman as Mr Darcy is to have been born the only son of a very wealthy and proud landowner. Their pride in their positions is not, however, excessive. Had it been so, it is unlikely they could ever have convinced themselves to seriously consider marriage with one another — Mr Darcy because he would not have been willing to marry beneath him in wealth and social position, and Elizabeth because she would not have allowed herself to be placed in the position of needing to be grateful to a man of Mr Darcy’s stature. The primary example of excessive pride in the novel is Lady Catherine de Bourgh, a woman who cannot tolerate the idea of her nephew marrying the daughter of a minor gentleman who cannot supply her with a decent marriage settlement. Such excessive pride prevents her from developing close bonds of friendship with anyone since she considers everyone only from the perspective of how they reflect upon her own position in society.
The primary theme of Pride and Prejudice is not, however, reflected in its title. Instead, Pride and Prejudice is a novel that focuses on courtship and marriage. As such, it explores a range of the kinds of marriages available to people of the gentry and aristocratic classes in the early nineteenth century as well as the importance of adherence to propriety and duty in order to create and maintain happiness and productive marriages.
Austen originally called it First Impressions before Pride and Prejudice. The novel teaches that impressions are hardly superior to ideas. ” Strong and immediate-are Elizabeth Bennet’s disdainful impressions of Darcy’s pride. Elizabeth hears the most important story about Mr Darcy when she and her aunt and uncle, the Gardiners, visit the Darcy estate, Pemberley, in Derbyshire. Mrs Reynolds, the housekeeper at Pemberley for many years, speaks glowingly of her young master to the visitors: “I have never had a crossword from him in my life, and I have known him ever since he was four years old” (232). When Mr Gardiner remarks on Mrs Reynolds’s luck in working for such a person, Mrs Reynolds replies: “If I was to go through the world, I could not meet with a better” (233). Mrs Reynolds discusses her master’s reputation throughout the neighbourhood of Pemberley: “He is the best landlord, and the best master… that ever lived. Not like the wild young men nowadays, who think of nothing but themselves. There is not one of his tenants or servants but what will give him a good name” (233). She admits that ” some people call him proud,” but claims never to have seen “anything of it” (233). And her assessment of her master’s “good name” is corroborated by others in the neighbourhood.
That the housekeeper for the estate who has been in residence for the whole of Mr Darcy’s life would discuss his character in such glowing terms gives Elizabeth pause. She finds herself questioning both her own perceptions and the story relayed by Wickham in light of Mrs Reynolds’s revelations. Only after she visits Pemberley and hears Mrs Reynolds’s stories of Mr Darcy’s life is Elizabeth willing to give him a fair chance. She is then willing to consider his attentions to her from a less defensive, more open-minded position.
Once she has decided that she understands his character, she tends to judge all of his words and actions according to her first impression, her initial prejudice against him. It is not until she has accumulated a remarkable amount of information that counters her first impression that she is willing to reconsider her position, in time growing to love him, trust him, and ultimately marry him.
Works Cited
Hirsch Gordon. Shame, Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen’s Psychological Sophistication. Mosaic 25.1 (Winter 1992): 63-78.
Morgan Susan. “Intelligence in Pride and Prejudice”. Modern Philology 73.1 ( 1975): 54-68.
Schneider Matthew. “Card-Playing and the Marriage Gamble in Pride and Prejudice”. Dalhousie Review 73.1 (Spring 1993): 5-17.
Weinsheimer Joel. “Chance and the Hierarchy of Marriages in Pride and Prejudice”. In Jane Austen. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea, 1986. 13-25.