PRIDE AND PREDUICE

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

Austen's careful selection of events, economic descriptions, and use of irony fortify each detail with artistic purpose. The title suggests the complicated, ironic reversals that will take place. Elizabeth's prejudice is based on pride in herself and her judgment; Darcy's pride is based on social prejudice. Events serve several purposes simultaneously.

As the central character, Elizabeth, her father's favorite and her mother's least favorite child, must come to terms with the conflicting values implicit in her parents' antithetical characters (Smith, 2003, 45). She is like her father in her scorn of society's conventional judgments, but she champions the concept of individual merit independent of money and rank. She is, indeed, prejudiced against the prejudices of society. From this premise, she attacks Darcy's pride, assuming that it derives from the causes that Charlotte Lucas identifies: “with family, fortune, everything in his favor he has a right to be proud (Smith, 2003, 46).”

Flaunting her contempt for money, Elizabeth indignantly spurns Charlotte's advice that Jane ought to make a calculated play for Bingley's affections. She loftily argues, while under the spell of Wickham's charm, that young people who are truly in love should be unconcerned about financial standing. As a champion of the individual, Elizabeth prides herself on her discriminating judgment and boasts that she is a student of character (Sulloway, 2005, 63).

More significant than the obviously ironic reversals, however, is the growing revelation of Elizabeth's unconscious commitment to society. Her original condemnation of Darcy's pride coincides with the verdict of Meryton society. Moreover, she shares society's regard for wealth. Even while denying the importance of Wickham's poverty, she countenances his pursuit of the ugly Miss King's fortune, discerning her own inconsistency only after she learns of his bad character. Most revealing, when a ...