Pride Takes Over

This is my term paper for my 12th grade Advanced Lit Class..it sucks..I was working with a time limit. It was 3:29 when I printed it and sprinted across campus to turn it in. I made a 77 on this paper.

Sara Brisendine                                     

Mr. Brooks

12^th Advanced English Literature

11 February 2008

 

Pride Takes Over

            The opening line of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”, leads the reader into one of the main conflicts of the novel (Austen 1). “Social standing and proper etiquette were a large part of British society at this time, especially in the upper classes,” due to fortunes being acquired upon the death of wealthy family members (BookRags). As the reader can determine, this can lead to a competition, and in the game of marriage, one must play off his/her best feature; what one prides the most. “Pride plays a very important role in the novel because it is a constant source of misunderstanding and misinterpretation” (BookRags). Pride “can be traced in the actions and statements of all the work’s major and many of its minor characters” (Answers). And so begins the insight of the pride of Miss Elizabeth Bennet, who Austen found “as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print” (19^th Century 20), Fitzwilliam Darcy, “one of the proudest characters in the novel” (BookRags).

            In the novel, Austen “contrasts weak, dense people with those of who can recognize their own foibles and thus mature.” It is those that can realize their own faults and mature that she sees as the moral leaders of her society (Beacham’s 1063). Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy both fit into this category. Elizabeth takes pride in her “own rational thinking” and thus “believes that the decisions that she makes are right” (BookRags). She later discovers that she was wrong in her assumptions about Darcy and, after an internal battle on the subject, begins to change her mind about Darcy. She is eventually able to “realize how much she cares of Darcy” (BookRags). Darcy “behaves in a haughty manner” (19^th Century 19) in his first public appearance and seems “extremely proud, creating a bad impression” (Masterplots 5327). Although it seems Darcy has made up his mind about Elizabeth, he has changed his mind (BookRags) and “despite himself, Darcy begins to admire Elizabeth” (19^th Century 19).

“The story is told mostly through Miss Elizabeth Bennets’ eyes and chronicles her progression to maturity and self-knowledge” (19^th Century 20). Miss Elizabeth Bennet is the second oldest of the five Bennet daughters and her fathers’ favorite. “Elizabeth is usually right about people”. However, “this ability to size people up leads her too far at times”, as in the case of Darcy and Wickham. With the two men, she “proceeds from reasonable first impressions to definite wrong conclusions about their characters” (CliffsNotes).

At the first public appearance of Mr. Charles Bingley, his sisters and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Elizabeth “perceives him a cold aloofness that she attributes to his own inflated opinion of himself” (Answers). He refuses to dance with her even though she is sitting down with lack of a partner and further insults her when she “hears him make a disparaging comment about her lack of any beauty sufficient to attract him” (19^th Century 19). Miss Elizabeth Bennet and her friend, Miss Charlotte Lucas “agree that a man as accomplished and as handsome as Mr. Darcy should be a proud man” but they do not feel that it gives him the right to mistreat people (BookRags). “Elizabeth’s negative impression is reinforced when Wickham tells her that Darcy has cheated him out of an inheritance” which Darcy’s father had left to him. “Elizabeth continues to flirt with Mr. Wickham until he begins to court a wealthier woman” while the family deals with Darcy and Bingley’s sister “conspiring” to keep Charles away from Miss Jane Bennet and the arrival of Mr. Collins, “who will inherit their estate” (19^th Century 19). On the event of the Bingley’s and Mr. Darcy abruptly leaving to go back to town, Elizabeth suggests that the Bingley sisters are no thinking of his happiness, but that they “wish him to marry a girl who has all the importance of money, great connections and pride” (Pemberly).

            While Elizabeth is staying in Kent visiting Charlotte, who has now married Mr. Collins, she finds that Mr. Darcy is there as well. She learns of it being Mr. Darcy that pulled Jane and Charles apart, “ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister” (Austen 186).  “After a few social encounters with Elizabeth he surprises her with a marriage proposal” (19^th Century 19) His words after confessing that he loved her, “‘in vain I have struggled’…but was very unlikely to recommend his suit” (SparkNotes), were “not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride.” (Austen 185). Once Darcy is done, Elizabeth refuses to marry him on the account of what he had done to her sister, the true reasons for Charles Bingley leaving, what he has done to Mr. Wickham and the “suggestion that he had to overcome his disapproval of her family” to love her. “Soon after she rejects him, Elizabeth receives a letter from Darcy in response to her criticisms”. He keeps his objections to her “family’s improprieties but reveals that he did treat Wickham fairly and Wickham had tried to elope with Darcy’s young sister” (19^th Century 19). Her prejudice against Darcy is “further weakened when, traveling through Derbyshire, she visits Darcy’s estate and unexpectedly sees him there”. She is impressed with his home and behavior (19^th Century 20). But “her pride in her ability to analyze character is such that she refuses to reevaluate Darcy”, even “in the face of evidence in his favor” (Answers). In her inability to change her mind about Darcy, she does not inform her sisters of the truth about Mr. Wickham that she learns from Darcy’s letter, and she receives news that “Lydia has eloped with Wickham to London” (19^th Century). And, “now that Elizabeth realizes how much she cares for Darcy, she knows that it is too late from them” because “she has wounded his pride by refusing him once and she knows that he is too proud to ever try” getting Elizabeth to marry him (BookRags).

            Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is a “haughty aristocrat” and nephew to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, “who sees through Mrs. Bennet’s manipulations and believes the family beneath him” (Beacham’s 1063). At the first ball, Darcy refuses to dance with Elizabeth, insulting her by saying that she is not pretty enough for him. “Although Darcy seems to have made up his mind about Elizabeth at the first ball,” he has changed his mind. Elizabeth believes that his “odd way of following her around is his way of making fun of her” and, as she is too proud to be insulted that way, “she is rude to him” (BookRags).

             Mr. Darcy keeps a close eye on the Bennet family when he sees that his dear friend Mr. Charles Bingley is falling in love with Miss Jane Bennet. Mr. Darcy determines that it is in the best interest of his friend if he leaves for town and forgets Jane. When Elizabeth has the chance to confront him about it, after he proposes to her, he replies with “towards him I have been kinder than towards myself” (Austen 187). Although Elizabeth thinks that Darcy is too proud to reconsider her, she is mistaken. “He is not too proud to reconsider”. Later on, in Volume 1, Chapter 6, “Darcy, who had been too proud to dance with anyone, is now willing and happy to dance with Elizabeth” but “her pride wont let her dance with him” (BookRags). After Elizabeth learns the truth about Darcy and Darcy has changed his after he finds out how people perceive him, “Elizabeth and Darcy are swallowing their pride and going out on a limb to admit that they are in love” (BookRags).

            In conclusion, pride rules the life of the characters of Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. They discover their own faults and work to fix them, to become better people and that is how they grow. They come together, after their own pride has forced them to see their own faults. “Pride and Prejudice is a love story that is both humorous and deeply serious” (Beacham’s 1063).

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Author's Note

I will not be editing this, or finishing it. I want this to remain in it's error-ridden terror forever. This is the term paper I turned in and I want to always remember that THIS is what I wrote and submitted to my teacher.

Reviews

[Sandra K]

This is a good essay. I have always wanted to read this book, and now, i am really looking forward to read it!!

By the way, i am proud of my half assed essay papers.... he he (Jk)