Pride and Prejudice - Themes
Themes in Austen’s 19th century novel include: Pride, Prejudice, Love, Reputation and
Society.
Note* Austen also uses a number of symbols, devices and techniques in her writing to
convey important messages.
Pride:
- Looked at in both positive and negative lights.. eg: Positive in that
‘self-respect’, ‘honour’ and ‘integrity’.
- Negative in that ‘arrogance’ , ‘disdainful conduct’ and ‘pretentiousness’
- Take Mr Darcy: Pride is presented by Austen through this character… Good
examples of his pride include: His responsibility of Georgiana, his estate, his
friendship with Bingley his aristocratic family name and his fortune. Proud of who he
is in many ways. Look at it like Charlotte Lucas - “he has a right to be proud”
- Mr Darcy is judged a lot in the novel - his first appearance in the book includes him
being heavily judged on his pride before his other attributes.
- As we later discover in more detail - Darcy’s behaviour could just be due to his shy
personality - the other characters do not think of this as they heavily judge him at the
Meryton Assembly amongst other gatherings.
- As we uncover Darcy’s personality more and more throughout - we also find out that
he is a generous master as well as a loyal and caring brother to his younger sister
Georgiana.
- Pride - also portrayed by Austen as a negative attribute.
- We can look at this shown through Mr Bennet’s character… He has the responsibility
of caring for his five daughters (and wife for that matter) and taking care of the family
name as well as managing adequate funds to support them sufficiently.
- Unfortunately, he does not take pride in his family, instead he tends to ridicule
certain members.. His treatment of Lydia is the most obvious example.
- Pride is the character flaw which causes Elizabeth to dislike Darcy for a large
portion of the story… She thinks he has an inflated opinion of himself and that he is
nothing but ‘too proud, cold and aloof’. Note that Elizabeth, like many others, is very
quick to make judgement on first impressions (the book’s first draft title!)
- Pride is also actually a flaw in Elizabeth - she takes pride in her own ability to
judge other people’s character and it is SO overbearing that she refuses to
re-assess her opinions of Darcy (or until her character eventually develops and she
overcomes her own flaw).
Themes in Austen’s 19th century novel include: Pride, Prejudice, Love, Reputation and
Society.
Note* Austen also uses a number of symbols, devices and techniques in her writing to
convey important messages.
Pride:
- Looked at in both positive and negative lights.. eg: Positive in that
‘self-respect’, ‘honour’ and ‘integrity’.
- Negative in that ‘arrogance’ , ‘disdainful conduct’ and ‘pretentiousness’
- Take Mr Darcy: Pride is presented by Austen through this character… Good
examples of his pride include: His responsibility of Georgiana, his estate, his
friendship with Bingley his aristocratic family name and his fortune. Proud of who he
is in many ways. Look at it like Charlotte Lucas - “he has a right to be proud”
- Mr Darcy is judged a lot in the novel - his first appearance in the book includes him
being heavily judged on his pride before his other attributes.
- As we later discover in more detail - Darcy’s behaviour could just be due to his shy
personality - the other characters do not think of this as they heavily judge him at the
Meryton Assembly amongst other gatherings.
- As we uncover Darcy’s personality more and more throughout - we also find out that
he is a generous master as well as a loyal and caring brother to his younger sister
Georgiana.
- Pride - also portrayed by Austen as a negative attribute.
- We can look at this shown through Mr Bennet’s character… He has the responsibility
of caring for his five daughters (and wife for that matter) and taking care of the family
name as well as managing adequate funds to support them sufficiently.
- Unfortunately, he does not take pride in his family, instead he tends to ridicule
certain members.. His treatment of Lydia is the most obvious example.
- Pride is the character flaw which causes Elizabeth to dislike Darcy for a large
portion of the story… She thinks he has an inflated opinion of himself and that he is
nothing but ‘too proud, cold and aloof’. Note that Elizabeth, like many others, is very
quick to make judgement on first impressions (the book’s first draft title!)
- Pride is also actually a flaw in Elizabeth - she takes pride in her own ability to
judge other people’s character and it is SO overbearing that she refuses to
re-assess her opinions of Darcy (or until her character eventually develops and she
overcomes her own flaw).
