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).
, - Pride is shown as a negative attribute in the character of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
She is blinded by the pride she takes in her family name when it comes to seeing
the love between her nephew Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.
- Louisa Hurst and Caroline Bingley are also blinded by the same sort if pride and try
to meddle in Bingley and Jane’s relationship.
NOTE* Austen does not completely condemn pride throughout P&P - she shares this with
us through Elizabeth and Darcy by allowing them to gradually realise that pride needn’t be
rejected - more just to take control of it.
Prejudice:
- Directly linked to the character of Elizabeth
- Elizabeth thinks she is a very good judge of character - she categorises people (in
quite a prejudiced manner) in to two sectors: Simple people who give themselves
away because of their shallowness and More complicated people who cannot be
read so easily.
- Remember that the narrative follows Elizabeth’s point of view (free indirect
discourse) therefore her prejudices can sometimes go unnoticed to the reader. Her
prejudice (and stubbornness to re-evaluate Darcy’s behaviour) is in fact what acts as
an obstacle in her journey to love.
- Darcy is another character guilty to being Prejudiced - he holds judgement against
people of a lower social status/class than himself (therefore most people!)
- This manner of Darcy’s is particularly apparent in his first proposal to Elizabeth - he
admits that he loves her but expresses concern/sorrow for her social situation
- Elizabeth overcomes her prejudice at the end of the novel and tells Jane of how
“weak….” and “nonsensical..” she has been. This marks a complete change in Lizzy’s
character, ends her prejudice and eventually allows her future with Darcy.
- Darcy has a similar event for his development. The overcoming of his prejudice is
marked by his introduction to the Gardiners - he greets them with great civility
(Even though they belong to a lower social class).
- So: Prejudice is mainly just an obstacle provided by Austen in the novel so that the
journey to love for Darcy and Elizabeth proves exciting/interesting from a reader’s
POV and that they have to learn purely through faults of their own.
- Remember: we can kind of view Darcy as “Mr Pride” and Elizabeth as “Miss
Prejudice” - however they are interlinked with one another in that Darcy’s pride is
due to his prejudice of lower social classes. AND Lizzy’s prejudice is down to the
pride she has in her own judgement.
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).
, - Pride is shown as a negative attribute in the character of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
She is blinded by the pride she takes in her family name when it comes to seeing
the love between her nephew Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.
- Louisa Hurst and Caroline Bingley are also blinded by the same sort if pride and try
to meddle in Bingley and Jane’s relationship.
NOTE* Austen does not completely condemn pride throughout P&P - she shares this with
us through Elizabeth and Darcy by allowing them to gradually realise that pride needn’t be
rejected - more just to take control of it.
Prejudice:
- Directly linked to the character of Elizabeth
- Elizabeth thinks she is a very good judge of character - she categorises people (in
quite a prejudiced manner) in to two sectors: Simple people who give themselves
away because of their shallowness and More complicated people who cannot be
read so easily.
- Remember that the narrative follows Elizabeth’s point of view (free indirect
discourse) therefore her prejudices can sometimes go unnoticed to the reader. Her
prejudice (and stubbornness to re-evaluate Darcy’s behaviour) is in fact what acts as
an obstacle in her journey to love.
- Darcy is another character guilty to being Prejudiced - he holds judgement against
people of a lower social status/class than himself (therefore most people!)
- This manner of Darcy’s is particularly apparent in his first proposal to Elizabeth - he
admits that he loves her but expresses concern/sorrow for her social situation
- Elizabeth overcomes her prejudice at the end of the novel and tells Jane of how
“weak….” and “nonsensical..” she has been. This marks a complete change in Lizzy’s
character, ends her prejudice and eventually allows her future with Darcy.
- Darcy has a similar event for his development. The overcoming of his prejudice is
marked by his introduction to the Gardiners - he greets them with great civility
(Even though they belong to a lower social class).
- So: Prejudice is mainly just an obstacle provided by Austen in the novel so that the
journey to love for Darcy and Elizabeth proves exciting/interesting from a reader’s
POV and that they have to learn purely through faults of their own.
- Remember: we can kind of view Darcy as “Mr Pride” and Elizabeth as “Miss
Prejudice” - however they are interlinked with one another in that Darcy’s pride is
due to his prejudice of lower social classes. AND Lizzy’s prejudice is down to the
pride she has in her own judgement.
