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Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice <\/em> is often interpreted by linking the principal characters with the two flaws of the title. Darcy is \u201cpride\u201d and Elizabeth \u201cprejudice.\u201d This way of reading the book gets at some important themes, but it doesn\u2019t quite get at the crux of the issues raised by the book. It\u2019s true that Elizabeth is associated with prejudice, but trying to discern exactly how she is guilty of prejudice is helpful for getting us into an overall interpretation of the book \u2013 and of self, society, and the moral life in society. <\/p>\n That it fails to satisfy is evident in some of the critical literature, where a number of articles have raised the question of whether Elizabeth is really guilty of \u201cprejudice.\u201d Robert Fox claims that Elizabeth is not really guilty of prejudice, but of vanity, because she dislikes Darcy because of his snub of her at the ball. <\/p>\n But this doesn\u2019t really match what Austen tells us about Elizabeth and the sources of her dislike of Darcy. She does say that she could \u201ceasily forgive HIS pride, if he had not mortified MINE,\u201d but earlier we read that Elizabeth seemed quite thoroughly un-mortified at Darcy\u2019s insult. Immediately after Darcy\u2019s insult, we read, \u201cElizabeth remained with no cordial feelings towards him. She told the story however with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous.\u201d Telling all her friends about Darcy\u2019s insult is not the action of a mortified girl, or a vain one (p. 7). <\/p>\n Austen, moreover, knows what she\u2019s about. If she says \u201cprejudice,\u201d she means \u201cprejudice.\u201d There were a variety of meanings for the term in the 18th century, but the idea of prejudice as (OED) \u201cpreconceived opinion; bias or leaning favourable or unfavourable; prepossession\u201d was known in Austen\u2019s time. The OED cites d\u2019Urfrey axiom that \u201cWho rails at faults through personal prejudice\/ Shows more his own, than shames the other\u2019s vice.\u201d An agricultural treatise of 1765 referred to \u201ca person who divests himself of prejudice, and attachment to any particular opinion.\u201d In his great assault on the French Revolution, Burke defended prejudice: \u201cPrejudice renders a man\u2019s virtue his habit . . . . Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.\u201d <\/p>\n Austen uses the term only a handful of times, mostly in the latter parts of the book. The first use is in an exchange in Book 1, chapter 18: <\/p>\n \u201cI remember hearing you once say, Mr. Darcy, that you hardly ever forgave, that your resentment once created was unappeasable. You are very cautious, I suppose, as to its being created.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI am,\u201d said he, with a firm voice. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd never allow yourself to be blinded by prejudice?\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI hope not.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.\u201d <\/p>\n The term as used in this conversation fits with the OED definition \u2013 a prejudgment, a preconceived opinion. Since Darcy\u2019s opinions are fixed, his resentment unappeasable, it\u2019s important for him to form a right opinion from the beginning, rather than being blinded by prejudice. <\/p>\n The next usage is found at the beginning of the chapter in which Elizabeth reads Darcy\u2019s letter of defense: <\/p>\n \u201cIF Elizabeth, when Mr. Darcy gave her the letter, did not expect it to contain a renewal of his offers, she had formed no expectation at all of its contents. But such as they were, it may be well supposed how eagerly she went through them, and what a contrariety of emotion they excited. Her feelings as she read were scarcely to be defined. With amazement did she first understand that he believed any apology to be in his power; and stedfastly was she persuaded that he could have no explanation to give, which a just sense of shame would not conceal. With a strong prejudice against every thing he might say, she began his account of what had happened at Netherfield. She read, with an eagerness which hardly left her power of comprehension, and from impatience of knowing what the next sentence might bring, was incapable of attending to the sense of the one before her eyes. His belief of her sister\u2019s insensibility, she instantly resolved to be false, and his account of the real, the worst objections to the match, made her too angry to have any wish of doing him justice. He expressed no regret for what he had done which satisfied her; his style was not penitent, but haughty. It was all pride and insolence. <\/p>\n \u201cBut when this subject was succeeded by his account of Mr. Wickham, when she read, with somewhat clearer attention, a relation of events, which, if true, must overthrow every cherished opinion of his worth, and which bore so alarming an affinity to his own history of himself, her feelings were yet more acutely painful and more difficult of definition. Astonishment, apprehension, and even horror, oppressed her. She wished to discredit it entirely, repeatedly exclaiming, \u201cThis must be false! This cannot be! This must be the grossest falsehood!\u201d \u2014 and when she had gone through the whole letter, though scarcely knowing any thing of the last page or two, put it hastily away, protesting that she would not regard it, that she would never look in it again.\u201d <\/p>\n Again, \u201cprejudice\u201d means a predisposition or preconceived opinion about what Darcy might have to say in his own defense. As it turns out, the letter breaks down the disposition, the prejudice, and revises \u201cevery cherished opinion of his worth.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice is often interpreted by linking the principal characters with the two flaws of the title. Darcy is \u201cpride\u201d and Elizabeth \u201cprejudice.\u201d This way of reading the book gets at some important themes, but it doesn\u2019t quite get at the crux of the issues raised by the book. It\u2019s true that Elizabeth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"\n
Fox takes Mary\u2019s definitions as valid: \u201cPride relates to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.\u201d Darcy is not vain, because he couldn\u2019t care less what other people think. But he is proud, having a high opinion of his own importance. Elizabeth is vain, however, in that she is concerned about what other people will think of her, particularly Darcy. <\/p>\n