Pride And Prejudice: Individual's Level And Position In Social Place (Research Paper Sample)

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Introduction Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, was born on December 16th, 1775. She later died on July 18th, 1817. Throughout her life, she was entirely exposed to many novelists and other great writers, something that stirred up something in her about writing thus influencing her later novels. She started producing literary works at a very young age, an idea that motivated people and inspired her to write more. However, when she was a child, she receives very little education from outside her home, but within her home, she received all sorts of things that are being referred to by Mr. Darcy as being the necessities of the accomplished woman. These types of education include; music, drawing and having good manners among many other things. Throughout her novels, Austin seems to have been significantly exposed to the current mannered societies that form the prominent material for the writing of her novels. Although Austen never got married, various romantic attachments are seen in and evidenced in the text in the relationship of pride and prejudice. Jane Austen wrote many of her novels at a time when there were different changes experienced by England and other European nations. The early years of the nineteen century were a period when unrest in political affiliations was experienced. The idea of equality among genders was questionable and something that led to Austin writing her novel Pride and Prejudice that depicts the different ways in which women are discriminated or are of lesser value as compared to men. The title of the novel suggests two different meaning of the same. These two names are evident in the personalities of the characters used in the text, where pride has a different connotation from prejudice. When Austin refers to pride, the word does not carry its usual meaning that we know from our shared knowledge. The word pride as used by Austin has particular implications that relate to the sense of self-worth that emanated from an individual's level or position within the context of social place and social responsibilities. Elizabeth Bennet in the text is lacking pride, where she is not able to feel the pride, because of her poor background. The fact that she is from a family that has poor relations and that her family has no records of greatness from history makes her feel so. As a consequence, we see how women can place themselves in front of others as being inferior as can be portrayed by Elizabeth. She often laments about the overall social position of her family, where she feels that her entire family is not able to stand on the position of people like Mr. Darcy, at the first instances of chapter seven. From this instance, therefore, we can see how women are placed by the social relations in our societies. The likes of Mr. Darcy cannot by any means be compared to the family of Elizabeth due to the social status that both families hold. Therefore, it is evident from the novel that gender roles and depictions are still too far to reach regarding women and men social relations. It is always essential to have in mind that the families such as the one of Bennets are not so weak, where the estates that are described by Austin would have made them quite comfortable. However, the Bennets are the members of the land-owning people, which mean they were living in a comfortable environment. The problem is where her family does not emanate from the line of the establishment as dictated by the British aristocracy. As a result, this makes Elizabeth feel far removed from the pride present in her family. Prejudice is also so much available to Elizabeth despite her family's low social position. Over the past decades, prejudice has been entirely used to relate to racism and other connotations of discriminations. However, with Austin, prejudice has been used to portray the opinions made by others concerning someone without having an explicit knowledge or understanding of the same person or the situation they are facing. As a consequence, it turns out to be the primary concerns of the faults realized by Elizabeth Bennet, especially with her relationship with Mr. Darcy. Therefore, this forms one of the major themes in the novel and is persistently portrayed nearly everywhere in the novel particularly where it is the most seen situation during her initial reactions to Mr. Darcy before she changed her feelings about him. Another scenario in the text where women are at a disadvantage is when Elizabeth attends the dance held at Netherfield Park, and then during the dance, Mr.Darcyis praised by Charlotte Lucas instead of praising Elizabeth. The reaction given by Elizabeth was not so welcoming, and her response was; it would be the most significant misfortune of all time, to find a person who was supposed to be hated but is now ...