Young Adult Fiction.: No Place for Pride or Prejudice

Sunday, March 8, 2020

No Place for Pride or Prejudice

The novel, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, serves as a warning for the importance of not being prideful or prejudiced. Austen emphasizes changes in characters such as Darcy and Elizabeth to show the reader that pride and prejudice have no place in the pursuit of love and marriage. Darcy, in opposition to Bingley, comes off as less of a gentleman in the beginning of the novel, because of his demeaning opinion of Elizabeth on their first meeting, where he says "she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me" (Austen 13). This interaction serves to show Darcy's pride as he looks down upon those that are born below him. Elizabeth, on the other hand, resigns to her first opinion of Darcy, which she holds onto for as long as she can. Elizabeth holds onto her prejudices against Darcy, until his first proposal, where she says "long before [your proposal] happened, my opinion of you was decided" (187). Both Elizabeth and Darcy begin the novel with faults, and it's not until Darcy's disastrous first proposal that they start to see the error in their ways.

After the proposal, Darcy's letter of explanation helps Elizabeth realize that she was wrong in maintaining her first opinion of Darcy. Elizabeth opens her eyes to the ways that Darcy goes against her opinion of him, for example his relationship with Wickham. Elizabeth, for the majority of the novel, uses everything she learns about Darcy to further condemn him; however after reading the letter, Elizabeth's prejudices disappear as she tells Jane that "[Darcy] has all the goodness, and [Wickham] all the appearance of it" (217). Darcy, too, realizes his faults and pride after the proposal. Darcy begins to overcome his pride by helping those lesser than him, for example helping the Bennetts after Lydia elopes with Wickham and bringing Bingley back to Netherfield. Darcy explains his actions in saving her family to Elizabeth, as he says "much as I respect them, I believe, I only thought of you" (346). Both Elizabeth and Darcy had faults of pride and prejudice that they had to overcome before they could truly be in love and get married.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Blog Guidelines

Throughout the semester, we will use the blog to expand upon the readings, to ask and answer questions, and to pursue new directions in class conversation. For those of you who may be shy, the blogspace is also an excellent place to express yourself.

I encourage you to be creative and innovative in your postings. However, as you post, please keep in mind the following guidelines:

· Postings are always due by either noon or 8 p.m. on the date indicated on the syllabus. There is a time stamp. Don’t be late (no credit for late postings).

· Postings should be 350-500 words and should incorporate material from the reading (such as small quotes or phrases, key words, or imagery). The post must clearly demonstrate that you have completed the assigned reading and thought about it. Think of the Blog Post as a mini-essay. Your responses to Blog Posts should engage with the details of that post. Explain why the post is valuable. Comment on how the post revised, strengthened, or changed your view of the novel. Feel free also to build on, or extend, the claim made by the post. Once again, quote the novel you are discussing. Each comment should be 200-250 words in length. If the post is due on Sunday, you must demonstrate that you have completed and thought about the reading for Monday; if the post is due on Tuesday, you must demonstrate that you have completed and thought about the reading for Wednesday

· Your tone may be less formal than the tone you might use in a paper, but you should remember that you are writing on a course-related blog. In other words, the blog is not your Facebook page or a personal blogspace. Please make sure that the content of your postings is related to the course, its readings, or our class discussions.

· Suggested Topics. There is no need to answer all of the questions that follow. I include them to help you think about what to write: (a) Is there a question you have about the reading? If so, ask and suggest an answer for it. (b) What did you learn from the reading? Why do you find this aspect of the reading illuminating or interesting? (c) How might you connect the reading for Monday and Wednesday? (d) You may respond to the reading and class discussion—is there anything you don’t understand? Do you have a different interpretation that we haven’t discussed in class? (e) You may also respond to one of the essay questions about the novel you’ll find posted at Oncourse.

· Respond respectfully to another person’s blog posting. If you choose to do so, please avoid personal attacks. Remember to be professional.

· Remember that the blog is a public space, accessible and available to anyone. One useful way to think about it: avoid posting anything that you wouldn’t want a future employer to read.

· Please review the course plagiarism policies, all of which apply to the blog, and remember to cite page numbers or outside sources when appropriate.

Blog postings will either receive a check mark or they will be graded. See the schedule above for details about grading blog posts.