Twenty-first Century Impressions of “Pride and Prejudice”
by Alexandra Harper
This month marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, an early 19th-century literary masterpiece which has exploded into a 21st-century universal romance. References to the British novel abound in contemporary American culture through the proliferation of classic and modern films (e.g., Bridget Jones’ Diary, Lost in Austen), and literary spin-offs of fan-based romances, mysteries, and even segues in the zombie horror genre [1]. Yet during Austen’s lifetime, Pride and Prejudice achieved only a modest publication as her books mainly ranged among sophisticated readers. Originally titled First Impressions, the world’s great love affair with Austen’s second novel was very slow to develop [2]. While her ironies and sound morality were highly regarded by the ‘Janeites,’ which included Oscar Wilde, the Pride and Prejudice phenomenon did not truly begin until 1939 when literary scholars began to annotate the work’s artistic distinction [3].
Often the genteel English spinster’s romantic tale’s success is largely attributed to Austen’s witty dialogue, strong characters, and the tension of an improbable romance. Part of its power is that the iconic couple cannot have a basic conversation without drawing blood or inhabit the same room without it defining ‘awkward.’ But while Pride and Prejudice possesses elements of a romantic comedy, there is little which is simplistic or light-hearted about it, despite the elegant background of ballrooms and countryside English manors. Nestled in the domestic setting of the country village of Hertfordshire, the Bennet women face social and financial threats, and a good marriage is the only hope that they have to save themselves from ruin.
The “Christian Virtues” Motif
If Austen could ask contemporary society, which consumes ‘Sex in the City’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ (both purported showcases for strong women and romantic comedy) what makes Pride and Prejudice “universally acknowledged as the most perfectly satisfying of novels,” [4] only one answer will do. It is that Austen’s Anglican worldview of good and evil, critical anthropology, and morality transforms one couple’s tale into a transcendent love affair. Although the author ‘shows, not tells,’ Pride and Prejudice is a romance of uncompromising Christian virtues [5]. In the words of C. S. Lewis, who was greatly impressed with the good sense and ethics that characterized Austen’s writing:
The hard core of morality and even of religion seems to me to be just what makes good comedy possible. ’Principles’ or ‘seriousness’ are essential to Jane Austen’s art. Where there is no norm, nothing can be ridiculous, except for a brief moment of unbalanced provincialism in which we may laugh at the merely unfamiliar. Unless there is something about which the author is never ironical, there can be no true irony in the work. ‘Total irony’ – irony about everything – frustrates itself and becomes insipid. … If charity is the poetry of conduct and honor the rhetoric of conduct, then Jane Austen’s ‘principles’ might be described as the grammar of conduct. Now grammar is something that anyone can learn; it is also something that everyone must learn [emphasis added] [6].
Readers who dismiss the centrality of Austen’s Protestant Christianity fail to grasp this novel’s societal and cultural criticisms. As Elizabeth Bennet confides to her sister Jane:
There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.
Elizabeth’s acerbic speech, which is laced with liveliness and irony throughout the novel, also captures Austen’s unflinching realism and undiminished mirth and quiddity. Jane Austen scholar Gene Koppel writes,
‘Jane Austen’ wants us to ask ourselves where we look for our standards of perfection. I would believe that Jane Austen would be surprised if her readers do not realize that ‘Jane Austen’ draws her standards from a strong Christian faith and that the presence of that faith and its wisdom can always be distinguished on the horizon of her novel [7].
The thesis of Pride and Prejudice is that love can only be won and appreciated through hard-earned virtues, not least of which are humility and grace. Elizabeth recognizes this truth as she states to Jane, “I could never be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness.” Unlike novels that seek to excite the sexual nature in order to keep the reader’s attention [8], Pride and Prejudice is highly cautious to develop any romance based on natural attraction or social advantage. Although Darcy eventually desires Elizabeth and Elizabeth is enchanted by his estate (named Pemberley), keen interest is slow to develop until earnest admiration for the other’s character is recognized. Because Christian love is Austen’s object and not the facsimile of a pagan worship of Eros, her novel ridicules marriages based on a stoic, pecuniary elitism (e.g., Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas) and the self-centered hedonism which rejects good conduct at the expense of others (e.g., Lydia Bennet and Mr. Wickham).
The “Virtuous and Wise” Motif
For all her humor, Austen took great pains to show that her heroes and heroines should come to understand virtuous character and wisdom. Many scholars, including G. K. Chesterton, recognized Austen’s artistic economy to paint a true likeness of men. In What’s Wrong with the World, he states, “I fancy that Jane Austen was stronger, sharper and shrewder than Charlotte Bronte; I am quite sure that she was stronger, sharper and shrewder than George Eliot. She could do one thing neither of them could do: she could coolly and sensibly describe a man” [9]. Readers laugh and cringe to hear Austen’s description of the toadying Mr. Collins:
Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society; the greatest part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and miserly father; and though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance. The subjection in which his father had brought him up had given him originally great humility of manner; but it was now a good deal counteracted by the self-conceit of a weak head, living in retirement, and the consequential feelings of early and unexpected prosperity.
Austen’s narrative shows that while Elizabeth was originally deceived by Mr. Wickham’s charming manners, she realizes that vain men are weak-natured and manipulative. Although initially eager to impress the ‘Lizzies’ of the world, they end up resenting the woman’s strength of character and intelligence. Whereas Wickham dallied in his attraction to Elizabeth, and yet was fearful of her shrewd inspection, Darcy was his opposite. It was “for the liveliness of your mind” that first attracted Darcy to her side. Indeed, “I am not afraid of you,” said he, smiling.
The integrity of the couples’ courtship (Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth and Mr. Bingley and Jane) denounces ill-conceived dramatic engagements and histrionics of many 18th century gothic dramas which prevailed in Austen’s time. Elizabeth herself sets a precedent as a rational and capable woman for the 19th century heroine and still resonates with the modern woman: “There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” When feelings begin to emerge between Darcy and Elizabeth, earnest character reformation takes precedence in both hero and heroine before the couple can reach their happy conclusion. Austen’s noble but flawed lovers struggle not only against societal pressures and the intrigues of other characters such as Caroline Bingley and Mr. Wickham, but with their own self-deception of pride and vanity.
Darcy, whose pride rejected Elizabeth as a worthy partner because of her lack of social achievements and family connections, comes to realize, as he admits to Elizabeth, “I have been a selfish being all my life.” Likewise, Elizabeth, embarrassed and caught in self-awareness of her own prejudice admits, “But vanity, not love, has been my folly.…I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away…Till this moment I never knew myself.”
The story’s brilliance hinges on the painful but honest reformation of their own character, which enables the couple to grow into a love based on repentance, confession, and forgiveness. As Elizabeth teases her, Mr. Darcy to their perfectly satisfying conclusion, “My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and in return, it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be; and I shall begin directly…”
In the 21st-century, which mass produces the fast, self-gratification and manipulation of Lydia and Wickham’s ‘courtship,’ it is little wonder that our hearts, if not our heads, long for the Christian vision of wisdom and integrity found in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
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[1] Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.
[2] See The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster, 49.
[3] Kenneth L. Moler notes that “1939 marks the beginning of modern Austen scholarship with the appearance of Mary Lascelles’s ‘Jane Austen and Her Art.’ See Jane Austen’s Anglicanism by Laura Mooneyham White, 193.
[4] See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9770713/Pride-and-Prejudice-a-love-story-centuries-old-but-eternally-fresh.html.
[5] Irene Collins writes, “Jane Austen was a deeply religious woman. It is unlikely that she ever thought of the morality which she advocated in her novels as anything other than an essential part of Christianity.” Jane Austen and the Clergy, 182. Moreover, Oliver Macdonagh and Gene Koppel both agree to Austen’s Christocentric sensibility which pervades all of her novels. See Jane Austen’s Anglicanism by Laura Mooneyham White, 6.
[6] C. S. Lewis, “A Note On Jane Austen,” in Essays in Criticism (Oct. 1954).
[7] Gene Koppel’s response to Wayne Booth’s 1998 Emma, 57.
[8] For example, the bestselling series, the Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James.
[9] G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World (1910).
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About the Author: Alex Harper is a recent graduate of the University of Saint Andrews (UK), where she earned an M.Litt. in Theology, Imagination and the Arts. For several years she has studied how different artistic mediums engage and minister to suffering communities in light of the Christian Gospel. She has a graduate degree in apologetics from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and her undergraduate degree from Liberty University. She resides in Virginia.
January 28, 2013
Thank you, Alexandra, for keenly articulating why we love this happy ending. I enjoyed reading it!
January 30, 2013
I’m delighted that you enjoyed the article, Rebekah!