The Importance Of Pride In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

Pride is the feeling of accomplishment and status of oneself. Pride can be both a virtue or vice but is most commonly known as a vice. In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Austen emphasizes the importance of humility through Darcy who must face the challenge of overcoming his pride in order to reach the heart of the woman he loves.
Darcy is an arrogant, self-absorbed and conceited man at the beginning of the novel Pride and Prejudice. At the Meryton Ball, Darcy was “discovered to be proud”. As a result, he was seen as a pompous person and no one was impressed by his attitude especially not Elizabeth Bennet. He further increases the chance of people disliking him due to the fact that he “declined to be introduced to any other lady”. This goes to show that Darcy is very self-absorbed and only cares for himself. By not wanting to be introduced to other women, he shows that he is very closed-minded and doesn’t care for anyone but himself. An old friend of Darcy’s named Wickham goes to further show that Darcy really is a proud and arrogant jerk since Wickham says that Darcy’s “actions may be traced to [his] pride”. This shows that even old friends of Darcy can see that he is very proud and that his pride is overblown. Later on in the book, Jane’s love interest Bingley leaves her with no explanation and this was again the fault of Mr. Darcy, since he told Bingley that Jane doesn’t seem too interested in him. Elizabeth had known in her mind “his pride …show more content…
Love is often portrayed as patient and kind, and Darcy shows this by getting deep into his inner feelings, watching the love of his life carefully to see her reactions to him, and by being patient and waiting for Elizabeth’s love. Pride can be conquered, if the right person is there by your side to love you for your inner self and by not rushing into