The Causes of Prejudice on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Approaching Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, I focus on the title of the novel, which is related to the central theme. The usual interpretation is that the title is a reference to Darcy's pride, which causes him to reject Elizabeth and her family, and Elizabeth's resulting prejudice, which is reinforced by Wickham's false story about Darcy. Pride is a detachment from other human beings in which the self is not seen as involved with others but as superior to them, as unconcerned. Prejudice is the opposite of pride: the self is completely involved with others, and everything is interpreted as it affects the self. Both qualities result in a severe limitation of human vision and are …show more content…
Rather, they are natural human feelings that should not be completely obliterated but put under control and harmonized with others. The initial fault of each character is that having prejudice is indulged in to an obsessive degree. The faults are transformed into virtues, ironically, by the absorption of a share of the opposite quality. If judgment is the cognitive mode of relating to particularity, as so many have argued, then no “theory” is likely to be helpful. Immanuel Kant knew that judgment cannot be taught, though it can be learned: “judgment is a peculiar talent which can be practiced only, and cannot be taught.” Since judgment is a cognitive operation that by its nature resists theorization, the novel offers unique possibilities for staging a practice of judgment from which we might learn.
Pride and Prejudice presents convincingly a central character who overcomes the limitations of human vision in all of the areas that the novel has made us care about. Eventually, she learns to judge accurately while deeply involved; she learns to avoid the limitations imposed by pride and prejudice. The narrative techniques not only mirror the world of the novel, but also involve the responsive reader in that world, forcing him to adopt, while reading, that degree of flexibility, that withholding of judgment when evidence is lacking, which Elizabeth must
Approaching Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, I focus on the title of the novel, which is related to the central theme. The usual interpretation is that the title is a reference to Darcy's pride, which causes him to reject Elizabeth and her family, and Elizabeth's resulting prejudice, which is reinforced by Wickham's false story about Darcy. Pride is a detachment from other human beings in which the self is not seen as involved with others but as superior to them, as unconcerned. Prejudice is the opposite of pride: the self is completely involved with others, and everything is interpreted as it affects the self. Both qualities result in a severe limitation of human vision and are …show more content…
Rather, they are natural human feelings that should not be completely obliterated but put under control and harmonized with others. The initial fault of each character is that having prejudice is indulged in to an obsessive degree. The faults are transformed into virtues, ironically, by the absorption of a share of the opposite quality. If judgment is the cognitive mode of relating to particularity, as so many have argued, then no “theory” is likely to be helpful. Immanuel Kant knew that judgment cannot be taught, though it can be learned: “judgment is a peculiar talent which can be practiced only, and cannot be taught.” Since judgment is a cognitive operation that by its nature resists theorization, the novel offers unique possibilities for staging a practice of judgment from which we might learn.
Pride and Prejudice presents convincingly a central character who overcomes the limitations of human vision in all of the areas that the novel has made us care about. Eventually, she learns to judge accurately while deeply involved; she learns to avoid the limitations imposed by pride and prejudice. The narrative techniques not only mirror the world of the novel, but also involve the responsive reader in that world, forcing him to adopt, while reading, that degree of flexibility, that withholding of judgment when evidence is lacking, which Elizabeth must