Pride and Prejudice main essay

Scott Pero
AP English Language/Mr. George
December 6, 2009
Who do you think is most to blame
for the delay of their felicity, Darcy or Elizabeth?

Beautiful Pride and Beastly Prejudice

“There’s something there that wasn’t there before.” This is a memorable quote from the Disney film, Beauty and the Beast. It is a story of love, about love found in unexpected places. Belle, the beautiful protagonist, is held prisoner by a ferocious beast with more to his character than his grizzly exterior. As the story progresses, the Beast overcomes his savage tendencies and begins to love Belle. Belle, in turn, develops feelings of care and adoration for the Beast. In the end, both discover their soul mate in the other, and, like all fairy tales, live happily ever after. A striking literary comparison to Beauty and the Beast is Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. The novel details the life of its protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet. Throughout the course of the story, Elizabeth encounters various potential suitors, one of which is the handsome Mr. Darcy. After a long period of grievances on both sides, Elizabeth and Darcy finally realize their feelings for the other and, like Belle and the Beast, live happily ever after. The question however, is this: which is the Beauty, and which is the Beast? The Beast’s feral actions and his original hatred for everyone and everything are the reasons why he and Belle could not at first live happily. They both had to conquer these brutish acts to fully bask in their felicity in the same way that Elizabeth and Darcy underwent hardships to be together. One of the two had to be at fault for the hindrance of their happiness, but which one? Elizabeth is the most to blame for the delay of her and Darcy’s felicity because her faults with Darcy greatly outnumbers Darcy’s faults with Elizabeth.

It is essential when arguing the faults of one to argue the faults of the other party involved in a situation. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, contributed to the delay of their happiness. The first of his blunders damaged the pride of Elizabeth and originally gave birth to her strong hatred towards Darcy. In the text, when Darcy first makes his appearance at the ball, he does not dance with anyone, aside from those within his own party. Mr. Bingley, Darcy’s friend, importunes him to dance with someone. He even goes so far as to suggest dancing with Elizabeth, who is sitting close enough to hear their entire conversation. After Darcy glances at Elizabeth, his response will stay with Elizabeth for most of the story: “He [Darcy] looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eyes, he withdrew his own and coldly said, ‘She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me’” (Austen 7). Even though Darcy was simply showing off in front of his friend to detract from his awkward social skills, Elizabeth’s pride was hurt as a result. She can not stand him now because he insulted her from the very first moment they met. Darcy’s faux pas is enough, in Elizabeth’s eyes, to warrant her hatred in all instances and will make his second fault all the more deplorable.

As we learn in the text, Darcy broke up the relationship between Bingley and Jane, Elizabeth’s sister. Darcy felt that Jane did not love Bingley as much Bingley loved her, and so he orchestrated their separation for what he thought was Bingley’s own good. Elizabeth, loving her own sister more than anything else in the world, discovers a new level of bitterness for Darcy after she finds out that Darcy was the one who separated them and who caused Jane so much misery: “‘Do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man, who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?’” (146). Because Darcy separated Bingley and Jane, he gave Elizabeth reason to despise him entirely. Darcy did not know the true extent of Jane’s love for Bingley, and he was doing what he thought was right, but in doing so, he prolonged the happiness he could have ascertained with Elizabeth much sooner.

Though Darcy contributed his fair share of faults, Elizabeth is even more to blame. The past is the past. It is over and done with, and should be forgotten so one can move forward with their life: “You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure” (282). That one is not Elizabeth, even though she may say that it is her philosophy when she finally accepts Darcy’s proposal. On the contrary, she clings to Darcy’s original insult for the entire duration of their acquaintance. Darcy explains that the reason he did not dance with anyone at the first ball was because he does not have the proper skills for associating with unknown people as others do, to which Elizabeth wittily responds: “‘My fingers…do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women’s do...But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault—because I would not take the trouble of practicing. It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other woman’s of superior execution’” (135). Here, Elizabeth’s hostility towards Darcy is still as vehement as ever. Elizabeth will not accept any excuses for Darcy’s behavior. No matter what he does, she still remembers that one incident, even after this time. She will not let go, and so she can not get over it to be with Darcy.

Elizabeth encounters trouble with her first impressions. It is very difficult for her to surpass them. Elizabeth is too proud to concede to someone else, and once she believes something, she must be right no matter what. It took her nearly the entire novel to get over her first impression of Darcy: “His character [Darcy’s] was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and every body hoped that he would never come there again” (7). Not only does Elizabeth believe this, but also her entire family does to some extent. She refuses to believe that Darcy is anything but what she see sees him as.

Not only does Elizabeth hold a preconceived notion of Darcy in her mind, but Wickham as well. When she first meets Wickham, his past with Darcy is what partly attracts her to him. Elizabeth is already determined to loathe Darcy, and so anyone who is an enemy of Darcy is automatically a friend of Elizabeth. With Wickham, however, she has some help from Wickham himself: “His appearance was greatly in his favour; he had all the best part of beauty, a fine countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing address. The introduction was followed upon his side by a happy readiness of conversation—a readiness at the same time perfectly correct and unassuming” (54). Wickham is so handsome and charming; Elizabeth would be a fool not to feel something—anything—for him. Elizabeth, however, gets wrenched into the whirlpool of his looks and manners. For most of the novel, she is trapped within his swirling tides, unable to break free or believe anything else but what Wickham tells her. Eventually, Elizabeth drowns in her own prejudice.

Prejudice, as well as pride, is Elizabeth’s fatal flaw. She is prone to taking sides in an argument as though they were sports teams. Often, she will never let those sides go, even if her team is discovered to be the one cheating. When Caroline Bingley approaches Elizabeth to caution her against Wickham, Elizabeth’s prejudice seeps out: “‘His guilt and his descent appear by your account to be the same…for I have heard you accuse him of nothing worse than of being the son of Mr. Darcy’s steward, and of that, I can assure you, he informed me himself’” (72). Elizabeth will not listen to reason; she is focused on seeing Wickham as a heavenly angel when he acts like a hellish demon. She ignores Caroline’s advice both because she despises Caroline and because of her partiality to Wickham, which clouds her mind from reason. These blinding prejudices keep Elizabeth from her ultimate happiness with Darcy.

When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth for the first time, we see how cold and ruthless and Elizabeth can be. Darcy falls to pieces with emotion, holding his heart on his sleeve, in front of her. He pleads with her to end his agony by marrying him. What does Elizabeth do? She retaliates by insulting him and rubbing his face in the fact that everything he thought he was right was in fact pushing away the woman he loves forever: “‘From the very beginning… your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that ground-work of disapprobation…and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry’” (148). Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and with this rejection Elizabeth has opened the very gates of hell to Darcy. Consumed with anger, Elizabeth does not hold back one inch in her merciless onslaught of this shy, lovesick man. Elizabeth could have been happy with Darcy if she had only accepted his proposal, but because she did not, both Darcy and she are miserable. Also because of this, she damaged potentially damaged any hope of reconciliation in the future.

Elizabeth’s expectations fly higher than they sky. After a heartless rejection on her part, one which not many men could recover from, Elizabeth receives a letter explaining his actions and she notices a change in his behavior. She gets to know Mr. Darcy better, and soon begins to develop feelings for him and his abundant kindness. Now, Elizabeth knows she loves him, and she feels something within her that wasn’t there before. Even more surprising, she wants to make Darcy propose again: “She respected, she esteemed, she was grateful to him, she felt a real interest in his welfare; and she only wanted to know how far she wished that welfare to depend upon herself, and how far it would be for the happiness of both that she should employ that power…of bringing on the renewal of his addresses” (201). Now that Elizabeth realizes her feelings, she wants Darcy to propose again, this time so that she may say yes. Who, however, would want to propose a second time after being so barbarously shot down the first time? No one would wish to go through the anguish Darcy had to all over again. Elizabeth ruined her future chances with him, and now because of her expectations, she is further digging herself a hole from which she will not be able to crawl out.

Elizabeth’s actions were the ones to keep Darcy and herself apart, and no one else’s. Darcy did at first insult Elizabeth, but Elizabeth was the one who refused to bite the bullet and get over it. Darcy separated Jane and Bingley, but his intentions were good and he simply did not know all the facts. Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s prejudice blinded her from seeing clearly, and she humiliated the one man who loved her pride and intelligence more than anything in the world. Everything that kept Elizabeth and Darcy from supreme felicity could have been prevented if not for Elizabeth’s mistakes. The important and crucial detail, however, is that they did end up happy. It was just a matter of how long it took them. The question pertaining to who—Darcy or Elizabeth—was the Beast and who was the Beauty, can now be answered. Elizabeth’s beastly actions kept her from her beauty, Darcy. Thankfully, Darcy was someone who could, like Belle, learn to love a beast.

Works cited
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. United States: Oxford University, 1990