Essay on the Irony of Pride in Pride and Prejudice -- Pride Prejudice

The Irony of Pride in Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen uses the elements of both superciliousness and prejudice to expand the sarcasm in her novel. Austen presents pride as both a immorality and a virtue. Austen first introduces pride as a vice of arrogance and prejudice, just as the characters in the novel develop so does the concept of pride. Towards the suppress of the novel pride becomes the vehicle for many of the noble actions taken by the chief(prenominal) characters. Austen skillfully interweaves the two parts of pride, the plot, and the main characters so that they develop together in the book. When we get to the end of the novel, we are left with a fuller understanding of the complexities of pride. Throughout the first part of the novel pride is seen as negative and destructive. It is characterized as being self-loving and arrogant. The actions of the main characters come along to be guided by selfish pride. It is this kind of pride that leads the main characters to act in ways that causes themselves and others much distress and suffering. In fact, the tensions, misunderstandings, and hostilities amid the two main leading characters, Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet are byproducts of the vice of arrogant pride. When we first meet Mr. Darcy at an assembly, he is perceived as a handsome exciting young man who holds much hope as a gentleman and future husband. But the assembly guests curtly scrutinize his prideful manners and actions and he is found to be slight then desirable. Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeths mother, sees him as the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world. His conceited and prideful disposition not only offends her, but most of companionship at the assembly. His arrogance consumes him and his character, and veils any good... ...ouse Publishers, 1996. Hennelly, Jr., Mark M. Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen bleak Perspectives. ed. Janet Todd. New York Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1983. Jane Austen Info Page. Henry Chu rchyard. U of Texas, Austin. 23 Nov. 2000. <http//www.pemberly.com/janeinfo/janeinfo/html>. Kaplan, Deborah. Structures of Status Eighteenth-Century accessible Experience as Form in Courtesy Books and Jane Austens Novels. Diss. University of Michigan, 1979. Monaghan, David. Jane Austen Structure and sociable Vision. New York Barnes & Noble Books, 1980. Poplawski, Paul. A Jane Austen Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut Greenwood Press, 1998. Reidhead, Julia, ed. Norton Anthology of English Literature vol. 7, second ed. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. Ward, David Allen. Pride and Prejudice. Explicator. 51.1 (1992).