Lit 12 - Nov. 14 - Social Rules, Pride, Love

How does Austen illuminate either social rules, pride, or love, using character(s) as a vehicle?

Goal of literary essay: "Looking at the text as a work of art, demonstrating clear critical judgment and explaining to the reader of your essay how the enjoyment of the text is assisted by literary devices, linguistic effects and psychological insights; showing how the text relates to the time when it was written and how it relates to our world today.

UMBRELLA QUOTE - whether it is from a secondary source or the novel itself - what might unite your themes?

- How will you have a narrow thesis (one theme and one character?)

- What literary devices will help show your thesis (SATIRE, CHARACTER FOILS)



Pride

- Darcy - not the most prideful
- Lady Catherine - "full of herself" - puts herself above others
- In this society, Charlotte says it's acceptable to be proud if one has wealth
- Remember your goal is to show what this says about human nature
- Darcy recognizes that he has pride and that it is a weakness (40) "pride will always be in good regulation"
- Who has the least amount of pride?
- Jane seems to be without pride
- Is pride the deadliest sin?
- Secondary quotes about pride from the book Pride "Pride was widely denounced because it destroyed the cardinal virtues of courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom that buttressed the political order and made the good life possible."
- Mary's quote:
Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.
Is this true?

- Secondary quote from the book Pride
- Lizzy's epiphany (198) "She grew absolutely ashamed of herself… blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd"
- From Aristotle: "The proud man deserves what he claims, and if he is truly proud, never shirks from laying claim to what he deserves, since it is a vice to claim less than one deserves."
- Hubris = unwarranted and arrogant pride
- Do we allow our "upper class" people to have pride?
- To what extent to we allow people to be proud in our world
- What is Austen saying about pride in her society?
- Everyone has pride
- Collins - pride - he's proud of knowing Lady Catherine (showing Lizzy his house and mentioning the cost of everything - saying that Lizzy can just put on her best clothes, not to worry, Lady Catherine "likes to have the distinction of rank preserved" [155])
- How are our ideas of pride different from characters in P&P?
- "I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit." Darcy - Chapter 58
- Lydia - does she ruin her family? It was a close call - Jane getting engaged to Bingley erases Lydia's actions - gets forgotten instantaneously
- Wickham's pride

Social Rules

- Main theme driving this book
- All of Seinfeld based on unspoken social rules (not a show about "nothing")
- First line of novel tells us exactly how society functions
- Is Jane the ideal woman?
- Charlotte - not as naïve - shows the social rules more than every other character
- Jane "messes" up her relationship with Bingley, she does not take Charlotte's advice: "better to show more affection than she feels…"
- "love and happiness in marriage is a matter of chance" - Charlotte
- Jane internalizes her problems - only discusses her issues with Lizzy
- Pride acts as a barrier between the characters - many people's problems could be solved if the issues came out in the open
- Communication is impeded by pride
- Interesting, I find my West Van old ladies (retired) book club hide the failures of their kids from each other - taboo topic
- Entire world built around marriage - Lizzy does not accept Collin's proposal (she put her whole family at risk) selfish
- Eg. Collectivist society who value filial piety belief in arranged marriage - living in Canada where love marriages are the norm - what does one choose - allegiance to family or self?
- We live in a society that values independence - are we correct - look at the rest of the world
- In that society "rank" being "preserved" is correct - how much do we agree or disagree
- Lady Catherine is allowed to be classless, snobby, insulting ("that lady, I suppose, must be your mother" III 14 "You have a very small park here" III 14)
- Valuing concealing one's feelings (Interesting - studies comparing North American goals for adult hood with Chinese goals # 1 Chinese goal is to "be in control of one's emotions" Euro-Canadians = financial independence; #2 Chinese goal: filial piety; #2 Euro-Canadian = satisfying job
- Our society praises non-conformity (but what does Austen show us - Lizzy conforms in the end - but does Darcy?)
- Lizzy accepts her society's rules as she loses her prejudice
- Lizzy has a lot of prejudice against her society at the beginning
- Do we accept society's rules more or less as we get older?
- Lizzy is driven by her emotions to love Darcy - not her acceptance of society
- Lizzy becomes more motivated by her family's welfare as she progresses (she starts off as self-interested) - she becomes more aware of social rules
- Lizzy accepts the fact that she has to accept the rules of her society - or she will be stuck
- Growing up as people - have a larger world view

Love

- How does Austen reveal love?
- Lizzy and Darcy show love can develop over time
- Lydia (and possibly Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet) mistake lust for love (actually an '80's song by a band called Images in Vogue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIr-fM1ZP9I )
- Also from the eighties: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w34vnz_LEX4 ("What is Love" by Howard Jones)
- Love between Lizzy and Jane - part of the reason Lizzy rejects Darcy because she finds out that Darcy blocked Bingley and Jane's marriage - also walked hours in the rain for her
- Also she betrays Jane by not sharing her love for Darcy - Jane - reveals her insecurities to Lizzy
- Mrs. Bennet loves her daughters - getting them married is her goal because it protects her
- Does Austen show us more familial love or romantic love
- Do we hold love to a different standard?
- We throw around the word "love" all the time
- Where does love fit in our society (we value love marriages - but is it a "matter of chance")
- Austen's society - man has the choice (society makes the rules) - now either man or woman
- Is Lizzy in love with Darcy for the entire novel? (held back by prejudice - which is vanity "not tolerable enough to tempt me")
- Soul searching
- What happens to love long-term? Will Jane and Bingley be happier? Which marriage will be happiest
- Is Charlotte's ending happy? Happiness takes different paths. Charlotte's comfortable. She enjoys her alone time. She was unselfishly helping her family. (Cultural norm)
- CONTENTMENT
- Some people never get married and never have kids - roommates
- Woman as commodity - marriage was a business arrangement
- SELF INTEREST
- PERSPECTIVE
- Charlotte wanted to be stable and help her family
- Lizzy is disappointed by Charlotte marrying for money - but she ends up marrying the richest man in the book (But are you comparing Collins to Darcy?)
- How much is Lizzy motivated by Darcy's money - remember what Mr. Bennet worries about in the end - he thinks Lizzy is marrying Darcy selflessly to help her family
- Jane also thinks Lizzy is marrying for mercenary reasons
- Mr. Bennet: "My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life." (III 18)