Yesterday was the 200th death anniversary of Jane
Austen. She is my favourite author ever and also the author of most favourite
novel of mine, Pride and Prejudice. I was 13 years old when my English teacher
forced me to read it. The book turned a rather non-interested reader in me to a
ferocious and avid reader of classics today.
Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love
stories in English literature – the courtship of Darcy and Elizabeth. As any
good love story, the main characters must elude and overcome the stumbling
blocks beginning with the tensions brought about by a personality clash or
personal qualities.
A common theme across the book is pride and many characters allude
to the idea that human nature is particularly prone to pride. Pride is notably
the one of the two main barriers in the union of Darcy and Elizabeth. Darcy’s
pride in his own social circles leads him to look down upon others. Elizabeth’s
pride in her powers of discernment cloud her judgement.
The second key theme in my view is Prejudice. Darcy’s pride
finds its place in social prejudice and class divisions. Elizabeth’s prejudice
is routed in her sense of discernment. Ultimately its their egos which drive
them to prejudice and isn’t it something we all face around us. It’s actually
easier to get prejudiced about things, people and actions we all know little
about.
Happiness comes to Darcy and Elizabeth once they allow
themselves to look beyond their personal follies. Austen however, has not
allowed most of her characters to see beyond their pride, leaving us with an
undercurrent as to how it is actually easy to not change oneself and keep on
finding faults in others for own actions and sufferings.
This brings us to the third key theme in my view – family and
education. Family as a unit is primarily responsible for the intellectual and
moral education of children. Education is lot beyond the degrees given out at
universities. There is nothing which can forgive negligence on parents’ part
towards inculcating moral values and discernment ability among children. There
will always be fewer beings like Elizabeth and her sister Jane who become what
they are despite this sheer negligence. Darcy’s aristocratic father gave him
values making him one of the noblest characters every written appealing to both
Aristotelian and Christian values but left him with a sense of pride that
clouded his positives. The mother in Lady Catherine de Brough’s formidable
upbringing left her daughter not only too frightened to speak but left her in a
rather sickly state.
The book leaves us with the universal appeal with regard to
human follies and social class. After all, it is only education that gives us
the discernment to rise above the moment and rescue self from the false sense
of social biases. It is this appeal which makes this love story much beyond
just a love story and makes Austen an author loved across generations.
