Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

This study will argue that Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is little more than a portrait of self-centered individuals indulging in selfish, materialistic pursuits which have little or nothing to do with the real world. If Austen's book were not considered a "classic," and if she herself were not such a gifted writer, this superficiality would not be a problem. After all, there are hundreds of books written merely to distract and amuse the reader who has nothing better to do with his or her time than enter into the refined world of refined individuals who act as if being refined and getting married were the only things that mattered in life.

Clearly, the artistry of Austen is not to be denied. The reader cannot help but be impressed with the ability of the author to create a specific world peopled by individual characters. The problem is that she has wasted her talent drawing portraits of this world and these characters who are completely insulated from the deeper reality of actual human beings. Even supporters of the novel admit that there is little to the novel, although they usually go on to argue that Austen was restricted by the artistic expectations of the culture in which she lived and wrote. But could one not say the same about any era? Could one not say that Dostoevsky or Salinger or Solzynetsin wrote in times of restriction and oppression? To defend Austen's novel by saying that she wasn't writing about what she wanted in the way she wanted is to demean her as a

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her determination that is far from satirical: [Mary's] performance was pleasing, though by no means capital. . . . Mary, . . . in consequence of being the only plain one in the family, worked hard for knowledge and accomplishments. . . . Mary had neither genius nor taste; and though vanity had given her application, it had given her likewise a pedantic air and conceited manner (Austen 17). Far from satirizing Mary, this passage shows a sense of admiration for her hard work, and its criticism of her air and manner is not satiric but straightforward. And certainly no satire can be found in her description of the sister who stands at the center of the book: "Elizabeth, easy and unaffected, had been listened to with much more pleasure, though not playing half so well" (Austen 17). The problem with arguing that the novel is meant to satirize these idle people and their selfish, superficial pursuits is that Austen, as a sympathetic observer, seems to be so much a part of their circle. She certainly has much to say about their "pride and prejudice," but she never questions their grip on reality. She accepts the world in which they live, critiquing not it but the shortcomings of the denizens of that world. She seems to never consider

Category: Literature - J