Lessons from Pride and Prejudice: The Intersection of Hubris and Prejudice

Introduction

Does the amount of pride one possesses relate to the amount of prejudice they have towards others? Everyone has heard of the classic Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The entire book revolves around the characters’ gossip and reputations. The hasty, harsh judgments made by most of the characters reflect the importance of status and reputation in England in the 1800s. This status, as well as how someone views themself, has an effect on these judgments they make. The amount of hubris, or excessive pride, someone has in themselves creates prejudice and hasty judgments towards others.

Elizabeth’s Hubris and Prejudice

Elizabeth carries a lot of pride in herself, and this is shown through the way she speaks to others and how she carries herself in general. She uses her first judgment of someone, also known as bias or prejudice, as her definite opinion of who they are. She is completely confident in her ability to judge others correctly, as she says that “those who never change their opinion” need “to be secure of judging properly at first.”

Not only is she warning others of using the incorrect judgment of someone indefinitely, but she is backing up the fact that her opinions of others don’t change because she is completely confident that she judges others properly. Her hubris is clouding her initial prejudice against others and prevents her from seeing how her judgment is incorrect. When talking to Mr. Wickham, she says, “I have never desired your good opinion… my opinion of you was decided,” which shows her dependence on her prejudice regarding others as well as her hubris, as it took a lot of pride for women to speak to men like that in their time setting.

Darcy’s Hubris and Harsh Judgments

Darcy’s reputation and social class create his hubris, which clouds his judgments of others. He makes harsh, hasty, and incorrect judgments of others because he compares everyone to the overblown image he has of himself. When Elizabeth is first pointed out to Darcy, he regards her as “tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt” him. Such a harsh prejudice against someone he hasn’t ever spoken to can only come from hubris. Darcy’s hubris results in him holding himself above everyone else he meets, which creates hasty and incorrect judgments of others.

Darcy is also inflexible when it comes to changing his opinion. He states that once someone loses his “‘good opinion’,” that opinion is “lost forever.” Not only is he completely confident in his first judgment of others, but he is also stating that once someone has lost his respect (whether valid or not), that person is never worthy of his respect again. This shows his hubris as well since he believes his respect is something others are not worthy of. Because of this, he uses his initial opinion of someone to define who they are to him. This judgment is also usually incorrect, as it is based on his view of himself compared to others as opposed to seeing who they really are.

Jane’s Humility and True Judgment

Jane is a rare example of a character in Pride and Prejudice who tries to think the best of people when she first meets them. Since she is open to the positive aspects of people, she is more likely to have an accurate judgment of their character. Other characters speak of how she “never see(s) a fault in anybody” and that they have “never heard (her) speak ill of a human being in (her) life.” Jane is definitely not as outspoken and opinionated as her sister, Elizabeth, which shows how she has less pride in herself. It’s not that she doesn’t have pride in herself; she just doesn’t have pride to the point where it becomes hubris and clouds her judgment of others. She carries herself with composure, not arrogance. Jane does not partake in the gossip that happens throughout the book, which shows her polite respect towards others and that she is not blinded by her view of herself when speaking about others.

Lessons from Austen’s Narrative

The article “Jane Austen and Social Judgement” by Kathryn Sutherland touches on the importance of opinions in Pride and Prejudice, “Opinion substitutes for truth… novels can teach readers the essential skills of interpreting character and learning to live in a society” (Sutherland, 2014). Austen uses the hasty judgment and excessive pride of her characters to teach her audience the importance of observation and truth over instant opinion and bias. She also utilizes the character of Jane to showcase how one should handle one’s pride and the prejudice they create against others. Jane does not exude excessive amounts of pride; therefore, she does not make hasty or false judgments of others.

Conclusion

Characters in Pride and Prejudice display the connection between excessive pride and prejudice towards others. Austen uses this to criticize the importance of reputation and status when thinking of oneself and referring to others over humility and true judgment of character. Darcy and Elizabeth showcase what occurs when hubris clouds the perception of others, and Jane displays how humility allows one to have a clear perception of others. Even though Pride and Prejudice was set in England in the early 1800s, many lessons from the characters and the messages Austen exhibits throughout the book can still be applied in the present.

References:

1. Austen, Jane. “Pride and Prejudice.” Project Gutenberg, 28 Jan. 2021. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1342/1342-h/1342-h.htm
2. Sutherland, Kathryn. “Jane Austen and Social Judgement.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, 2014. https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-264