Jane Austen is admired for portraying a world of elegant houses, dances, servants and fashionable young men driving barouches. But her own vision of her task was radically different. She was an ambitious — and stern — moralist. She was acutely conscious of human failings and she had a deep desire to make people nicer: less selfish, more reasonable, more dignified and more sensitive to the needs of others.
There are a number of things one could learn — both consciously and unconsciously — from Austen’s works. Take Pride and Prejudice, for instance. There’s an interesting lesson on love one would invariably find.
In Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet start off heartily disliking each other and then gradually realise they are in love. They make one of the great romantic couples. He is handsome, rich and well connected; she is pretty, smart and lively. But why actually are they right for each other?
Jane Austen is very clear. It’s for a reason we tend not to think of very much today: it is because each can educate and improve the other.
Observe this scene in the book. When Mr Darcy arrives in the neighbourhood, he feels ‘superior’ to everyone else because he has more money and higher status. At a key moment, Elizabeth condemns his arrogance and pride to his face. It sounds offensive in the extreme, but later he admits that this was just what he needed:
What did you say of me that I did not deserve? ... The recollection what I then said, of my conduct, my manners, my expression ... is inexpressibly painful to me. Your reproof, so well applied, I never shall forget. ... You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you I was properly humbled.
Elizabeth shares this view of love as education. They suit each other because: It was a union that must have been to the advantage of both; by her ease and liveliness, his mind might have been softened, his manners improved; and from his judgement, information and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of great importance.
It’s a lesson that sounds strange because we still tend to think of love as liking someone for who they already are, and of total acceptance. The person who is right for us, Austen is saying, is not simply someone who makes us feel relaxed or comfortable; they have got to be able to help us overcome our failings and become more mature, more honest and kinder — and we need to do something similar to them.
In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy and Elizabeth improve each other and then the novelist lets them get engaged. The story rewards them because they have developed well. That’s why the novel feels so beautifully constructed. It’s not merely ingenious. It illustrates a basic truth: marriage depends on education. Mature couples will always find ways to educate each other so that they can grow together.
Reference books:
Kalampedia 