a critical review on the lack of respect by jane Austen for Elizabeth in pride & prejudice
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Adam Smith describes humans as being by nature social and disposed to become moral agents. In order to achieve this virtuous goal, they have to go through a sympathetic process, an interactive process of moral learning. The aim of this process is to make people aware of the partiality of their spontaneous evaluations and to overcome it. Progress can only be gradual, but the aim is to become an ‘impartial spectator’ or moral judge who can tell proper from improper feelings and actions. In the course of this process, people learn to become conscientious; they become critically aware of themselves as agents who have to respect the feelings of others and to exercise self-command over their passions. These passions typically originate in their excessive self-love; they are among the main sources of moral prejudice and evaluative partiality. Getting involved in such a sympathetic process is a challenge: Those who do not naturally have a virtuous disposition will, in the course of this process, have to face some bitter insights in their own moral failures. Some people succeed and achieve a certain degree of moral virtuosity: They become ‘wise and virtuous’, at least to a certain degree. However, in the real world and within the confines of a real society, there are many sources of distraction that can morally mislead people and stand in the way of properly developing their capacity for moral feeling, understanding and acting.
[12]See Kenneth L. Moler 1967. Ruderman quotes this passage from… But Jane Austen has used the TMS more extensively as a source of inspiration. As Moler has equally pointed out, there is another passage in this work which must have been among the direct sources of this discussion of pride, a passage which is part of Smith’s analysis of the defects and excesses of self-estimation: ‘And in our companions, no doubt, we much more frequently complain of the latter [the excess of self-estimation] than of the former [the defect of self-estimation]. When they assume upon us, or set themselves before us, their self-estimation mortifies our own. Our own pride and vanity prompt us to accuse them of pride and vanity, and we cease to be impartial spectators of their conduct.’ (TMS VI.iii.22., p. 246) This is exactly what happens to Elizabeth: She is aware of the mortification and forms an opinion of the offender, namely Mr. Darcy, which reflects her own partiality – rather than the impartial point of view of an unconcerned spectator who recognizes the equal dignity of all people. Jane Austen here reveals the dialectics of pride and prejudice respectively: Mr. Darcy is proud; he considers himself as far superior to almost everyone else and to Elizabeth in particular. This attitude reflects his conceit and partiality. Her pride is mortified because she conceives of herself as a young and attractive woman who deserves to be treated with politeness and respect. The mortification induces her partial judgment about her offender. Thus, there is prejudice which manifests itself in the pride of one person who then hurts the pride of another person and induces prejudice in the latter. If there was no essential interest in and need for moral propriety and social harmony in human nature, people would just go round in circles of pride and prejudice.
Explanation:
Novel by jane Austen published anonymously in three volumes in 1813.A classic of english literature ,written with incisive wit and superb character delineation, it centers on the relationship of elizabeth