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$Pretitle{}
$Title{Works of Jane Austen
Introduction}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Austen, Jane}
$Affiliation{Instructor Of English, Rutgers University}
$Subject{moral
pride
prejudice

}
$Date{}
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Title:       Works of Jane Austen
Book:        Pride and Prejudice
Author:      Austen, Jane
Critic:      Fitzpatrick, William J.
Affiliation: Instructor Of English, Rutgers University

Introduction

     It is sometimes said that Jane Austen's work is severely limited, and in
a superficial sense this is true. Her settings and subjects are always
similar. She is not interested in the extremes of emotion or thought, nor in
the upper or lower reaches of society. But within her chosen area of
experience there is a considerable variety of human types, and the issues are
frequently those of moral life and death. When Charlotte Lucas marries Collins
she exhibits a moral failure as surely, if not as spectacularly, as Lydia does
when she lives with Wickham before marriage. And the action of the main plot
is precariously on the edge of a minor tragedy of pride and stupidity. There
are intensity of feeling and dramatic excitement in many scenes in the novel.
The interest in Pride and Prejudice, thus, goes beyond the exposure and satire
of human limitations as revealed in social behavior. After a century and a
half, readers return to the novel because it increases their knowledge of the
conditions necessary for retaining one's moral balance, amid the temptations
of pride and prejudice and greed, of self-will and self-love. It is the
depiction of characters who make up analogies of moral failure and survival
that gives this novel its importance.

     But with all the seriousness of Jane Austen's moral concern, with all the
moral ugliness, social crudities, bad manners, cruelty, and failure, Pride and
Prejudice is a comedy. Though most of the characters are condemned to continue
being their ignorant and unattractive (if ridiculous and comic) selves,
Elizabeth's "splendid intelligence" and steadfast morality redeem the world of
the novel. These qualities account for the overriding "success." More than her
mother's ludicrous vulgarity or the funny effusions of Collins and Lady
Catherine - more even than Elizabeth's charming sense of humor - her lively
consciousness and her self-reflection, which purges her of pride and
prejudice, make up the light of comic grace that leaves the reader in delight.