Pride and Prejudice
Literature is the cream of life created in
the imagination of a poet or a writer whose personality has outgrown the social
limits and extended itself into the domain of impersonal consciousness. The
individual we are is the social expression of the human being whose real
existence transcends the social consciousness. Great poets and writers create
in their imagination that Real Man and make him play a limited social role
where he often peeps out of his social personality into his universal
individuality. It is this extra dimension of those characters that is
fascinating to us and renders them immortal characters. We see that the immortality of a character is his innate universality.
Jane
Austen’s genius captured the flavour of the French Revolution wafting across
the shores of England which was anxious to restructure its society so as to
avoid a bloody revolution. Mental growth that assimilates the spirit of the
times can compel the body to rise to the occasion, thus avoiding the inherent
violence of any revolution. England did escape the guillotine by exercising its
social wisdom which was willing to unite the higher and lower strata of the
society.
Pride
and Prejudice can be seen as a story of several marriages where the
abominable pride of Darcy becomes the uncontrollable passion of his heart.
Romance is the adventure of the heart for the unattainable. This approach views the story as the
aristocracy descending to the commoner in its passion to preserve the society
by preserving itself. It is this social power of passionate
self-preservation that passes through Darcy to Elizabeth as an irresistible
romantic attraction. Elizabeth is the best daughter of the aristocratic Mr. Bennet
and the mother of intense physical energy that is neither educated nor
enlightened. The vast reservoir of physical energy of the mother is there in
the daughter as the substratum while its top level is the awakened mind of the
father that is cheerfully undeterred by the insolence around him. Darcy is attracted by the light brightening
Elizabeth’s eyes, though they are clouded by the prejudice of the recipient
of benefits.
Viewing the story as a field of social
forces interacting to create a higher reconciliation, each character must be
seen as a force expressing through human personality. Aristocracy coming down
to assimilate the commoner is the same as Mr. Bennet with a developed mind
seeking in marriage the virile specimen of physical bodily energy of Mrs.
Bennet because of the external appearance of good looks. Viewed thus, every
event and every character take on a new dimension and what is revealed is no
mere story, but the drama in social transition.
The greatest tragedy for a family is elopement.
Socially a family dies, and often it must leave its place of residence. All
actions, all essential actions of the story begin with Lydia’s elopement. We
feel relieved that the nightmare of elopement fortunately passes away. At this
point, Darcy the lover turns into an active benefactor of the family and in
that process meets all that is low in the society. He discovers in himself the
need to accept Lydia as a sister-in-law, Wickham as a brother-in-law, and to
listen to the sarcastic remarks of Mrs. Bennet with patience. Thus, after his
marriage with Elizabeth, there will be nothing worse for him in store. The reconciliation society attempts in its
new evolutionary structure is reflected here in the cultural realities of
Pemberley coming to Longbourn.
Thus, the
great misfortune initiates all the three marriages and, in fact, becomes a
disguised good fortune. Jane Austen’s aim is not to destroy the aristocracy,
but to preserve it in an altered form. Nor was the English aristocracy
destroyed.
The central event in the story is Darcy’s
love for Elizabeth of which she was not aware. She was infatuated with the
charms of Wickham who possessed aristocratic manners in abundance. Viewed from
our perspective, Darcy’s romantic passion is a social urge for evolution, and
Lydia’s elopement, which is a family tragedy, is the point of ignition of the
cataclysm of social upheaval. It is significant that Lydia ignited the
explosion, as she is the most biological of them all and hence most open for
such initiative. In a complete social context, say a few decades before when
there was no revolution in the air, it is doubtful whether an Elizabeth would
have abused and rejected a Darcy in spite of his haughtiness. A further
question is whether such a relationship would have surfaced. It is conceivable
that Elizabeth would have refused his hand but not in that fashion.
The evolutionary force that compels society
to evolve is not moral. It is a force that acts to achieve its own goal, nor
does it endeavour to conform to the social codes. It acts as other impersonal forces do, such as gravitation or
electricity. The action of such a force cannot be evaluated by social or
moral norms. If at times it produces socially desirable results, it is because
that force works through human personalities who are social and moral. Seen in
this context, Lydia’s marriage explains itself. If that force follows any
rules, they are the rules of life whose growth they minister to.
After the birth of the USSR in 1917,
nations gradually changed themselves to being welfare states to stem the tide
of communism. As a result, the seventy-year rule of communism could not give
that prosperity to its proletariat which capitalism could give its workers. This is a process of avoiding a communist
revolution by unconsciously receiving the force of that revolution to express
it as social evolution.
The same phenomenon takes place in the
England of Jane Austen’s time, which she unconsciously captured in this story.
The major features are given below, almost like a summary of a longer review
written earlier:
¯ Darcy
represents the vanishing aristocracy.
¯ His
coming to Meryton is an act of the aristocracy moving to seek a reconciliation
with the commoners and the working class.
¯ As
it is a self-imposed descent of consciousness, his natural urge of conservative
instincts resists reaching down to the lower working class, but stops short of
his goal at the level of gentleman farmer, which is really the lower order of
aristocracy.
¯ The
reconciliation is really played by the urban bourgeoisie, as they are the
middle social stratum. Bingley represents that social section.
¯ Revolution
as well as evolution does not follow either the rules of society or of
morality. They follow the rules of life.
¯ The
rules of life are subtle, subliminal and subconscious.
¯ When
Darcy’s sister and aunt are seen as members of the vanishing aristocracy
susceptible to the waves of the invisible forces of evolution, they will very
well fit into the scheme.
¯ Seen
in this perspective, the marriage of Mr. Bennet with Mrs. Bennet is revealing
in the sense that it is a powerful parallel to the future changes of the
society.
¯ The
physical part of the society – the workers – destroying through revolution the
aristocracy is paralleled by a physical brainless woman invading the life of a
sophisticated Mr. Bennet to destroy his peace of mind.
¯ The
first two daughters represent the father’s intelligence in an ascending grade.
The last three daughters represent the mother in an equally ascending grade.
Lydia is the next generation to her mother in utter physicality that is
shameless.
¯ Elizabeth,
being the next generation, reveals the bright intelligence of this changing
social force, which is the mental brilliance or the spiritual light of Mr.
Bennet’s education. Darcy is attracted
not by her beauty, but by her accomplishments, particularly her fine eyes that
show the light of revolution.
¯ The
fact that the book is popular until today shows that society has come to value
the force that the book expressed at the time of writing, in that it is time for the emergence of the Spiritual
Individual, as the world has treated the 20th century as the century of the
common man.
¯ Elizabeth
was the Spiritual Individual.
¯ Her
life, in the story, was the life of the Spirit immersed in ignorance emerging
into knowledge.
¯ Her capacity not to be offended or
not giving in to offence, and her quickly reviving playfulness are traits of a
free mind or better still, of the free Spirit.
¯ Mrs.
Bennet is all energy, energy of the body, ready to swing into action at a
moment’s notice. Her getting three daughters married is a social advancement.
In the language of social evolution, it is the achievement of the body in the
vital plane of the society.
¯ Lady
Catherine’s confrontation with Elizabeth and her nonchalant reception of that
tirade are typical of the empty form asserting itself in sound and fury without
success.
¯ Wickham
is the charming false external of the receding social segment successfully
enticing everyone for a while before being fully exposed by events.
¯ Darcy,
in seeking Elizabeth’s hand, is painfully aware of all that her family is, but he seeks her hand ardently in spite of
the shame of that seeking. This is
a true representation of the evolution compromising with the otherwise violent
revolution.
¯ Mr.
Collins, in the sub-plot, is the first generation of education, resulting in
stupid effusions, coming into property, having ambitions of the emerging
individual as his wife on the strength of his wealth and the pretence of his
Oxford education. The exhibitionism of
his personality is as revealing as the dinner table was at the Kremlin in 1917
when it was surrounded by workers picking their teeth with forks.
The rules of life expressing in the
non-physical subtle, subconscious, and subliminal planes are:
§
Life exists in layers of physical, vital, mental,
spiritual planes.
§
Each of these planes is surrounded by its own
character, which is invisible to the eye, but equally well defined. It is
sometimes called the subtle plane, as the pain of a festering sore is felt an
inch away from the surface.
§
Action
takes place when the equilibrium of life forces is disturbed or goes into a
disequilibrium of differentials.
§
Actions do take place in outer life in response to
our thoughts, feelings or acts. They may
be known in our language as ‘Life Response’.
§
The mind is more powerful than the vital (life) and
vital is more powerful than the body.
§
In terms of accomplishment, an accomplishment in the
body is more difficult than in the vital. By the same rule, accomplishment in
the spiritual plane is more difficult than in the plane of mind.
§
All
acts are first created in the subtle plane before they are precipitated in the
gross, physical plane, as acts first originate as thoughts.
§
No act is isolated.
Acts have a past history just as they have a future.
§
No act ever occurs without a reason or purpose for
the one in whose life it occurs.
§
Silent functioning accomplishes more and more
effectively.
§
Expectation cancels. Intense expectation of strong
people makes it happen.
§
Planning of a work with forethought in an area where
one has inner and outer equipment achieves more and better.
§
‘Planning’ is the best way to spoil, forestall, or
cancel any work that is shaping well, by one who is not equipped for it.
§
What happens, especially things that are beyond our
reach, happens by itself, not by working for it or expecting it.
§
Any help given outside of duty is sure to bring harm
through the recipient of that help, or a person of his character and
circumstances.
§
Infatuation finds itself endowed with a higher reason
while being utterly unreasonable and ridiculous.
§
The sense of responsibility or such higher ideals in
practice activate the subtle plane to warn in time when others plan to harm
one.
§
No
act ever happens without a prior indication.
§
In a positive personal atmosphere, negative
initiatives end as positive acts.
§
Goodness without strength does not achieve. Goodness
with strength never fails to achieve.
§
Good
will is luck.
§
No word or act will fail to have its consequence
however feeble it is.
§
Life is a whole with all its parts well knit.
§
Literature is equally a whole, but it can be more
true to life than the physical life we see. The greater a work of literature
is, the greater is its truth of life.
§
Nascent power whether it is knowledge or prestige, is
far more powerful in action.
§
The opposite events contain a truth, often a greater
truth than we see.
§
It is not true things could have been avoided had
there been more or right information. Still,
it would have happened. Things could be avoided if the attitude had changed.
§
The heart opens once and only once. Once it has
opened to a person, it cannot really express or feel angry with him again.
§
Good will, even when it is out of stupidity, brings
luck.
§
Each rule of life stated here can have various
applications and can be divided into sub-rules.
§
For every rule that is true, the opposite one too is
true.
§
To complete the list of rules is possible with
several more added. In the original, longer review such rules are stated as part
of the writing. Therefore, this list is left as it is.
In this
summary, the events of the story can be stated as illustrations of such rules.
If not all, some can be attempted. As the central idea is to view the story as
an expression of social evolution, no emphasis is laid on explaining the
validity of these rules.
Revolutions are violent and bloody. No
justice is expected in such periods. If there is any justice, it is the justice
a war permits. As evolution is a variant of revolution, the normal punishment –
reward of life is out of place here. Revolution is an activity of the oppressed
against the oppressors. Apparently those who rise in revolt will often receive
rewards that they could not expect in life. If there is any justice there, it
is revolutionary justice. Thus we see
the preservative element in the story preserves the life of dissipating
Wickham. He is not only preserved intact, but Elizabeth continues to support
him to the end. The heart that once was enamoured of his charm remains so till
the end.
Some examples from the events of the story
that express the central theme or a rule of life:
Revolution is the minority rebelling
against the majority violently, as it is an act of physicality. Evolution is
the winning of minds of the majority and dispensing with the bloodshed. Such a
change calls for the genuine change of heart in the beneficiary which we
witness in Elizabeth. Mr. Bennet abuses Darcy and Jane too in the true
revolutionary spirit.
Revolution of the individual becomes the
evolution of the collective. The primitive man learned by doing through a
process of trial and error. The civilised individual learns through education
the experience of past societies.
§
The first is a movement from the physical to the
mental.
§
The second is a descent of the mind on the body.
What
France underwent by a revolution England was anxious to learn by the experience
of France. We see its main expression in Darcy who was an aristocrat who had
realised or the force acting through him wanted him to realise that a
revolution like the French one could be avoided in England if there was a
conscious reaching out of the aristocracy and the commoners towards each
other. Darcy was impelled by that force
or actuated by an unconscious knowledge of such a force. Elizabeth was the
spearhead of the enlightened section that aspired for such a reconciliation. Though the Spirit in her aspires in that
direction, her mind without sharing that spiritual aspiration remains clouded
by its old prejudice, which finds expression in Darcy’s impolite remark
that she was tolerable. The course of the entire story was her overcoming her
prejudice to appreciate the value of the aristocracy for her. In her emotions
this was finally achieved when she told herself that she could have been the
mistress of Pemberley had she wanted. It is noteworthy in our context of one
class seeking the other that:
From
Darcy’s proposal and letter to her visit to Pemberley, there was a steady
progress in her mind that reaches her emotions of shame. It was finally
clinched by the fine prospect of the view of the lake seen through the window
of Pemberley. We do note that Darcy had everything material to give. Elizabeth
was after all to receive and had nothing material or physical to give, not even
beauty.
It is a rule of life that the recipient of
any gift, especially an unsolicited benefit, resents it and as a result desires
to be insolent to the benefactor. Based on this truism, a joke was popular in
the 20th century in Europe which is summed up in the statement, “I
do not know why that man hates me, I have not done him any good.” This joke came to India from the Englishman.
Darcy offers his love passionately to Elizabeth in an unpardonable language.
She recognises the abominable sentiments and ignores his fervour. The rule of
giving, especially for the gentleman is to behave as a receiver in his giving.
Darcy falls very much short of the standard the aristocratic gentleman set for
himself in the early centuries. His offer was couched in offence. She resented
and abused him. Her resentment of Darcy found its residual echo in Mr. Bennet’s
abomination and Jane’s surprise and shock. Evolution
changes the killings of the revolution into resentment.
Life seeks fulfilment by becoming
conscious. Life is a field of contradictions. Truth in life emerges by
overcoming contradictions. Hence the irresistible attraction of the adventure.
Adventure seeks its own higher fulfilment in the opposition of contradictions
and overcoming them. All growth is
knowledge overcoming ignorance. Man
is conceived by the woman as a blend of the male and female forces. Man’s
greatest fulfilment is to find his reconciliation in the woman. That is the
highest adventure Nature has set forth before him. All other adventures are of
lesser importance.
Before marriage, it is romance. All
romantic episodes are beset with barriers of social stratification. Whether
they are social or psychological, they are barriers. The boy or the girl has to
overcome differences in class, caste or feud or prejudice. To attain to the
other sex breaking the barriers is romance. After marriage, the outer social
barriers change into inner psychological impediments. The famous dictum, “Girls
abuse men and they like it, don’t ask why” is an epitome of this process in
human wisdom.
The truth
of leadership lies in the love of submission of the many. The greatness of
leadership lovingly lies in its passionate loyalty to the following. Loyalty is
the submission of the low to the high and equally the high to the low.
In
the universal scheme of evolving Nature, this emotion is refined, elevated and
finally sublimated in the pure courage willingly submitting itself to the
object of its love.
Romance is its social version and therefore has a
flavour and fragrance that excels all others. Every member of the population is
exhilarated on hearing of an episode of romance and feels the distant
fulfilment in it. It is for this reason it never escapes public attention.
Bingley’s interest in Jane carries this aura, not Darcy’s, because in Darcy
romance is a subordinate feature. What is prominent in him is the social urge.
Society does not take notice of it, as it is unconscious of these forces. If
society is fully conscious of any vibration, it is that of romance. Romance is
a vibration where the urge of the physical becomes the fragrance of the Spirit.
The evolving Spirit is a flame rising to the pure heavens from the murky earth.
There is no other force or vibration that carries that intensity or purity. Its
perfume is the perfume of Purity itself. Heaven knows it to be Love and earth
recognises it in romance.
Social evolution taken from the social
stratum of aristocracy to the level of personal psychology permits us to study
individuals in the same context. We can present a very short summary of one or
two characters like Mr. Collins or Mrs. Bennet. In both of them we see several
phenomena:
Nascent
possession, whether it is knowledge or status, has a powerful urge and has no
capacity to wait for the appropriate forms of cultural expressions to be
created. Hence the tragi-comedy. Darcy’s
proposal vies with these people for a distinction of a similar description.