Chapter 5: Vanity or Pride?
Pride and Prejudice Tagged clues, code, feminism, pride, shaping, vanity June 27th, 2008In the “post party debriefing visit” in chapter 5 we get to know more of the young ladies better, including Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s best friend, Mary Bennet, the scholarly little sister, and Jane, the young woman so beautiful and kind that even the puffed up Bingley sisters think she’s ”sweet” (code for not a threat to us). Do each of the sisters portray a part of a feminine ideal, e.g., Jane is the prettiest and nicest, Elizabeth is assertive and aware, Mary is studious and smart, Kitty and Lydia are, well, you’ll see……or, is Elizabeth herself a new ideal being shaped by Jane Austen, a new character being written who has something of all of her sisters in her and more?
My Double Entry Journal quote is from Mary’s distinction between vanity and pride on page 16. “Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what others think of us.” Why are the ladies of Longbourn and Meryton so much more susceptible to vanity than are the men of Netherfield, while the men are at greater risk of pride? Is there a clue so far as to why Elizabeth is least susceptible to the vanity that consumes her mother and most of the women of her society?
June 30th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Mary does seem to have a very interesting point. It seems that perhaps men are able to create an “ego” for themselves, while women need other people to believe that they are beautiful in order for them to realize it themselves, thus being vane.
I think that Elizabeth’s not being as susceptible to vanity arises from her free spirit and confidence in her own being. She is really the only truly independent woman in the book and that independence allows her to live without believing that she needs a husband to do so, as she does not get caught up in the chase for a beau like her sisters do.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I think you’re right on both counts, “breeze.” I think that what Jane Austen is showing through her writing is that each person needs to shape a self so that their selfhood is not formed exclusively by others. I think the relationship between freedom, selfhood, and authorship of your own life makes the novel such a democratic art form, and the work of a woman writer, a liberating one.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:49 am
Yes, I agree with “breeze”, men seem to think more highly of themselves, even if all around them are thinking otherwise, they don’t consider, so much, what others think of them, while women depend almost completely on the thoughts of others about them. They have vanity more often than pride because their own opinion of themselves is worth nothing compared to the opinions of others. Elizabeth is very unique in that she is a lot of each of her sisters, and she connects to different people than her family members do. She is the most interesting and profound character in the novel, in my opinion.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Norma, I like the way that you explain how “their own opinion of themselves is worth nothing compared…” The way you say it points beyond the problem of low self-esteem to one of the real strengths that we associate with women, that they can have a selflessness that builds up others. The search for men and women is to find that empowering balance between a strong sense of self and a selfless regard for the good of others.