The Instinctive Behavior in Human Beings - Book Report/Review Example

The Instinctive Behavior in Human Beings “Pride and Prejudice,” demonstrates that a society can influence the instinctive behavior in human beings, regardless of whether it is good or bad. The author, Jane Austen, illustrates that pride and prejudice comprises of the two characteristics of behavior that vary. Austen’s book utilizes the customs and ideals of marriage to provide a manifestation of the harmful effects of pride and prejudice. She successfully portrays the core of behavior as inherent to an individual’s personality, which is a position that she achieves by providing a description of the intrinsic character qualities in Darcy and Elizabeth. For this reason, the book provides an account of the effects of initial impressions on the prejudices concerning peoples’ characters. It is possible to determine that Elizabeth is naturally sagacious. She can scrutinize relationships and situations intuitively and intelligently. For instance, Elizabeth articulates her dissatisfaction with the moral fiber of the Bingley’s sisters. Even though Jane defends the nature of the sisters, Elizabeth “…was very little disposed to approve them” (Austen 20). Elizabeth’s intuition was that their personalities were intended to please. Elizabeth confirms her perception after the two sisters try to deter their brother’s affection and after betraying Jane’s kindness. However, Elizabeth’s prejudice leads her to misunderstanding Darcy and Wickham’s character. Darcy’s pride leads him to speak insultingly to Elizabeth, which is a contributing factor to Elizabeth’s misunderstanding of his personality. Darcy’s dismissal emanates from his first impressions after seeing her. Conversely, George Wickham deceptively covers up his real character from other people. Elizabeth’s prejudice leads to her misinterpretation of Wickham’s personality. An individual can assume that Austen’s intention was to depict Elizabeth’s prejudice and Darcy’s pride throughout the book. Conversely, it is possible to suppose that the main theme of Austen’s story is to provide a description of how Darcy and Elizabeth prevail over their pride and prejudice respectively. Instead, these assumptions are a mere oversimplification of the author’s intention. In order to provide support to the idea that the intention is simplified, it is possible to determine that Elizabeth is a proud person just as Darcy is. She takes pride in her independence, level of comprehension and her intelligence. Darcy has an admirable mien, to which he receives praise for his admirable traits from Mr. Bingley (Austen 12). When Mr. Bingley introduced him to the people in the assembly room, the preconception of a majority of the individuals in the room was that he had venerable characteristics. However, people retracted their admiration upon realizing that he is a proud person, thereby discharging him as “…not worthy to be compared with his friend,” Mr. Bingley (Austen 12). In spite of being considered as proud, Darcy’s smugness fades away in the initial chapters of the book. In the sixth chapter, the author portrays Darcy’s change of attitude towards Elizabeth as humbling. He humbles himself in order to be closer to Elizabeth, which is a stance that opposes his chauvinistic attitude towards her from the beginning. In spite of clarifying it to himself and to his friends that Elizabeth “…hardly had a good feature in her face,” (Austen 32), Darcy confirms that she is intelligent and beautiful. Consequently, he wished that he could know more about her, thereby joining her in her conversations. Joining her conversations drew Elizabeth’s attention to noticing his presence. Even though Elizabeth’s prejudice against Darcy remains, his prejudice against her diminishes. The reason for her continued prejudice against Darcy emanates from his refusal to dance with her at the ball. Elizabeth’s consistent discrimination extends all through the book, whose outcome led to the wounding of her pride. The author attempts to demonstrate that an individual’s behavior is subject to external influences. Conversely, through the book, Austen tries to indicate that it is possible to cultivate behavioral elements. For instance, Elizabeth’s mother cultivates her prejudice. She says that Darcy does not merit pleasing since he is a horrid person (Austen 17). Conversely, Wickham’s defamatory remarks regarding Darcy fuels Elizabeth’s prejudice against him. Elizabeth wrongly accepts everything that Wickham says, a mistake that intensifies her prejudice against Darcy. Austen skillfully demonstrates that pride and prejudice threaten relationships between individuals. Even though she periodically expresses the aspect of prejudice and pride harshly, she extracts a successful conclusion in the story. Darcy accepts his imperfections, which is a fact that leads to the improvement of his nature. His reconciliation with Elizabeth influences a reader into realizing that pride is retractable through dismissing the preconceived opinions of another person’s character. In the book, Darcy acknowledges that Elizabeth changes his life when he tells her, “By you, I was properly humbled” (Austen 563). For this reason, Darcy breaks the chains of conformity to societal expectations regarding the character of an individual. With such an illustration, it is possible to confirm Austen’s notion regarding the consideration of human behavior as intrinsic. For a better understanding of the author's intention, it is necessary to consider the setting of the story, which was during the 18th century. In this period, there were predetermined expectations regarding the manner in which men and women were to behave. When people would not act in accordance to these societal expectations, other individuals could regard them as different, which was not always a positive observance. The author’s intention is to enable people to understand that in this period, it was not possible for women to perform a number of tasks. For instance, Elizabeth’s mannerisms are different from the societal expectations. The difference led people into believing that she had bizarre feminine characteristics. In reference to this account, Darcy does not seem to recognize the need to change until Elizabeth rejects his marriage proposal. Jane Austen’s central idea in her book relates to the issue of courtship and marriage. She provides a critique of England’s rural setting, to which she provides an explication of the manner in which the high-class individuals in the same society treated the aspect of marriage. However, the author’s main idea revolves around the conceptualization of pride and prejudice. She uses the two aspects of human characteristics to determine that they can cause difficulties in marriage. Her use of the customs and ideals of marriage essentially enables her to provide an expression of the harmful effects of pride and prejudice. The complication emanates from the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. Elizabeth declines Darcy’s hand in marriage initially since she is prejudiced against him. However, by indicating that the characters are happy in the end, the author affirms that it is possible to prevail over pride and prejudice. For this reason, Austen’s book successfully covers the central theme, which is that of the way in which pride and prejudice influence interactions. Works cited Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Planet PDF Newsletter, 1995. Print. Read More