Scapegoat Authoritarian Personality - Movie Review Example

Scapegoat itarian Personality Introduction An itarian personality is showing absence of understanding in an individual’s own weaknesses and the projection of the person’s flaws and blames on others is always seen in high scoring subjects. This personality reflects the primary element of the concept of scapegoating. In general, hostility and high suspicions may be the primary source of forces that generate the scapegoating process. What Adorno and his friends aspired to show was that there are people who have the predisposition to be biased and bigoted. As a matter of fact, Adorno argues that scapegoating is not merely brought about by immediate external forces, but can also be attributed to the character traits that the prejudiced people posses (Douglas 119). Adorno asserts that prejudiced individuals exhibit various traits, such as inflexibly and firmly holding on to their beliefs; possessing a commonplace and conservative value system; not accommodating what they term as flaws either in themselves or others. Besides, these individuals are of the opinion that humans ought to be condemned or penalized for violating the standardized social norms, and that no one should seek to express empathy towards such violators. In an authoritarian personality’s school of thought, constituted authorities are viewed with a high extent of reverence, and involve a higher magnitude of submission to their directives (Douglas 119). From the above description of scapegoat authoritarian personality, it can be inferred that people with such branded traits are often vulnerable to frustration to a high degree, and are not able to show tolerance. Nor can they accommodate the thought of being faulted for the frustration. For that reason, they are often exceedingly likely to push the blame for their troubles or bad luck on others. Their holier-than-thou and self-justifying trait may result in any tolerance of fault being extremely not possible. It can highly be considered a likelihood, hence the cause of frustration has to lie somewhere else. Considering this phenomenon, it can appear inescapable that not only would the burden tend to be pushed towards those who never possessed similar firm views, and were considered as weak, but that they can also be visited with condemnations (Douglas 120). If Adorno’s statements are anything to go by, then it can be acknowledged that a specific kind of human personality may meet the most of the essential and mechanism for undertaking the procedure of scapegoating-it can possibly seem, without the demand of a contextual catalyst. One of the renowned films that bring out the elements of scapegoat authoritarian personality at play is Pide and Prejudice. This paper is going to discuss the ways in which the scapegoat authoritarian personalities are displayed in the movie (Douglas 120). Scapegoat Authoritarian Personality traits in the Film In this movie pride, prejudice and bigotry is continuously present in the character’s attitudes and treatments of each other. This impairs their judgments and makes them to commit rash errors. For instance, pride obstructs Elizabeth and Darcy from experiencing their real romantic feelings towards each other. Darcy’s bigotry concerning his societal status drives him to treat everybody that falls below his statue with low regards. Elizabeth, on the other hand, takes pleasure in her capability of judging others to the point that she dismisses any attempts to reconsider her views amid clearly contradictory evidences. Since she is filled with pride, prejudice and bigotry, she loathes the kind-hearted Darcy for a long period, and instead highly regards the deceptive Wickham (Pride and Prejudice 1). In as much as Pride and Prejudice denotes that nobody is always wholly free of pride, it clarifies that with the necessary moral nurturing, an individual overpower it to bring out a lifestyle of nobility and compassion. Towards the end of the movie, the two lovers succeed in overpowering their pride by assisting each other to identify their respective Achilles’ heels. This is evident when Darcy gets rid of his snobbery attitude, whereas Elizabeth recognizes that she is not supposed to place too much emphasis on her judgment (Pride and Prejudice 1). In the film, prejudice, intolerance and bigotry are brought out clearly when the characters judge each other on the basis on the basis of their preformed opinions, rather than perceiving them in terms of who they realistically are and whatever they do. As the film’s title suggests, prejudice and pride are inseparable, always driving its hero and heroine into making rash presumptions concerning intentions and traits. These presumptions are not well thought out. The producer’s mild way of deriding Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s biases brings out the notion that these mistakes may, and in reality, happen to anybody, and that blaming others for biasness is easy whereas acknowledging it in oneself is an uphill task (Pride and Prejudice 1). Bigotry is brought out as a phase in an individual’s process of moral growth, an idea that can be overpowered by clear reasoning and kindness. The producer not only castigates the individuals who are hesitant in setting aside their bigotry and authoritarian personalities, such as the class-enthused Lady Catherine and the underhanded social climber, Caroline. In as much as the film is comical, it provides a potent exemplification of the destructive implications to individuals and the entire social system that prejudice can affect (Pride and Prejudice 1). Scapegoat authoritarian personality disorder is revealed comes out in many ways throughout the movie. In the beginning of the film, Mr. Bingley pays a return visitation to Mr. Bennet, and is consequently offered an invitation to banquet at Longbourn. Thereafter, he comes back, but accompanied by the sister and her husband, his youngest sister Caroline, and his colleague, Darcy and Mr. and Mrs. Hurst for an impending dinner. The dinner occurs at Meryton, where the local inhabitants gossip the visitors (Pride and Prejudice 1). Darcy is good looking, but filled with pride, arrogance and bigotry. Bingley easily becomes friends with nearly everybody, taking part in dances, some with Jane, making the Bennets very excited. When Bingley is telling Darcy that that Jane is the most charming lady he has ever set his eyes on, Elizabeth happens to overhear this conversation. He goes on to ask Darcy to look for a dancing partner, and recommends Elizabeth. Shockingly, Darcy responds, saying that she is not beautiful sufficiently to warrant a dance with him. She overhears and gets angered. Back home, Mrs. Bennet amuses her husband with a lot of information. She is happy for Jane, and has the conviction that Bingley is interested in her, but dislikes Darcy for his mind-set towards Elizabeth (Pride and Prejudice 1). In another incident, Elizabeth attends an evening ball in the drawing hall. Caroline watches as Darcy drafts a letter. Seeking to flatter him, she extends empty plaudits concerning his writings. However, Darcy fails to take notice of her compliments and is merely interrupted. Elizabeth and Darcy find themselves in a debate regarding Bingley’s traits. Darcy asserts that humans need to stick to their convictions. Elizabeth, on the other hand refutes Darcy’s position, stating that in some cases considerations for other people ought to mould an individual’s conduct. However, Bingley, not in a mood for quarrels, intervenes to put an end to their arguments (Pride and Prejudice 1). As Bingley’s sister plays the piano, Elizabeth notes that she appears to entice Darcy. He requests her for a dance, but she jokingly rejects his offer. Still, Mr. Darcy is becharmed: he supposes that were it not for her low social status and links, she could have accepted his offer. Caroline, another character filled with the authoritarian personality disorder, expresses jealousy. This is clear when she takes Darcy on a tour, teasing him about entering into a marriage with Elizabeth, as well as the awful family he would be part of (Pride and Prejudice 1). In the film, Elizabeth tells Caroline that the best reaction is to laugh at what she considers ludicrous, which sparks dialogue of the elements of Darcy’s traits that might be scoffed at. Darcy argues that his main flaw is that his positive views once lost, is lost forever. The moment Elizabeth remarks that it is not easy to laugh at a predisposition to detest everyone, Darcy answers that if his flaw is keeping bitterness, hers is misunderstanding others. From the above scenario, Darcy inaccurately spots his own shortcomings, which is the excessive pride he takes in himself and his high social status. However, he accurately identifies Elizabeth’s flaws, since he says that Elizabeth is highly confident with her own capability of seeing into the hearts of issues that she gets subject to her biases and blinds herself to the reality (Pride and Prejudice 1). Women as Scapegoat Victims The social environment portrayed in Pride and Prejudice is one in which women are lowered and rendered as goods for marriage on the basis of their gender affiliations. In this film, women are offered less opportunities of empowering themselves in the community apart from holding titles such as governesses or being married into wealthy and prestigious men. The attitudes and prejudices of men towards women were such that women were offered limited opportunities for jobs. Therefore, getting the title of governesses was viewed degrading. In addition, in families that lacked sons or heirs to the estates, as is clear in Elizabeth’s family, the family, then had to involve its wealth, in that perspective, to distant relatives such as cousins, like Mr. Collins (Chin 933). Elizabeth strictly remains an independent minded person, rejecting Mr. Collins’s recommendations and Darcy’s suggestions since she does not believe in getting married merely for seeking social status and properties. Therefore, it turns into a fortuitous state when she falls in love with the intolerable Darcy, who possesses a large array of properties and is highly revered in their society. Both the film and novel brings out a social environment that is highly profiled and burdened with class struggles and pretensions. Darcy is portrayed as an individual who is filled with haughtiness, and, previously fails to imagine that Elizabeth is worthy of him, since she comes from a family that is not highly esteemed. In addition, Elizabeth is from a middle class setting, and, not gorgeous enough, according to Darcy, to have a dance with her. This is because Darcy says that she smiles too much (Chin 934). Works Cited Chin, Yi-Chung. “Gender and Class Oppression in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.” The Dawn Journal 3.2 (2014): 933-947. Web. Douglas, Tom. Scapegoats: transferring blame. Psychology Press, 1995. Pride and Prejudice. Dir. Joe Wright. Perf. Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, and Brenda Blethyn. Miramax Films, 2005. Film. Read More