Bruce Stovel’s A Contrariety of Emotion’: Jane Austen’s Ambivalent Lovers in Pride and Prejudice
The hero and heroine in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice forever intrigue critics, and in Bruce Stovel’s essay, they are once again analyzed. Thoroughly researched and imaginative in scope, Stovel’s “ ‘A Contrariety of Emotion’: Jane Austen’s Ambivalent Lovers in Pride and Prejudice” presents a novel interpretation of Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship. Stovel believes that the lovers’ relationship is neither love-at-first-sight nor hate-at-first-sight. Instead, he firmly believes that since Pride and Prejudice is comic, it has a “both/and rather than an either/or vision” (28). Drawing the definition of “ambivalence” from the Oxford English Dictionary, Stovel clarifies that what Elizabeth and Darcy feel toward each other is ambivalence – “the coexistence in one person of the emotional attitudes of love and hate, or other opposite feelings, towards the same object or situation” (27).
Sandwiching his analyses of the ambivalent lovers between his deliberations on Austen’s intentions and other critics’ inductions, Stovel is able to lodge his essay in a broad, meaningful context. However, this strength of Stovel’s essay is also a flaw, because as Stovel spews forth a list of what other critics think, the reader is left to wonder what Stovel himself thinks. When Stovel finally reveals his opinions, he speaks of “moral patterns” and “psychological states” as being ambivalent characteristics of Elizabeth (28). Although Stovel’s idea has great potential for expansion, he fails at explaining this concept clearly. It is difficult to grasp the connection between the “moral” engagement of Elizabeth in “protecting herself from her own sharp intelligence” and her being “humiliated by Charlotte’s defection” (29). After all, Elizabeth prides herself on being a “studier of character” (Austen, 38) and she is shocked at – not “humiliated by” – Charlotte’s marriage to Mr. Collins. Elizabeth cannot believe her friend’s defection, because she has previously told Charlotte that it is unsound to believe “it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life” (Austen, 21). Stovel states that Elizabeth’s “psychological predicament” is being unable to think well of others (Stovel, 29). This is untrue, because Elizabeth admires her sister Jane for thinking well of everyone, and she “could easily forgive [Darcy’s] pride, if he had not mortified [hers]” (Austen, 19). In short, Stovel is correct in uncovering the contrarieties of Elizabeth’s thoughts and emotions, but he does so with some poor examples from Austen’s text.
Concepts of femininity in eighteenth-century England guided many young women, forging their paths for a supposed happy future. However, these set concepts and resulting ideas of happiness were not universal and did not pertain to every English woman, as seen in Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. The novel follows the Bennet sisters on their quest for marriage, with much of it focusing on the two oldest sisters, Jane and Elizabeth. By the end, three women – Jane, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s friend, Charlotte Lucas – are married. However, these three women differ greatly in their following of feminine concepts, as well as their attitude towards marriage. Austen foils Jane, Charlotte, and Elizabeth’s personas and their pursuits of love, demonstrating that both submission and deviance from the rigid eighteenth-century concepts of femininity can lead to their own individualized happiness.
Jim is a upstanding, hard working, American computer programmer who recently lost his job to a man who doesn’t provide the correct code or patches for the computer programs he builds. This man is living in a far off country providing money that doesn’t benefit Jim or America, now Jim has a nice spot in the unemployment line. This is not how any good employee should be treated, but now many companies are dropping their good employees for cheaper foreign employees. Recent outsourcing is factor in the recent downturn in the U.S. economy.
In many cases outsourcing has proven to be beneficial for businesses. It can help a business’s management by allowing executives to focus on the core structure of the firm rather than every specific element. Production, manufacturing, or additional servic...
Wolanin, Barbara A.. Dykstra, Gretchen, ed. Mary G. L. Hood and Philadelphia Modernism. n.p.: Woodmere Art Museum, 2011. Print.
There are many benefits to outsourcing, many reasons that company has to outsource some of its business. According to Robin Gareiss, “The No. 1 reason companies turn to outsourcers is to save money--64% say that’s the main goal of their outsourcing contracts” (3). Companies are able to save money because they outsource to another country, and the third party that is in the outsourcing contract, runs the business in that country and is able to pay wages in accordance with that country’s laws, which for the most part there are none. The business usually outsources to a developing nation, and as a result can pay much, much lower wages than if it were to stay within the US. This cost-saving idea has become a much strong reason for outsourcing since the economy has been in a recession, a...
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Jane uses the novel to show the common day romance of the time period. In the novel, Elizabeth Bennet, a sophisticated, lively girl manages to change Mr. Darcy, a cocky, stubborn man into a person who is head over heels in love. Although it takes her some time, Elizabeth is able to change the way Mr. Darcy feels about love in general and causes him to act differently then he has ever done before. Mr. Darcy’s self- discovery in response to Elizabeth Bennet’s blunt honestly allows him to re-evaluate his approach to love.
In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet’s journey to love and marriage is the focal point of the narrative. But, the lesser known source of richness in Austen’s writing comes from her complex themes the well-developed minor characters. A closer examination of Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s dear friend in Pride and Prejudice, shows that while she did not take up a large amount of space in the narrative, her impact was great. Charlotte’s unfortunate circumstances in the marriage market make her a foil to Elizabeth, who has the power of choice and refusal when it comes to deciding who will be her husband. By focusing on Charlotte’s age and lack of beauty, Austen emphasizes how ridiculous and cruel marriage can be in this time.
Each of Jane Austen’s characters in her novel, Pride and Prejudice, experiences a significant character development. Whether the change occurs by self-realization or through the assistance of another character varies from each individual character. For Austen’s leading man, Mr. Darcy, his character improvement is documented through his two marriage proposals to Elizabeth Bennet and her subsequent first rejection of his proposal. His first proposal demonstrates his extreme arrogance, elitism, and blindness to his many flaws. While his latter proposal shows not only the recognition of his deficiencies, but the overall improvement in his mentality. Mr. Darcy’s two proposals, though having the same intended end result, are completely different
The romantic era in literature was characterized by many different authors, male and female. Jane Austen was only one of many authors in that era, and one of the longest lasting; through her many novels, she shows various views on love and marriage. In Jane Austen’s critically acclaimed novel, Pride and Prejudice, Austen spares no character, male or female, in her criticism of the understood custom that the only route to happiness was marriage.
Psychologist Robert Sternberg developed the "Triangular Theory of Love" which defines the three components of love needed for a "perfect" relationship as commitment, passion, and intimacy (companionship) (Wikipedia). "The amount of love one experiences depends on the absolute strength of these three components, and the type of love one experiences depends on their strengths relative to each other" (Wikipedia). In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, she introduces five couples which enter into marriages in all different types of love. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have an infatuated love that fades to no love at all, Charlotte and Mr. Collins enter into an empty love, Lydia and Mr. Wickham fall into a fatuous love, Jane and Mr. Bingley focus on a companionate love, and finally, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy find an all consummate love for each other. Throughout the novel, Austen uses these five variations of love to employ characters and define their futures.
This novel is mainly focused on Elizabeth Bennet as she struggles to overcome her prejudices about Darcy, a rich and handsome suitor who has taken a liking to her, while the tales of the other Bennet sisters as they grapple with their own prejudices and search for the truth unfolds concurrently. Jane Austen suggests through events in the novel that structuring the truth to fit one’s personal idealism and prejudices can unfairly color one’s opinion of another and inhibit one from finding self-fulfillment. The interplay between truth and idealism will be explored in this essay by analyzing how idealism influences truth, the difference between the idealistic interpretation and reality in Pride and Prejudice, and the effect of using idealism to construe the
England, under James 1st rule was a vastly altered period compared to our now modern society. So many of the values held during this time, have now been discarded and forgotten. Jane Austen grew up in the Romantic period and experienced a world which was divided, whether through education, class, status, fashion, abilities, gender and etiquette. Her novel, Pride and Prejudice is counted as one of the great classics of English Literature. Austen engrosses readers to live in her world for a time and experience a society filled with matchmaking, romance, marriage and gossip. Every one of her characters is so distinctive and has a clearly outlined caricature. Each of their diverse values conveys a different thinking of the time. Pride and Prejudice is preoccupied with the gentry and most of the social aspects which consumed these people’s lives. There were so many expectations of how you would behave in public, but of course not all of these were upheld. Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas are four characters which keep such strong beliefs about the social norms. These characters are expressed so descriptively and through their personalities readers can learn just how the numerous social standards were received.
Even after its publication in 1813 Jane’s Austen’s romantic and wonderfully written masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice, remains an absolute joy to read for thousands and thousands of readers across the globe. The 19th century novel enchants the youngest of readers to the wisest of souls. Many individuals all over the world, very much like us as university students here at Villanova, are quite intrigued by the amazingly created characters, impressively dynamic portrayal of an oppressively class-bound culture, and the vitality of a strong woman at the center of the novel. Jane Austen presents the reader with the most tantalizing and illustrious opening sentence, which enamors the reader and never lets go. "It is a truth universally acknowledged,
In Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice, Austen reveals a sparkling comedy of love and marriage, wit, form, and feeling that achieve some type of balance between pride and prejudice. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett illustrate how comic characterization can be used to reveal different marital situations. Pride and Prejudice shows many aspects of marriage and demonstrates how one can make the most of their life regardless of the circumstances. Elizabeth and Darcy have discovered themselves through their differences and the loss of their pride and their prejudices. The traits pride and prejudice can be seen as desirable merits: self-respect and intelligence. Pride and Prejudice shows that human nature can be influenced by the society in which one subscribes.
Literary Analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The novel Pride and Prejudice, is a romantic comedy, by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is a story about an unlikely pair who go through many obstacles before finally coming together. Pride is the opinion of oneself, and prejudice is how one person feels others perceive them. The novel, Pride and Prejudice, uses plot, the characters of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and the status of women and social standing, to portray the theme of the novel - pride and prejudice.