Duality of Personality

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People are an enigma. Our inherent differences make humanity complex, but also cause complicated relationships as people attempt to cope with each other’s uniqueness. Personality is the medium by which an individual accesses the inner psyche of their relations. The disconnect between personality and inner psyche has caused problems in relationships since the beginning of time. Jane Austen’s time focused on manners, and therefore a person’s outward civility in social situations defined their personality, as far as their relations were concerned. Pride and Prejudice highlights the disparity between inner psyche and impression as the primary cause of communicational strain in relationships. She portrays relationships as two similar souls struggling to connect with each other through blundering and inarticulate personalities.
Primarily, the divergence between psyche and the impression other characters perceive is caused by reputation. In 19th century England, social status was a major factor in considering marriages and friendships. Wealth determined almost every aspect in aristocrats’ lives. Darcy’s inner psyche is a victim of his reputation. When he first meets the Bennets at Meryton, he spurns Elizabeth and appears arrogantly proud. However, the young Miss Lucas captures the thoughts of the age by asserting her passivity towards Darcy’s pride “because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favor, should think highly of himself” (18). Society dictates that the wealthy deserve to be proud; Darcy’s reputation as a rich aristocrat disguises his inner personality. Later, Darcy reveals his own opinion of himself by stressing that “where there is a real superio...

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...ever, only Jane Austen can artfully juxtapose the human soul against personality in eight characters in the context of 19th century England’s social norms through satire and irony. She balances the relationships of Jane and Bingley, Collins and Charlotte (and Collins and Lady Catherine), Lydia and Wickham, and finally Elizabeth and Darcy while each are interconnected and problematic due to their mutual lack of understanding. Their miscommunications, caused by the differences between their psyche and the personality they express, are either overcome, as in the case of Darcy and Elizabeth, or ignored, as Collins and Charlotte choose to do. However, both the marriages that Austen portrays as successful, Darcy and Elizabeth, and Bingley and Jane, are successful because the characters supersede their inarticulate personalities and convey their true psyches to each other.

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