Pride & Prejudice, Peel the Layers

“Our thoughts are unseen hands shaping the people we meet.  Whatever we truly think them to be, that’s what they’ll become for us.”  ~Richard Cowper

Who hasn’t heard about Pride & Prejudice? Jane Austen’s popular and much loved novel and the famous protagonists (or maybe we should call them antagonists) Elizabeth Bennet and Mr.Darcy! I first read the abridged version when I was in my early teens and soon enough got myself an unabridged version. I have lost count on the number of times I have read this book since. There was a time when I knew the book almost by heart and had memorized every single line of dialogue between the protagonists!  Mr.Darcy soon became popular in my friends circle. Actually, popular is an understatement. “Hearthrob” would be the more appropriate word. A televised version of the novel was adapted locally around the same time and we would be hooked on to it for the 13 weeks it ran and another 13 weeks when it reran a year later and …! Talk of giddy teens and their first brush with romance!

“No one ever choked to death swallowing his pride”~Unknown

I must confess that even though I have grown out my teens, I remain a faithful and incurable romantic. I have watched all possible versions of P&P, the BBC adaptations, the Hollywood versions, the A&E versions … everything that has ever been created so far for television or cinema. Even today, I never miss an opportunity to watch or read anything to do with P&P or Jane Austen or drool over Mr.Darcy and his avatars in numerous versions. Laurence Oliver and Colin Firth being my favorites. Call it the Austen magic or the Darcy madness! It runs deep and far. In fact, my husband who hasn’t read a word of the book or hardly knew anything about P&P or Austen (before we got married) pretty much knows the entire story and can identify the important characters – esp. the eccentric Mr.Collins!

“Temper gets you into trouble. Pride keeps you there.”~ Unknown

Pride & Prejudice is a family and social drama set in early 19th century England society, a world when men apprently held the advantage over women in many respects. When it came to marrying to one’s liking, respectability, social status, family fortune and advantage were essential factors to be considered.

Elizabeth comes from a middle-class family and is endowed with a razor-sharp wit, intelligence and a great sense of humor. She is second in a family of five daughters and their family’s estate is entailed to a distant relative upon their father’s (Mr.Bennet) death. Their mother is ever enterprising to get her daughters married off and she lives as if her only mission in life is to see her daughters married off – find advantageous matches they must and the pressure even more so on the eldest two.

Mr.Darcy is well-born, extremely wealthy and well-educated. When he enters the middle class Bennet society, he  behaves in an outrageously haughty and insufferably proud manner. Elizabeth develops an instant dislike towards Darcy attributing her dislike to his abominable pride and condescending bearing towards others. As the drama unfolds and life throws up opportunities and challenges, they get to know one another better. One learns to overcome her “prejudice” and the other his “pride” as they get past their initial antagonism, differences and limited perceptions. Not only do they recognize the true worth and appreciate the strengths in the other person, they learn to love another.

“We are each burdened with prejudice; against the poor or the rich, the smart or the slow, the gaunt or the obese.  It is natural to develop prejudices.  It is noble to rise above them.”  ~Author Unknown

Pride and prejudice is a timeless and ageless masterpiece and the wisdom in this novel applies to all societies and people all over the world. There is an Elizabeth and a Darcy in each one of us. Pride and prejudice – are as old as humanity and like Elizabeth and Darcy did, it is natural to form pride and prejudices.

Everyone has pride – we are proud of our nations, cultures, religions, families, ourselves. So, what’s wrong about it? Nothing’s wrong with pride – pride in one’s own worth  – as long as that pride doesn’t become reason to become vain and arrogant and look down upon or abuse other nations, cultures, religions, families, people, beliefs, faiths, opinions etc.

We are equally burdened with prejudices – we have a natural tendency to judge everyone and everything around us as good or bad, right or wrong, rich or poor, intelligent or dumb, fair or dark and so on.

“O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.”  ~William Penn

Like a frog living in a well, we tend to believe that our own well is the whole universe, that we know and understand is the whole truth. This breeds separative consciousness making us forget that we are just one tiny part of a whole and what we know and understand is a tiny part of the whole truth.

As we peel through the outer layers of pride and prejudice that we have created in ourselves and clothed others in, we realize that they are just layers (non-essentials that keep us distracted) created by our mind and thoughts and that at the (essential) core, we are all the same with the same basic needs and wants – love, appreciation, recognition, security etc.   Not only are we the same, we are collectively ONE macrocosm – like trillions of cells performing different functions for one body – no one cell is less or more important. Similarly, we are all ONE Spirit – no one is less or more important – we are all equal.

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