Pride
and Prejudice
and Great Expectations are considered as classic novels in English
literature. Though main themes of these two novels are love and marriage, society
and culture of that time were also beautifully portrayed in them. In these two
novels, we also can see the issues of dignity of human beings in the society,
and among the different social classes and culture of people.
Pride
and Prejudice
was written during Romantic Age and Jane Austen belonged to that age, but still
we cannot find much of similarity between Austen’s works and that of other
contemporary Romantic writers including William Wordsworth, Coleridge or
Shelley and Keats. One of the reasons behind this is that Jane Austen did not
travel that much, so she was not exposed to the other world as much as other
Romantic Age writers. Naturally, her knowledge of outer world did not develop
to the extent she could write on issues other than those she found in her
limited social boundaries. So, she did not find enough of opportunities to
associate with many people. She just portrays in her works what she has
experienced in her society.
The
society that we can see in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is the
society of middle class people of contemporary England. Here, interestingly the
main theme is women’s condition in the society. The story revolves around the
condition of five Bennet sisters and they are at the center of all attention in
this novel. Bingley’s family is rich but Darcy is the richest among them. Jane
Austen has beautifully portrayed the middle class ethos of the society. She
shows that how the entire society of middle class people is engrossed in the
idea of getting their girls married to good grooms. This very common trait of
contemporary middle class England was aptly captured in this novel. Readers can
clearly observe the tension of Mrs. Bennet about the marriage of her five
daughters. She wants her daughters to get married as early as possible because
the entire property of her husband, Mr. Bennet, will go under the possession of
a distant relative named Mr. Collins upon the death of Mr. Bennet. A highly
discriminating inheritance system of contemporary England did not allow
daughters to inherit any wealth or property from their father. This leads Mrs.
Bennet to become tensed with the marriage of her daughters. No doubt, this was
really an injustice to the women of that time.
When
it comes to culture, Jane Austen has clearly shown that not everyone’s culture
is good in that society. Mrs. Bennet is the wife of an educated middle class
family, still her culture is not up to the mark and lack of education is
perhaps the reason. Mrs. Bennet is not that much educated, though Mr. Bennet is
highly educated. It is true that education does not always ensure elevated
culture as we can later on see in two sisters of Bingley. Though they are
moderately educated, they do not possess good culture and they have developed
jealousy in their nature. Their elevated place in the society and higher status
do not come to of any use due to their lack of good culture. The same thing
goes with Darcy’s relative Lady Fitzwilliam. Despite being highly rich, she
possesses a culture of low quality and the harshly manner with which she
insults Elizabeth cannot be expected from someone of such dignity.
On
the other hand, Great Expectations is written and set in the Victorian
era. Like many of Dickens’ novels, it also portrays the lives of poor, lower
class people as well as their plight and struggles. Pip comes from poor
background and luckily comes to the attention of Miss Havisham. He loves
Estella from the bottom of his heart, but she mocks at his being poor and
rejects his love. Though Pip’s deep love for Estella recurrently comes in the
forefront of the novel, the main focus of this novel is put on the social
system of Victorian Age. It was a period when the society was going through
several changes and formation with the old fading and the new emerging. A new
emerging society put several challenges for the people. Rural people were
flocking into the cities with the hope of getting work and the structure of
both the rural and urban society was going though a huge change. Though Pip
gets some money through the imprisoned criminal, he does not get respect upon
coming to the city. Neither does he get Estella’s love, nor is he treated with
dignity by his city friends.
Pip
develops a kind of arrogance in his character after coming to the city and he
begins to feel inferiority complex due to the social background he belongs to.
So, in the beginning, he neglects Joe which eventually turns into hatred. It is
really frustrating because when Pip sinks into huge debt and faces imprisonment,
it is Joe who stands beside him and saves him from going to jail by paying off
his debts with all his savings. So, we can see that there existed a kind of
instability in the contemporary society which Charles Dickens delicately
portrays.
About
culture, what we can learn from Great Expectations is that there is no
certainty that people with good fortune or high education would possess
elevated culture. People may have huge wealth or are highly educated, but still
they could have culture of low quality. Rich people may have better means or
standard of living, may enjoy abundant of food, may have good taste for attire,
but when it comes to personality or mannerism they often lag behind those
coming from the middle class or poor background. For example, the kind of
culture Joe exhibits is unmatched to Dickens’ any other characters in the
novel. Though Pip makes many mistakes, commits several wrongdoings, he still
has the power to correct himself and the will to get changed which is
definitely a praiseworthy quality. This is also an essential part of good
culture. On the other hand, Estella or Miss Havisham gets spoilt with Pip’s
money and they have no intention to change themselves. However, Estella towards
the end realizes her past mistakes and attempts to correct herself by finding
the true meaning of life, but the reality is that we find most of the
characters of Great Expectations lacking elevated culture. Their sense
of good culture is limited to maintaining a good standard of life by enjoying
good food, good living condition and having good quality of attire. Dickens
though this novel criticizes the contemporary society which is mostly devoid of
qualities like good personality, mental will to become good and some other
moral qualities and he proves that these are all essential elements of a good
and elevated culture.
In
their novels Jane Austen and Charles Dickens attempt to prove and justify that
culture should not be limited to having good fortune or higher education. The
contemporary society of England was not an ideal place for good, honest and
cultured people. In fact, those wanted to follow the path of honesty and
goodness failed miserably and became the victim of harsh reality in a society
which itself was corrupt and lifeless. People did not have right attitude
towards life and often they used to act abnormally. That is what we see in Pride
and Prejudice where many people dislike Elizabeth despite her honest and
elevated personality. In terms of quality, there can be no comparison between
Elizabeth and the two sisters of Bingley, but what we see in reality is that
both the sisters do not let go even the slightest of opportunity to poke fun at
Elizabeth just because of their financial power. On the other hand, in Dickens’
novel Great Expectations, Pip upon realizing his mistakes tries to
correct himself, but still he does not get the due respect from the society.
The reason is same: his poverty-stricken background.
Both
Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, through the characters of Elizabeth and Joe,
attempt to say that a person’s dignity in the society should be measured by his
or her personality and characteristics, not by wealth.
