Pride and Prejudice——The Barrier Built Between You and Happiness

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

The story unfolds when a wealthy spirited young gentleman, Caroline Bingley, along with his two sisters and Fitzwilliam Darcy moved into the Netherfield Park estate, attracting the attention of the Bennet family, who wished to marry off her five daughters to the rich, which turned out to greatly influenced both families afterwards.

Unlike her vulgar mother and four sisters, Elizabeth Bennet has always been the one with reason in the family. Rationality flows in her blood while her two spoiled younger sisters seem to act otherwise. Moreover, she is also blessed with both intelligence and appealing appearance. Likewise, Mr. Darcy struck everyone as a refined, perceptive, handsome rich young gentleman. Though bearing quite a few similarities with Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth didn’t get along well with him at the very beginning. Instead, Mr. Darcy left a poor first impression on the mind of Elizabeth due to his arrogant and proud manner at their first encounter. Prejudice was thus formed in her mind, leading to an extended disagreement between the two.

On the path of life, the two argued and criticized each other whenever they seized the chance. While Mr. Darcy appeared to be highly conceited about his social class, Elizabeth responded with criticism for his interference in attempting to separate the marriage between her elder sister, Jane and Mr. Bingley, which was believed to have originated from Mr. Darcy’s overwhelming pride and prejudice towards the Bennets. Consequently, it took a long while before they finally realized that they’re kinder souls.

While going through the pages, I found myself strongly attracted to Mr. Darcy. Unlike Mrs. Bennet, I do not admire him for his fortune or his appealing appearance, but his introverted self. I often see Mr. Darcy as own my reflection: similar to Mr. Darcy, my friends often mistook me as a man with great pride and arrogance when we first encounter, but the truth is the very opposite. Instead of being proud of myself, I would rather think of myself as a boy lacking self-confidence. Like Mr. Darcy, I often hide things from strangers, terrified of letting them see the actual me during our first meeting. However, in the world we are living in, when people look at others, they often allow their first impressions to interpret a person, which often led to the misinterpretation of people like Mr. Darcy and I. If only people had known better, they should not have done so.

A famous remark once said, ‘Misplaced pride generates both comedy and tragedy, while regulated pride is necessary to good decision-making and the same goes to prejudice.’ Only by leaving behind our subjective opinions could we finally obtain true happiness. Thus when prejudice first built up in the heart of Elizabeth, and when pride found its position in the heart of Mr. Darcy, the two people were destined to take the farther path towards happiness. However, when Jane and Mr. Bingley fist met, they saw nothing but pure kindness in each other and it was definitely love at first sight. Though questioned by many and met with numerous obstacles, their souls were never met with things other than pure joy.

It is absolutely natural of people to judge a book by its cover. Perhaps making subjective judgments is our nature, yet who could have guessed that happiness may actually originate from rational perspective towards the world. We, humans, often trouble ourselves with subjective judgments of one another, just as Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have, but, more often than not, we ended up with quarrels and disagreements between one another. On the other hand, if we had followed the example of Jane and Mr. Bingley, we could have taken the shortcut to love, to the future and to eternal gratification. Yet, it is much easier said than done.

When pride and prejudice makes it’s appearance in our hearts, we are only shutting ourselves from the world, from new friends and more importantly, from happiness. By accepting pride and prejudice, we are merely allowing a barrier to be built between gratification and us.