Cinderlizzie
by F.R.R. Mallory
October 18, 2006

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
~H. L. Mencken

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice uses the accessible and familiar literary form of Cinderella as a canvas to explore applied female intelligence, and experiential freedom based on free-thinking feminine individualism. Fairytales mirror the complex issues and challenges faced in everyday life while providing a feeling of comfort and reassurance when a person is seeking meaning for their existence. The Cinderella fairytale "invites us to recall times when we felt ourselves unappreciated and rejected- and then to share Cinderella's satisfaction at being discovered as a true princess" (Hallett 52). This mirrors how the novel is launched with Darcy's initial rejection of Elizabeth the first time they encounter each other and how the novel is ended with Elizabeth's satisfaction at being validated by Darcy's (request for marriage.) The Cinderella coming-of-age fairytale is marked by both; a young heroine who is rescued from her circumstances by a prince and by the subsequent dependency and degree of passivity; of the heroine, "each of the heroines exhibits varying degrees of passivity and must ultimately be rescued by a male and fulfilled by marriage" (Hallett 51). Austen uses this familiar archetypal structure to create a constant yet comforting plot arc that reassures the reader early on of a satisfactory story resolution, thereby freeing the reader to engage in the primary issues and concerns of the protagonist. However, Austen's choice of this literary form also conforms to her penchant for irony by subtly warning the reader that the protagonist's success is dependent upon adherence to this literary form.

When Austen makes Elizabeth a quick, inquisitive thinker who rapidly evaluates others and stubbornly holds to her opinions, she places into motion how this controversial personality model of feminine individualism will work against the objective of finding a suitable engagement. By utilizing Elizabeth Bennett as an intellectually flawed protagonist whose analyses of persons and events are frequently unreliable, Austen undermines her ostensible praise of Elizabeth's independent thought and self-confidence by making her success contingent on conformance with etiquette and behaviors of the day. This suggests that Austen, while appreciating and even enjoying the freely expressive behavior of Elizabeth, saw that such expressions created new barriers to the already obstacle laden path of engagement acquisition. This creates an uneasy trade-off between individualism and success. During the Regency period, female intelligence is not considered favorably. The Lady's Preceptor, an etiquette book of the day, suggests a woman's intellect should be handled in this way, "...abstain from gossip and a spirit of contradiction, which, while disagreeable in everyone, is especially so in the ``fair sex''; ... be careful not to be too quick and passionate in conversation, or too inquisitive" (Spruill).

Austen makes light of the situation facing Elizabeth Bennett and her sisters as the novel begins, but the reality of a family of five eligible sisters in a household unable to provide them with a living or dowry as a matrimonial lure was actually quite serious. By the time the novel opens, Elizabeth Bennett is already approaching spinsterhood. This is reflected in her inability to maintain a full dance card "I am in no humour...to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men" (Austen 9). It is key to remember here that while Elizabeth sits out two dances, her younger sister Lydia has a full dance card. In this instance Darcy is correctly evaluating Elizabeth's status as an eligible young woman who is being slighted by being considered unworthy of a dance partner since she is in fact sitting out the dance.

Elizabeth, demonstrating both the careless behavior of her father and the social ignorance of her mother, expresses a cavalier attitude toward her circumstances when she tells Charlotte: "Your plan is a good one...where nothing is in question but the desire of being well married; and if I were determined to get a rich husband, or any husband, I dare say I should adopt it" (Austen 15). Instead, Elizabeth favors an engagement of her personal entertainment, primarily executed by the summary pre-judging of other people and situations such as when she tells Bingley "Yes,...intricate characters are the most amusing" (Austen 29). She emulates her mother's rush to judgment when analyzing other people such as when she speaks to Wickham of Darcy saying "He deserves to be publicly disgraced" (Austen 55).

Elizabeth reads as an engaging and vibrant character who is easy to invest in. However, this is duplicitous on the part of Austen who uses her mastery of character development to disguise Elizabeth's fundamental intellectual flaws. When other characters challenge Elizabeth's analysis of people or situations, her absorption in the validity of her own opinion creates an opacity of thought that prevents Elizabeth from being able to accept their analysis over her own. In this way Elizabeth is trapped within her perception of her analytical skills. Charlotte, in speaking to Elizabeth about Jane's composure and uniformity of manner, warns her, "If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark" (Austen 15). Elizabeth answers, "If I can perceive her regard for him, he (Bingley) must be a simpleton indeed not to discover it too" (Austen 15). In this way we see that Elizabeth makes no allowances for the perceptions of other people, reflecting a personal opacity of thought.

Through Chapter XX, Volume I, Elizabeth continues to assign judgments to Darcy's conversations and behaviors, and she accepts Mr. Wickham's description of his circumstances based primarily on the pleasantness of Wickham's appearance. She then rejects Mr. Collins' proposal and describes her position as "a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart" (Austen 75). Rational equates to having sound judgment, yet this action may easily be considered unsound based on Elizabeth and her family's charged circumstances. Her marriage to Collins would preserve the family income and protect her mother and sisters' future. So, her choice to refuse him seems more self-serving or is based upon her individual desires rather than fulfilling reason. In fact, her choice is more emotional than rational and this again reflects her emotional ignorance and demonstrates the unreliability of her perceptions. Charlotte demonstrates rationality and good judgment when she pursues Mr. Collins or when she elects to choose pragmatic reasons for marriage over romantic or emotional reasons.

At this point Austen has fully exposed the flaws in Elizabeth's intellectual process and allows the reader to see the situation from two sides by using the device of a flexible, if often biased, narrator. This exposure culminates at Hunsford when Elizabeth, again demonstrating her free thinking, rejects Darcy's proposal. This is the true climax of the novel or the point where Elizabeth, through direct action influences the plot. From this point Austen returns to utilization of the Cinderella literary form to reduce her heroine to a passive character who, once made to see the fundamental flaw in her analytical process, expresses submission to the prevailing rules of social conduct. As Elizabeth withdraws from expressing her divergent analyses in the second half of the novel, she becomes more successful in terms of the plot. This submission is expressed in the language of gratitude or benefit received (from Darcy or the Prince archetype.) Elizabeth is now delivered into the unequal position of being grateful for Darcy's attention and it is upon the potential of his continued affections that she applies herself into his company. In this way when Elizabeth starts listening to the judgments of others, she becomes more successful and is eventually rescued into engagement.

Many fairytales, including Cinderella, come complete with a built-in happily-ever-after clause. Austen does little more than sketch out the moments of Elizabeth and Darcy's engagement before she presses herself into tidying up the loose story details. In her extraordinary post-engagement scene, the final scene between Elizabeth and Darcy, Elizabeth demonstrates her lack of confidence in the value of her 'quickness' when she speaks for Darcy, literally putting words into his mouth when she says, "...call it impertinence...It was very little less. The fact is you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone" (Austen 248). If Elizabeth were truly confident of Darcy's opinion, she would have allowed Darcy to voice his opinion himself. Her rush to insert her analysis, so reminiscent of her behavior early in the novel, becomes a mode of silencing the words she cannot risk hearing from Darcy. She needs to feel validated as a salve to her ego, even when this validation is little more than Elizabeth speaking to Elizabeth.

It is instructive to recall Darcy's words quite early in the novel when he says of Lizzie, "You expect me to account for opinions which you chuse to call mine, but which I have never acknowledged" (Austen 34). At the post-engagement point in the story does Darcy confirm Elizabeth's account of his opinions? No. In fact Austen has Elizabeth continue, saying, "There-I have saved you the trouble of accounting for it; and really, all things considered, I begin to think it perfectly reasonable" (Austen 249). In this way, Austen ends the novel with Darcy acting as the indulgent male authority figure to Elizabeth's unstable intellectual process.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride And Prejudice. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.

Hallett, Martin, and Barbara Karasek, eds. Folk and Fairy Tales. 2nd ed. Toronto: Broadview Press, Ltd., 1998.

Spruill, Julia Cherry. Women's Life and Work in the Southern Colonies and
The Lady's Preceptor. 18 September 2006.
<http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pptopic2.html#protofem3>.

Jane Austen
1775-1817

For me, Jane Austen is the mother of romance novels. I'm aware that lots of people will feel that I am somehow minimizing her contributions here but I don't think that I am. If you have read or currently read romance novels you see and hear the echoes of Jane Austen. The romance novel as a genre is one of the most prolific and successful genres of modern writing. Women love to read romance and they love to read Austen style romance novels.

This means that they like to read about a young woman overcoming the odds to find her special man and that man will eventually show wisdom by overlooking her flaws and choosing her above other more qualified (perhaps) suitors.

In one sense this is the classic underdog triumph story - but in another sense it is revelatory of the current state of the struggle women are experiencing as they try to reinvent the traditions of romantic conquest.

In some ways marriage has become a validation certificate or how a young woman presents to her parents and friends proof of her conditioning and acceptance of role. This is where a woman earns her rights to life through performance.

I know we have dressed marriage up in really pretty wrappings but for a woman, collecting a man is an iconic trophy in her life, a necessary possession. I suppose one parallel might be to equate a woman's ability to attract and possess a man - to a man's ability to be successful in business. Both of these acts validate the individual in terms of culture and society and failure to perform reduces each as a commodity or value both to their families and to themselves.

What Jane Austen did was begin the externalized inner race of women to play out every possible permutation of the traditional exercise in much the same way that an individual will attract or be attracted to the same type of partner until they complete their inner work, when they can free themselves of the structure of their inner wounding.

Is Pride and Prejudice great literature? It certainly has some novel structure issues. Yet it does manage to inspire thousands of similar works so in this way its impact can be correctly stated to be great.

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