Honor, reputation, popularity, class, agreeability, are several values that really matter in the society portrayed by Jane Austin in her novel “Pride and Prejudice”. Caught between these two elements (pride and prejudice) that define their beliefs, their morals and their shallow personalities, most characters exposed in this novel are concerned about how other people see them and are doing everything in their power to maintain the social appearances, while following their selfish interests in acquiring wealth or finding profitable marriage settlements, meant to draw on a good social position in the same time. A very important aspect in pursuing these goals (hence in maintaining the appearances and deepening their shallowness) is represented by their manners. In fact, in the novel “Pride and Prejudice”, the word “manners” carries a significant weight in Austen’s sketch of the social world and the marriage game set in the English countryside of 1800.
In “Pride and Prejudice”, “manners” play the role of a person’s social morals and they are synonyms with a good character, as they define how a person should behave and how his or her personality should be. The word “manners” propels a “copy – paste” like image of how people should look and act, sustaining a uniform society, where any distinction or deviation from the social – imposed norms are unaccepted. As such, the character of Mr. Darcy, who is unlike the other gentlemen of the society is considered unpopular because of his manners. People around him are disturbed by the nature of his personality, which is totally distinct of the values that are considered as outright in their social conventions. The fact that “he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity;” (Austen 7), indicate that the society in which he reached disliked gentlemen who were proud, who did not dance, did not interact with unknown people, who were not fans of small talk or who were honest. The word “manner”, in Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice” is also used for describing people’s actions. When Jane (Elisabeth’s older sister) caught a cold while she visited Mr. Bingley’s sister, Caroline in Netherfield, she had to remain there for several day in order to recover from the cold. Elisabeth went to see her sister, being concerned about her health. In this purpose, she traveled by foot, the distance from the house to Caroline’s place, which caused injuries to her ankles and “dirty stockings” (Austen 23), as Miss Bingley thought of her. This observation reflects the shallowness of the social Moravians, concerned about people’s appearances instead of their pure, noble intentions. Elisabeth’s acts of care and sisterly love for Jane was interpreted as bad manners by Miss Bingley who offended Elisabeth, thinking badly of her manners: “Her manners were pronounced to be very bad indeed, a mixture of pride and impertinence” (Austen 23) and seconded by Mrs. Hurst (the older sister of Miss Bingley and Mr. Bingley, married to Mr. Hurst), who could not tolerate Elisabeth’s looks when she came to see her sister: “She has nothing, in short, to recommend her, but being an excellent walker. I shall never forget her appearance this morning. She really looked almost wild” (Austen 23).
The concept of “manners” comprises the values of the English countryside society of the 1800, including people’s aspirations, their nature, their actions, their appearances, their attitudes, and their role in the society, overall. Behind this word there is vanity, greed, hypocrisy, false friendship, social moral standards that have nothing to do with the pure morals of gentleness of the soul. In Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” the concept of “manners” is used as a mask that people wear in public, for emanating the same image, for playing upon the same social conventions. And this mask has the same features, or otherwise it cannot be a part of the society. Darcy and Elisabeth choose not to wear this mask and be honest and open and express their true ideas, feelings and natures, which condemn them as being proud people, with bad manners, for not behaving as the society wants them to behave. The “manners”, in Austen’s portrayed society, are like a glove that covers a hand stained with hypocrisy, intrigue, falsity, one that grabs the innocence and the purity of a clean heart and mind and transforms it into a puppet, which acts upon a guideline imposed by the society. The term “manners” define how people should act based on the social codes, not based on the human morals. In fact, the social codes define the sense of morality, in the acceptance of the English society described in Jane Austen’s novel and because of this, the bad manners, or the improper behavior are considered immoral. Defining one’s appearance or likes and dislikes, one’s attitude about social conventions that are different than the of the rest’s as the lack of good manners would mean to consider them immoral, according to this syllogism emerged from the perceptions of the English countryside society of the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, and this reflects the shallowness and the hypocrisy of this society, so caught – up in manners that could not distinct right from wrong.
In the current world we live in and in my social context, the word “manners” still maintains some of the connotations that it had back in the 18 – 19th century countryside England. The term “manners” is used nowadays for describing a civilized way of behaving in public, but also in private. As such, my mother used to ask me “Where are your manners?”, when I used to enter the room without saluting, or when I grabbed a cookie before the lunch was finished. Likewise, in public, we were taught in school to help the elders when in need and to patiently wait in line for our turn to come when buying ice-cream, as a way of showing our good manners. Indeed, these values still maintain the same uniformity of the society, as people who are part of the society must act the same, otherwise they are ill-mannered.
However, the concept of “manners” nowadays is also somehow mocked and there is a trend of acting against the social inherited and engraved manners as a form of behaving. The concept of manners is dissociated from morality. Nowadays, compared to “Pride and Prejudice” society, people challenge others with their attitude and their appearance and they are considered a way of expressing one’s personality, not an expression of the manners. There are, however, social norms of how to behave in public, that even the non – conformists (the ones who don’t obey the rules of social manners) respect, but they are not an expression of the manners, but of individual morality.
Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Maryland: Arc Manor. 2008. Print.
