Fame And Pride

Fame consists mainly of the public opinion about a person. How others see this person affects greatly their fame. Jane Austen's seems to think that fame is very important. Being famous in Pride and Prejudice signifies a lot because vanity is very high as well as prejudice. According to Austen: "It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does" (Austen, pg102). At first, I didn't understand how vanity could deceive a woman, but I do know how pride can deceive a person. Pride can make a person think excessively good of himself and when reality hits this person he will be disappointed that his actual self didn't stand up to his pride. Also having a very low pride makes a person feel bad about himself and have self esteem problems. However, vanity can affect pride, also having an effect on the person. Vanity could be described as the level of importance the prejudice of others has in a person. If vanity is very high, which is the case in the book, then the prejudice of others could greatly affect pride. The way "Women fancy admiration" is nothing more than their vanity, wanting to be admired.

As a matter of fact public opinion has a great effect in pride of people. A person who is always talked about as good and honorable would have a high pride. Since everyone thinks well of him, he will most likely think good of him as well. If this public opinion is the contrary the pride of the person could also go down. Mrs. Bennet's pride went down a lot when the marriage vents happened. According to Austen: "Mrs. Bennet had many grievances to relate, and much to complain of. […] Two of her girls had been on the point of marriage, and after all there was nothing" (pg. 105). The main objective of Mrs. Bennet is to marry her daughters and preferably to a wealthy man. In this case she was very close to achieving this two times but had failed at the end. This event was a direct hit to her pride. Prejudice about how her two daughters were so close to marriage and in the end nothing happened could have appeared, being obstacles of Mrs. Bennet's objective.