Mind over Matter in Pride and Prejudice Jory Anna Nagel

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a story of courtship and marriage. In Austen's world most matches were made according to circumstance and convenience. So it is with many of her young couples in the novel. The social sense of filial responsibility and financial prudence is so pervasive that Austen is, at times, questioned for her seeming lack of passion. Indeed, over half of the couples in the book end up with a mediocre marriage. The fact is, however, that Austen is giving her reader an extremely accurate depiction of the way in which society persuaded its citizens that love was secondary. This frame of mind offset romance by a large margin, but the author wants her readers to know that love is not a lost cause altogether. Austen's tale is one where passion and desire are the unexpected cavalry in the skirmish of head verses heart. To this end, Pride and Prejudice is a brilliant novel in which love and longing, though treated contemptuously by the social mentality, prove victorious at long last.

The relationship between passion and desire is deeply intricate. The desire for something usually precedes having a passion for it; however, there are times when uncalculated fervor rouses some secret yearning and...