Although Jane
Austen and the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung have little in common in terms
of time, place, or subject matter, they do share one thing: they are both,
like Elizabeth Bennet, “studier[s] of character” (Pride and Prejudice
42).Jung’s
theory of psychological type (which has been expanded and explained by
Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers, authors of the widely used Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator) can provide insight into why fictional characters think,
feel, and act as they do.Jungian
personality theory is particularly useful in explaining why Elizabeth Bennet
and Fitzwilliam Darcy initially misunderstand one another, what they have
to learn from one another, and why they are, after all, a perfect match.
Although a large part of Pride and Prejudice revolves around the differences between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, in terms of psychological type they are really quite similar.They share three out of four preferences—introversion, intuition, and judgment—differing only on the thinking-feeling dimension. Mr.
Darcy’s introversion is quite clear.After
the Meryton ball, where his reserve is evident, Jane reports, “‘Miss Bingley
told me . . . that he never speaks much unless among his intimate acquaintance.With
them
he is remarkably agreeable’” (19, italics in original).Introverts
tend to communicate best—and with most pleasure—with a small circle of
close friends.2Elizabeth’s
introversion is not as obvious, because she enjoys and feels comfortable
in society, but a closer look finds her frequently in moments of internal
reflection.She often escapes to
a copse or lane to think things over, as when she reads the letters from
Mr. Darcy and Mrs. Gardiner.In addition,
her “love for solitary walks” (182), her friendly banter that often hides
her true feelings, and her intimate conversations with Jane, to whom alone
she reveals her deepest feelings, all bespeak a preference for introversion. Elizabeth
and Darcy also demonstrate a preference for intuition.Elizabeth’s
character studying itself is an intuitive activity, for it involves fitting
bits of conversation and behavior into a general pattern.Intuitive
types also tend to enjoy hypothetical discussions, such as the consideration
of whether it is better to follow a friend’s advice or to be guided by
one’s own convictions that engages Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy during their
stay at Netherfield.Mr. Bingley,
a sensing type, quickly becomes impatient with the discussion and interrupts
it. In
addition, Elizabeth and Darcy both prefer judging to perception.They
soon know what they think of a given situation and, having thus determined,
are not easily convinced otherwise.When
Darcy determines to observe and interfere in Jane and Bingley’s relationship,
he spends just one evening watching for signs of Jane’s affection before
arriving at his verdict.Similarly,
while at Netherfield Elizabeth finds “what passed between Darcy and his
companion [Miss Bingley]” to be “exactly in unison with her opinion of
each” (47).That her observations
accord with her ideas presupposes that she has made a judgment.Although
both she and Mr. Darcy use their judging functions regularly, their preferred
methods of judging differ. The best demonstration of Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s contrasting styles of judgment comes with their analysis of Mr. Bingley’s hypothetical behavior, should he decide to quit Netherfield, but be asked by a friend to postpone his departure.Elizabeth asks Mr. Darcy whether he would consider “‘obstinacy in adhering to [his plan]’” a virtue (49), and the following conversation ensues:
"To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either."
This
is a classic dialogue between a thinking type and a feeling type, each
defending his or her method of judging.It
does not mean that Elizabeth always acts according to the wishes of her
friends, without conviction, or that Darcy always acts according to his
convictions, without regard to his friends, but it is clear that they each
have one way of making decisions—Elizabeth through feeling and Darcy through
thinking—that they prefer, defend, and best understand.3
An
actual incident where their differences in judgment come into play concerns
their reactions towards the relationship between Mr. Bingley and Jane,
and in particular, Mr. Darcy’s role in separating them.Elizabeth
judges what he has done according to Jane’s feelings, and rebukes him for
“‘ruining, perhaps forever, the happiness of a most beloved sister’” (190).Darcy
is unmoved, still convinced of the better value of the logic that has guided
his decisions.In his letter to Elizabeth
he further explains that he truly believed Jane to be indifferent “on impartial
conviction” (198)—a hallmark of a thinking type.
The
methods of judgment, feeling and thinking, not only reflect the personalities
of Elizabeth and Darcy, but they also showcase one of the main themes of
the book, as capsulated in its title.Excessive
reliance on logical analysis, especially one’s own analysis, can be considered
a form of pride.Likewise, decisions
based on the gut reactions of feeling, especially when stubbornly adhered
to, bear a marked resemblance to prejudice.(Actually,
Mr. Darcy’s “pride” and Elizabeth’s “prejudice” are very much akin to one
another, and Isabel Myers’s definition of prejudice, “a pre-judgment impervious
to perception” [70], could apply equally well to thinking types and feeling
types.)
Elizabeth’s
over-reliance on her feeling-judgment, her prejudice, leads her to evaluate
Darcy before she really knows him.She
dislikes him initially because she has overheard him criticize her.Having
judged him, she stops using her perceptive function to learn more about him.When, at the Netherfield ball,
Mr. Darcy asks Elizabeth to suspend her judgment of him, she replies, “‘if
I do not take your likeness now, I may never have another opportunity’”
(94).She also rejects the information
Jane has gathered—Mr. Bingley’s defense of his friend—and says, “‘you must
excuse my not being convinced by assurances only. . . .I
shall venture still to think . . . as I did before’” (96).After
reading Darcy’s letter, however, Elizabeth finally opens herself up to
her intuitive perceptions.She remembers
that he is “esteemed and valued” by his friends, that he speaks affectionately
of his sister, and that she had never “seen any thing that spoke him to
be unprincipled or unjust” (207) and cannot think of Darcy “without feeling
that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd” (208).“Blind”
is precisely the word Isabel Myers uses to describe “judgment with no perception”
(182).
Similarly,
Darcy’s logical thinking-function originally argues against his love for
Elizabeth.When he proposes the first
time, he forthrightly details “his sense of her inferiority—of its being
a degradation—of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed
to inclination” (189).At this point,
he is not really ready to love Elizabeth, for he does not consider her
to be his equal.Before this relationship
can work, his judgment, as well as his perception, must agree that Elizabeth
is his choice—because of her worthiness, not despite her lack of it.That
his thinking-judgment does change is evident in his eventual acknowledgement
that Elizabeth has taught him “‘a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most
advantageous’” (369).In the course
of this lesson, he has learned the true value of Elizabeth and the inconsequence
of the other concerns that previously caused him such struggles.To
marry Elizabeth is now both the intuitive and the logical wish of his heart.
Although
psychologically speaking Mr. Darcy is not ready to marry Elizabeth when
he first proposes, her refusal and his subsequent letter mark the turning
point in the novel because these events open the way for their further
type development and show each a glimpse of the other’s point of view.As
the novel progresses, Darcy and Elizabeth begin to find a balance between
their perceptive and judging functions.In
addition, they learn from each other about “the other way” to judge and
come to appreciate the other’s strengths in type.Elizabeth,
when reading Mr. Darcy’s letter, is especially distressed by his accusation
of Wickham, “the more so, as she could bring no proof of its injustice”
(205).Looking for proof implies
logical thinking, and justice is something that thinking-types generally
value highly.As Elizabeth comes
to love Mr. Darcy, she gains a “respect created by the conviction of his
valuable qualities” (265), qualities that undoubtedly include the “strength,
presence of mind in crisis, steadiness” (Myers 131) which Isabel Myers
attributes to thinkers.These qualities
are especially evident in Darcy’s involvement with Lydia and Wickham, for
which Elizabeth is particularly grateful.
Elizabeth’s
feeling-oriented assessment of Darcy’s behavior and manners (clearly delineated
in her refusal of his first proposal) at the same time leads him to re-evaluate
himself, using more of her judging process.Once
he and Elizabeth understand one another, he says, “‘you showed me how insufficient
were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased’” (369).He
has learned that looking at something by how it affects and pleases or
displeases others can be a valuable indication of its worth.He
also comes to appreciate Elizabeth for her feeling judgment.When
she asks him to account for his love of her, he cites her “‘affectionate
behaviour to Jane, while she was ill’” (380) as evidence of her goodness.Elizabeth’s
decision to walk the three miles to Netherfield in the mud in order to
nurse and comfort Jane was certainly based on a feeling judgment.
Notes 1The eight preferences are often abbreviated with the following letters: introversion (I), extraversion (E), sensing (S), intuition (N), thinking (T), feeling (F), perception (P), and judgment (J).Jungian psychological types are often written as combinations of these letters.Thus Mr. Bingley is an ESFP, Mr. Darcy an INTJ, and Elizabeth an INFJ. 2The
effects of Darcy’s introversion are heightened because he is also shy,
as demonstrated by Jocelyn Creigh Cass in her article, “An Amusing Study:
Family Likenesses in Pride and Prejudice.”She
notes the family resemblance between Mr. Darcy and his sister Georgiana,
whom Elizabeth finds “exceedingly shy” (261), and cites Mr. Darcy’s discomfort
and silence in social situations and his self-acknowledged role of spectator.Much
of the evidence Cass uses to demonstrate Darcy’s shyness also indicates
introversion, although they are not the same thing.(Introversion
denotes a preference for an internal orientation of energy; shyness is
a difficulty in social situations.)
3
I should note here that Stephen Montgomery, in his Pygmalion Project
series,
identifies Elizabeth as having a preference for thinking, rather than feeling,
which would make her psychological type identical to Darcy’s. However,
I believe that what he identifies as Elizabeth’s “rationality” comes from
her intelligence and her intuition, and that every instance that seems
to suggest a thinking preference can be attributed to one or both of these
things.
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