Bruce Stovel’s A Contrariety of Emotion’: Jane Austen’s Ambivalent Lovers in Pride and Prejudice :: Pride Prejudice

Bruce Stovels A Contrariety of Emotion Jane Austens Ambivalent Lovers in Pride and PrejudiceThe hero and heroine in Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice forever intrigue critics, and in Bruce Stovels essay, they are once again analyzed. thoroughly researched and imaginative in scope, Stovels A Contrariety of Emotion Jane Austens Ambivalent Lovers in Pride and Prejudice presents a novel interpretation of Elizabeth and Darcys relationship. Stovel believes that the lovers relationship is neither love-at-first-sight nor hate-at-first-sight. Instead, he firmly believes that since Pride and Prejudice is comic, it has a both/and rather than an either/or vision (28). Drawing the definition of ambivalence from the Oxford English Dictionary, Stovel clarifies that what Elizabeth and Darcy feel toward each other is ambivalence the coexistence in one person of the emotional attitudes of love and hate, or other opposite feelings, towards the same objective or situation (27).Sandwiching his analyses of the ambivalent lovers between his deliberations on Austens intentions and other critics inductions, Stovel is able to lodge his essay in a broad, meaningful context. However, this strength of Stovels essay is also a flaw, because as Stovel spews forth a list of what other critics theorise, the reader is left to wonder what Stovel himself thinks. When Stovel finally reveals his opinions, he speaks of moral patterns and mental states as being ambivalent characteristics of Elizabeth (28). Although Stovels idea has great potential for expansion, he fails at explaining this concept clearly. It is difficult to grasp the connection between the moral engagement of Elizabeth in protecting herself from her own sharp intelligence and her being humiliated by Charlottes defection (29). After all, Elizabeth prides herself on being a studier of character (Austen, 38) and she is shocked at not humiliated by Charlottes marriage to Mr. Collins. Elizabeth cannot believe her friends defection, because she has previously told Charlotte that it is unsound to believe it is better(p) to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life (Austen, 21). Stovel states that Elizabeths psychological predicament is being unable to think well of others (Stovel, 29). This is untrue, because Elizabeth admires her sister Jane for thinking well of everyone, and she could easily forgive Darcys pride, if he had not mortified hers (Austen, 19). In short, Stovel is correct in uncovering the contrarieties of Elizabeths thoughts and emotions, merely he does so with some poor examples from Austens text.