To Thine Own Self Be True - Essay Example

To thine own self be true To thine own self be true Authentic as defined by the oxford dictionary, means original undisputed not a copy of something or someone. Genuine (oxford dictionary, 2014) Living an authentic lifestyle, therefore, living life that is satisfactory. Living life according to your inward desires, this is in accordance to morals, values, education and dreams. Converse that is unauthentic life, your lifestyle, is a photocopy; you are trying to be someone else may be a role model. Mostly friends might force you, family or low self-esteem too. In her book pride and prejudice, Jane Austen starts with a statement ‘it is a truth acknowledged, universally, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 1813, pg. 3). This statement clearly tells us that this desire that is universally recognized. It is, however, a desire that is not inward. Not everyone who has a wealth wants to marry, if one ends up marrying and yet his desire is not to be married then it means he ends up living unauthentic life. Far from, your own true desires. You are not genuine in short. Community policies seem to dictate our lives. Most of these social rules and policies have to do with class and position in the society. If you are rich, a governor you end up relating with people of your own class and caliber. This is despite your desire to talk to the law in the society. Socially it is not accepted, and you end up being ridiculed (Austen 1813, pg. 8). The Benet family is connected to people who are in the trade. Therefore, they cannot associate with people who have inherited titles and wealth. If they do, it causes tension among aristocrats such as Lady Catherine de Bourgh. This book also shows the “polite” policies which the people engage in through the novel. For example, civilized people are expected to behave by the unspoken rules of the community. The rules are automatic. They do not show the real desires of an individual. This shows the effect of peoples beliefs. When Elizabeth is engaged to dance with Mr. Collins during the ball at Netherfield, for example, she feels chagrin at his enforcing that request despite her obvious lack of desire for his company. Honestly, the set code of conduct as required by the society make people do things if they had a choice to refuse they would do without a blink. Nevertheless, the repercussions of refusing to act as required leave you with no other choice but to act (Austen 1813, pg. 15). Austen examines the numerous strains sandwiched between desires and “unanimously approved” like being in one’s importance and the adjustments of an individual real desire in relation to the believed universality. Austen’s characters are obliged to bargain the path their lives might follow (Austen 1813, pg. 9). Mrs. Bennett wants all her five daughters to marry rich husbands. They have no choice because, in the case of their fathers death, they will be forced to face economic hardships. In this case, we see a display of fake life. Whether or not the daughters want love, rich men and want to marry them have no option about it. Elizabeth and Jane (she always wanted the best for everyone) her sister are rescued by the interruption of Darcy and Bingley. These two young men are wealthy and unmarried (Austen 1813, pg. 55). Elizabeth is more than ready to lay down her universal assumptions by submitting her prejudices to the test of time. She sees her owns best friend, Charlotte Lucas unsuccessful marriage to a rich man, Mr. Collins. This acts an obstacle to the success of her plans to her own daughters. Subsequently, Charlotte also seems to align her views towards the future. Her own experience in marrying a rich man has taught her to be wise. She extends her learned experience to her best friend Lizzy who is marrying off her daughter Jane to a wealthy man, Bingley. She says, “Well,” said Charlotte, I wish Jane success with all my heart, and if she were married to him [Bingley] tomorrow, I should think she had as good a chance of happiness, as if she were to be studying his character for a twelve-month. Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation, and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life (Austen 1813, pg23). She has leant that the future is not anything to influence or something that can be intended for. One should make decisions carefully. According to your own desires and not the universal policies of the community. There are many possibilities about the future. Jane may end up happily married or tragically divorced. No one for sure knows the future or even can dictate how it may turn out. Miss Bingley’s example clearly shows. The change of the future ought to be principled. This should be in a way to recognize and protect freewill of someone close to us instead of acting according to the universal set of rules (Austen 1813, pg30). Assumption is another thing that prevents us to live authentic lives. When Mr. Collins visits Elizabeth, she assumes that he has come to laugh at them because of the loss of her husband. Mr. Collins is full of surprises because he believes naturally when one is widowed they need a husband. The husband will prevent the event of the widow and her children falling into poverty (Austen 1813, pg13). He goes ahead to propose to Elizabeth. He gives out his reasons, which he expects Elizabeth to look at keenly. To him his reason leaves Elizabeth with no other option but to marry him. This is despite Elizabeth’s refusal to marry him. He goes ahead to make a speech for his desires. When I do myself the honor of speaking to you next on this subject I shall hope to receive a more favorable answer than you have now given me; though I am far from accusing you of cruelty at present, because I know it to be the established custom of your sex to reject a man on the first application, and perhaps you have even now said as much to encourage my suit as would be consistent with the true delicacy of the female character.” (Austen, 1813, pg108). Mr. Collins demands according to him should not be refused. He uses civility to manipulate others into achieving his selfish desires. He has turned civility into an obligation that Elizabeth must follow. He predicts from the start that Elizabeth has no option but to marry him. This behavior of Mr. Collins of presumptions of his desires to be other peoples desires as well, shows the extend at which social behavior has reached. On the bottom of this presumption, there is so much outside mystification. Whilst these situations of “mystification” frequently work in a pessimistic way, such slippages formulate the misuse of sense, every part of the additional midget to foretell. Another good example is the indescribable class of the nobleman,” a Position that as a rule obtained primarily by birth, other than which is as well attended by a series of external behaviors intended to mean one’s public position as a man. One mark of a man, for example, is that he must not be betrothed in the trade or, a practice related in the company of the bad manners of transformation, at this time the previous absolutes of noble license be unlock for a determine a nobleman. Sir William Lucas, regardless of his designation in addition to an easy way of life, had in risen to his place of prominence all the way through his “trade in Meryton, someplace he had made a tolerable affluence as well as risen to a new social status. Being a noble is, therefore, no longer a job laid upon a hereditary as it used to be. The rank of man is slowly being viewed from a different perspective. According Austen’s time is an incitement to lift up oneself into the higher positions of the social order, as long as one adheres by the rules that go along with that site. This new candidness has a slight although essential elect on the exceptional concept of nobility, which opposes the adding up and pottering connected with the higher of entrepreneurship. From this point of view, one cannot become a man unless he has shown the effort is to become a man. This new point of view finally helped them to experience authentic lifestyle. For example, we have Mr. Gardiner, who is “settled in London in a respectable line of trade” (Austen, 1813, pg28) .although he is made known to hold nobility. Not because he inherited it from his family but through trade. Mr. Darcy is a man that Austen as used to show as we can experience authentic lifestyles. He is a polite man by virtue. However, he does not live his life according to his close friends desires and demands. To him, he is a noble by birth by he does not let that get into his head. He does not live his live as expected by the society. He lives it authentically. If he had lived according to the demands of the public and his friend Bingley, then he would be cheating himself. The marriage institution also changes as the book continues. Initially, a proposal meant a marriage must be next. It was a culture; just the same, way people were born into nobility, to be born into marriages too. As the union between Wickham and Lydia, . Lady Catherine wants nothing less than seeing Darcy married to her daughter Anne. That was her desire. Catherine tells Elizabeth: “My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other. They are descended on the maternal side, from the same noble line; and, on the father’s, from respectable, honorable, and ancient, though untitled families. Their fortune on both sides is splendid. They are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their respective houses; and what is to divide them?” (Austen, 1813, pg. 356). Elizabeth further perceives Lady Catherine’s visit is intended to show that Darcy was also interested Catherine’s daughter, but she thinks it was beyond that. Elizabeth does not hide the fact she has affections for Darcy. Catherine gains courage to ask her if she is interested in Darcy, and she openly says, “I am only resolved to act in that manner,” she asserts, “which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me’” (Austen 1813, pg.358). Elizabeth, therefore, intends to live an authentic life and be true to herself. She has fallen in love, and she does not let anything or anyone deprive her that chances that have presented itself. Marriage just like aristocracy before has been depicted to develop, some vice such as arrogance. This is not being true to oneself. You start living and behaving in a way that you never used to behave before marriage. It is as if you have a new social site and pride all over. This well shown by Lydia’s arrogance towards her eldest sister Jane, only because she is not married when she returns home as Mrs. Wickham she says, “Ah! Jane, I take your place now, and you must go lower because I am a married woman” (Austen 1847, pg317). Since she is the youngest amongst Benet daughters, Lydia is customarily is supposed to get married afterwards, if not last. Her shameful act of disappearing with and marry Wickham, nevertheless, improperly gives a higher position in the society, unlike her unmarried sisters. The lawful position the signaler of being wedded thus trump her worth in contrast to her sisters. Moreover, as Elizabeth finds out through Mrs. Gardiner, Wickham did not get married to Lydia because of passion but because of his own benefit, and Mr. Darcy secretly prearranged the affair as a way of justifying the shame of his father’s previous responsibility. Austen’s unspoken judgment connecting nobility and marriage thus leads to a general definition of authenticity that weeds out individuals who seek to be” noble” or “married” in the family name only. In the second book Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte, we meet yet another family. Though Emily died before publishing her book, her main aim was achieved. One day, Earnshaw left his folks for a journey with no explanation whatsoever. The writer decides to let this decision be mysterious. She only tells us that before he left, he requested his children to tell him what gifts he should bring back from his journey. The disappointing thing is that, when he came back from wherever, the gifts were not there. Apparently, they were lost or broken. Instead, he came home with Heathcliff’s, whom Cameos refers to “gift from God” (Bronte 1847, pg. 29). Nelly tries to tell him to say where he came from. When he fails, she makes up a story to tell of his origin. She tells him: Who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen, each of them able to buy up, with one week’s income, Wuthering Heights and thrush cross Grange together? Moreover, you were kidnapped by wicked sailors and brought to England. Were I in your place, I would frame high notions of my birth; and the thoughts of what I was should give me courage and dignity to support the oppressions of a little farmer! (Bronte 1847, pg. 45). Just as the journey of their father remains a mystery, to them so is the origin of Heathcliff. Heathcliff’s foyer into the family is striking by rejection as well as dislike. Every wisdom of Christian selflessness expected by the father (and maybe all rational readers) from the mother if not from a pair of bratty children is relinquished, as his wife “was ready to fling it out of doors” (Bronte 1847, pg. 29), and Nelly let it sleep on the stairwell, “hoping it might be gone on the morrow” (Bronte 1847, pg. 30). Nelly is categorical in making use of the pronoun “it” in this statement depicts the child by now as somewhat horrible, perverted, and furthermore unrecognizable. The child has no name, gender and humanity too. Can only be well described as a creature. This is a family; one would expect them to treat this child well despite being a stranger. Their authentic lifestyle as Christians is not shown at all. The mother has two children, one expects her to treat a young boy with kindness but she surprises many readers by being cruel to the innocent child. Mothers are compassionate; therefore, the mother was not true to her natural feelings. Earnshaw inquired at the port if anyone knew the child; sadly, enough there was no one who knew him. “[n]out a soul knew to whom he belonged” (Bronte 1847, pg. 29). Veiled beneath Earnshaw’s coat, the poor child found himself at the Heights, where they could hardly make out the contours of its face, or understand its “gibberish” (Bronte 1847, pg. 29). This is another instance of people being dishonest to themselves. Seeing a stranger who is a young, poor boy, they should have inquired who he was at least even one person should have been responsible for him. Emily depicts the wife as inquisitive. She asks so many questions about the young boy. What she gets are inadequate answers. She is honest to her nature of inquisitiveness. We are inquisitive naturally. As of now as well as onwards, it is to this adopted “gipsy brat” (Bronte 1847, pg29) that Earnshaw will give all affections and wealth to the annoyance of his natural family. This is acting according to his desires. Not his family’s wishes or universally required by the society. Catherine learns to love cliff heath, and they become inseparable. After their father’s death, they comfort each other. This love develops to be more than sibling love. It develops to be a romantic escapade. The most terrible thing that Catherine does is getting involved in a love triangle. Catherine asks Edgar to share her with cliff heath. This clearly tells us that she took Edgar’s love for granting. She loves cliff heath but marrying him is not an option it will be incest. He was not of her social status and was a nobody he had no origin. “Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing before I could consent to forsake Heathcliff” (Bronte 1847, pg64). She assumes that when she marries Edgar cliffheath will understand her and forgive her desires and passions. She makes up her desire to get married to Edgar who was wealthy so that he may help Heathcliff financially and goes as far as to admit that the economic benefit is the only non-whimsical reason she has for marrying Edgar (Bronte 1847, pg64). Catherine shows now the fundamental nature of marriage as contractual. All the same she goes ahead with her unauthentic desires and sees nothing wrong with her views. To her, she is sacrificing herself for the love of her life. On the other hand, she is acting against her true desires. She is not honest to herself not even once. She undermines her matrimony Vis à Vis her rear and genuine desire to be with Heathcliff. The main reason she marries Edgar is not that she loves him but because he a marriage type. The novel is full of violence; this is caused by the antagonism of human beings trying to be true to themselves and fighting the pressure surrounding the repercussions of living a lie. Earnshaw’s desires are not prioritized. He shows compassion to a destitute child. Nevertheless, that does not mean he stops loving his own children and deprive them what rightfully belongs to them, their inheritance. Conclusion In these two novels Wuthering heights by Emily and pride and prejudices by Jane Austen, we see families struggling to live authentic lifestyles. According to their desires that in many cases they do not happen at all, or fate turns their dishonest living in a tragic tale. People have their genuine desires and ambitions, which might be selfless and non-ambitious. However, the universally accepted set of rules denies them the chance to. Jane Austen’s book concludes to us, that every individual has a decision to make a decision whether to live a dishonest life or a genuine life. Therefore, it is very possible for people to live authentic lives. The main issue is finding your desire and working towards it, Elizabeth, love Darcy, and she openly declared it to Lady Catherine despite her knowledge of her plans of wanting Darcy to marry Anne her daughter. She was not ready to let anyone come in between her happiness. Whether known to her or not. Determination to live authentic life should be like that of Elizabeth. We can break the social unspoken norms that deprive us to associate with people we love. We cannot deny that at times living authentic lives can lead us to making great mistakes in our lives. Catherine’s undying love for Heathcliff is unrealistic. Apart from the social status issue, he is automatically a brother to her. Marrying him would mean that she is committing incest. However, she goes ahead and tells Edgar to share with cliffheath. She marries for wealth and calls it, self-sacrifice. This is an instance created by Emily Bronte to show how authenticity can be dangerous if not controlled or looked at well. Jane also creates another scenario of Mrs. Wickham, she runs away with a man she believes to love. She goes ahead and marries him ignoring the fact that she is the youngest. Apparently her marriage makes her arrogant, gives her a new position in society and it is something she sees as prestigious. Her husband Mr. Wickham did not marry her because he loved her; this was pre-arranged thing to cover up for someone else’s previous mistake. What unfortunate turn of events? Living authentic lives is our own responsibility and decision. Lucas refused to look at his social background and live a life that was according to his desires. References. Austen J. (1813). Pride and prejudices. Cambridge University Press. U.K Bronte E. (1847). Wuthering heights. Running Press Publishers. London. Oxford dictionary (2014) Cambridge University Press UK Read More