During the first ball of the novel, Jane, who had finished dancing with Mr. Bingley, expresses her surprise to Elizabeth at receiving a complement from him. To this, Elizabeth replies that "compliments always take [Jane] by surprise" (Austen 16), a sign of humility and modesty. She goes on to say that Jane "never see[s] a fault in any body. All the world are good and agreeable in [Jane's] eyes" and that she "never heard [Jane] speak ill of a human being in [her] life" (16). Jane sees the best in everyone and never thinks bad about those around her and continues to act this way for the remainder of the novel, gaining the affections of Mr. Bingley and many others. Jane's character as a whole encompasses the complete opposite of prideful as she, being the kind and humble person that she is, would never look down on someone or boast about her class or status for her own enjoyment.
On the other side of the spectrum, Lady Catherine de Bourgh is the epitome of a prideful character. As described by the narrator, Lady Catherine "was spoken in so authoritative a tone, as marked her self-importance" (159). To Lady Catherine, everyone else is beneath her and her opinions and status are far superior than the opinions and statuses of others. Throughout the afternoon gathering, Lady Catherine makes it a point to show Elizabeth the gap in status and class by being by shocked at the fact that the Bennett's never had a governess to teach the five daughters (161). To her, the idea of a family not having a governess is impossible to imagine and she goes on to boast about her actions in helping families find proper governesses. Her pride then leads her to be rude and condescending to Elizabeth after hearing of her engagement, unable to bare the fact that the arranged marriage between Darcy and her daughter to bolster her status would not occur (336).
Jane, who is humble and modest, is kind and well-liked by everyone, showing the good moral standing that Austen has placed her at. On the other hand, Lady Catherine, who is prideful, is rude and condescending to those around her, causing her to be disliked by many and placing her at a low moral standing. Through these characters, Jane Austen shows readers that being prideful is bad and immoral.
I think that this is an accurate description of the characters presented in the novel and how those characteristics and personality traits of each character affect their social standing and moral standing in the eyes of the reader. Jane is obviously the most accurate example of how the lack of pride leads to a happy life. In this sense, the personality trait is portrayed as sort of an anchor. Those characters who are very prideful, such as Catherine, tend to be stuck at the bottom of the moral food chain and those without pride weighting them down tend to rise to the top of the moral food chain. This can be related to the ending of the novel, in which Jane is finally able to marry Bingley towards the end of the novel. Her and Bingley's love is shown to be a healthy, happy marriage, one that is not weighted down by pride.
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