Discuss civility in Pride and Prejudice.

Civility, or politeness, is a delicate topic in the novel
Pride and Prejudice. It is presented as an expectation, rather than
a choice, under the perspective of social rank and societal
expectations.

The aristocratic characters in
Pride and Prejudice show their civility through their dry tolerance
of those whom they consider to be of a lower class than themselves. For example, Miss
Bingley and Mrs. Hurst are examples of this type of civility. Their kindness to Jane was
only temporary, and was mostly out of kindness when they felt that Mr. Bingley was
interested.  Once Darcy intervened and separated Bingley from Jane, Miss Bingley ceased
her acquaintance with Jane in a flat and mean way as if Jane was not worthy  of her
friendship in the first place.

Equally, the lower and
middle classes were almost expected to be always civil to the aristocrats no matter what
went on. The best example is the entrance of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the Bennet
household.  Lady Catherine entered the house as if it were her own property. She
demanded to see Elizabeth with no manners whatsoever, and yet, Mrs. Bennet was quite
civil to Lady Catherine just for the sake of the latter’s social rank. We see the same
form of ridiculous civility in the character of Mr. Collins, who basically belittles
himself in front of Lady Catherine and constantly boasts about her
patronage.

Matters do change with Elizabeth Bennet. Upon
being called by Lady Catherine, Elizabeth drew the line immediately and cared very
little about social civility. She told Lady Catherine off whenever she felt insulted by
her. She did the same thing with Darcy when he proposed to her and exclaimed how “low”
he was dropping by proposing to her. Elizabeth even spoke quite honestly to Wickham, and
used her civility towards him (even after he had betrayed her family) only to make him
feel even more worthless.

Therefore, Pride and
Prejudice presents civility as a social practice that has to be followed in
order to ensure propriety. Yet, Elizabeth breaks with that tradition in speaking out on
behalf of herself and her family, and defending what she believes is
fair.