Jane Austen and the sin of pride

Even this early in our summary of Murdoch (Murdoch's summary of Freud), Emma Woodhouse should be recognizable. Is her psyche "egocentric?" Who could doubt it? She is every bit as captivated as we readers by her own cleverness. Her egocentrism leads her to project qualities she does or does not like about herself onto others, "fantasies" which frustrate her faculty of "reason," and prevent her from justly perceiving external reality, even as they also provide an opportunity for the self-criticism which is necessary for moral growth. "Mr. Elton in love with me!-What an idea!" exclaims Emma to John Knightley, after the latter's suggestion to that effect.

"I thank you, but I assure you you are quite mistaken. Mr. Elton and I are very good friends, and nothing more;" and she walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders which people of high pretensions to judgement are forever falling into; and not very well pleased with her brother for imagining her blind and ignorant, and in want of counsel. (86)

Indeed she is in want of counsel, for her inability to perceive the reality of Elton's attraction to her leads to unnecessary suffering in the lives of Elton, herself, and Harriet. And she is probably not aware, at the moment, of how perfectly "people of high pretensions to judgement" applies to herself. But the fact that she utters such a self-referential phrase, in a moment of "consideration" (even less than sincere consideration) implies that an internal dialogue-most likely at George Knightley's promptingis already underway.

Such a dialogue may only work its improvement on the soul in a deferred manner (soon after deploring the snobbish contempt in which Mr. Elton holds Harriet, Emma considers him, and his desire to marry her, with analogous haughtiness):

Perhaps it was not fair to expect him to feel how very much he was her inferior in talent, and all the elegancies of mind. The very want of such equality might prevent his perception of it; but he must know that in fortune and consequence she was greatly his superior. He must know that the Woodhouses had been settled for several generations at Hartfield, the younger branch of a very ancient family-and that the Eltons were nobody. (105)

Nevertheless, we should retain our faith in the efficacy of such an internal dialogue, in the possibility of its saving a soul from the provinciality of self-concern. Indeed that is the most important kind of "faith" encouraged in an Austenian world. And is such faith rewarded; is Emma's provincial haughtiness overcome? To a degree, yes: by novel's end, she views Robert Martin in a much more reasonable light than she once had. I say "to a degree" because salvation in Austen can only be partial. Emma's pride never disappears (and we would not want it to; it is bound up with all of her attractive qualities; it is one of those qualities). The ego may be defeated temporarily, but not permanently.

Although Murdoch does not specifically invoke Freud's concept of "projection," a just perception of the world outside the self is central to her concept of virtue, and egocentrism, in its various manifestations, is the central evil in her moral universe. To continue with Murdoch's commentary on Freud: is Emma's psyche "quasi-mechanical?" Judging by the number of times she resolves to be done with matchmaking, and then begins matchmaking again, I think we might be justified in omitting "quasi-." Freud wrote of a "compulsion to repeat"; whether we prefer this term, or Murdoch's more generic notion of a "mechanism," Austen's affinity with each is striking.