Fraiman's "The Humiliation of Elizabeth Bennet"

• Fraiman states that the main point of the novel is not Darcy's overcoming his pride and Elizabeth her prejudice. Rather, she believes that Elizabeth is forced to overcome her own masculine pride and succumb to the more feminine humility.
• An effective example used by Fraiman to show Elizabeth's disregarding of her own pride and deferring to Darcy is that Elizabeth is forced to accept the partiality and prejudice of her earlier views, while Darcy successfully defends his own as impartial. Elizabeth's earlier opinions are taken as those of a silly woman, influenced too much by her hurt pride from her first interaction with Darcy, while Darcy is never forced to revise his early opinions. Even when he changes his mind about Jane, it is his own decision, not because Elizabeth told him he was wrong.
• Fraiman also discusses Mary's definitions of "pride" and "vanity" as they relate to Elizabeth's sacrificing of her own pride. Mary says that "Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us." Fraiman claims that Darcy is able to retain his pride because he can afford to - due to his power as a noble and, even more importantly, as a man, he doesn't have to care what others think of him - his own opinion is the most important. In contrast, the poorer and female Elizabeth is forced to rely on the opinions of others - she must sacrifice masculine pride for feminine vanity.
• While her general thesis is effective and logical, Fraiman delves into psychoanalysis of Elizabeth and her relationship with her father. The claims that Elizabeth's close relationship with her father stems from her "penis envy" and Mr. Bennet's giving of his daughters to their husbands represents his sacrificing his own sexual pleasure seem a bit ridiculous. While I agree that Elizabeth is a more masculine character than her sisters and the other female characters, I think Fraiman here gets a bit caught up in her own cleverness.
• Fraiman's final point is that Elizabeth represents the uniting of the emerging merchant middle-class and the waning nobles, as evidenced by her linking Mr. Gardiner and Darcy in friendship. While it's an interesting idea, it's fairly undeveloped - Fraiman seemed to tack it on the end of her essay, as an afterthought.
• Besides the previously mentioned tangents, I agree with Fraiman. Even though Elizabeth is generally thought of as a revolutionary female, the only way she can achieve happiness is through sacrificing her independence, both of body and mind.
• An open eye towards the many examples of Elizabeth's forced deference reveals the similarities between her and her sisters, and shows the relatively small amount of independence she has compared with all she lacks. Fraiman's piece has given me a more critical view of Austen's themes of female independence and a greater appreciation for her skill in subtleties as a writer.