Literature and Mind Post 14: Happiness and Pride and Prejudice

How does the newly common concept of the "right to happiness" shown by McMahon come into play in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice?

"' Had not my own feelings decided against you, had they been indifferent, or had they even been favourable, do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man, who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?'" (Pride and Prejudice p. 212)

"Judged by the standards of the preceding millennium and a half, the question was extraordinary: a right to happiness? And yet it was posed rhetorically, in full confidence of the nodding assent of enlightened minds. By midcentury the claim was becoming commonplace, and by century's end it was more common still. Clearly, human beings deserved to be happy" (McMahon p. 200)

During the interesting period of the 18th century, people's mentality towards happiness was taking a turn towards what we know today. Before this time, people often saw happiness as something that was not attained on earth, but rather in heaven. It was their "heavenly reward," after living in a world where everyone was inherently sinful and corrupt. Now, people were starting to see happiness as a natural state of man, and they were beginning to believe that earthly things could in fact bring happiness (and therefore not everything was sinful), and that God wanted man to take pleasure in things. Happiness actually transitioned into a "right," which as McMahon states would have been completely "extraordinary" and unthinkable before. By the time Jane Austen began to write, the right to happiness would have been very common in discourse.

In the passage shown above, in which Elizabeth is actively rejecting Mr. Darcy's first marriage proposal, one can see the concept of the "right to happiness" firmly in place. Had her feelings "even been favourable," the fact that Darcy ruined "the happiness of a most beloved sister" is absolutely unpardonable.  Of course, it can be argued whether or not Lizzie is right in saying that Darcy personally and deliberately ended her sister's happiness for the rest of her life, but the message is clear. Happiness is something that Lizzie's sister deserves and inherently has, and when someone else or something else impedes on this happiness, that is a serious crime against her and her family. Later on, we even see Darcy agreeing that this accusation, if it actually was true, would be a valid and terrible one, in his letter explaining himself. In general, the idea that is still in place today of "the right to happiness" comes out very clearly in this moment in Pride and Prejudice.