Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen | Derbyshire, England

In June of 2022, we will gather in a small group in Derbyshire, England to embark on a Pride and Prejudice walking pilgrimage. The lens through which we will consider the text is "strength of character." Pride & Prejudice is often understood as a wish fulfillment fantasy where a perfect man— rich, handsome, intelligent, kind— comes to love the heroine, in the words of the Bridget Jones’s Diary (a wonderful, though not perfect, Pride & Prejudice adaptation), “just as she is.” As beautiful as that idea is, especially in a patriarchal society that is always telling women they are not enough, the central fantasy of the novel is both more complex and even more romantic: it is a story about finding someone worth changing for who feels that you are worth changing for, too— and who’s willing to change for you with no ulterior motive, no expectation of immediate reward. Someone who changes because they listen to you, even when you’ve wounded them and gives your opinion weight, even when it is not flattering to their self-understanding. And then it’s about having the strength to be that brave and change yourself.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are each possessed of a strong will, strong sense of self, and strong moral sense, all maintained against the pressure of a society that finds their morals inconvenient at best and sometimes almost traitorous. However, throughout the novel, they have to learn to become permeable to the ideas and perspectives of one another to both find love, and-- more important-- grow into the best versions of themselves. They are surrounded by characters who, unlike them, are either too stubborn to grow or so changeable that they risk losing themselves altogether.

So what we aim to reflect on, throughout the trip, is: how do you know when to hold strong? How do you know when to yield? How do you value your own perspective enough to let it guide you in hard times, but not so well that it blocks out all others? And how do you learn which perspectives to value alongside your own, and which to hold at arm's length?

We will be walking up to 12 miles each day, sometimes on hilly terrain. The Derbyshire summer might be hot and sunny, or wet and windy - sometimes all in the same day. We won’t be rushing but we expect to be tired at the end of each day. We will be meeting at the Chesterfield train station on the afternoon of Saturday, June 25th and ending at the train station in Chesterfield on the afternoon of Wednesday the 29th.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at commonground@notsorryproductions.com.