Examples Of Elizabeth In Pride And Prejudice

Moreover, her failure to perceive reality caused her to reject Mr. Darcy’s proposal, because she believed he caused Jane’s despair over Mr. Bingley’s departure and the dire financial situation of Mr. Wickham. When visiting Pemberley, Elizabeth realizes the extent of her misperception of Mr. Darcy, admiring his amiable behaviour towards his sister Georgiana and his staff as well as his continued pleasant behaviour towards her. Soon after her hasty return to Longbourn due to Lydia’s relationship with Mr. Wickham, Lady Catherine de Bourgh unexpectedly visits her and attempts to convince Elizabeth to refuse any possible proposal of her nephew, Mr. Darcy. Lady Catherine wishes for her daughter to marry Mr. Darcy, and emphasizes that marrying Elizabeth would mean a degradation to Mr. Darcy’s social status.“He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal” (Chapter 56). Elizabeth corrects her, emphasizing that they are members of the same social class, meaning that Lady Catherine’s argument is invalid. She correctly perceives that Lady Catherine is acting for her own interest and that there still is a possibility that Mr. Darcy will propose to her again. Ultimately, Elizabeth

His sense of her inferiority–of its being a degradation of–the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclinations were dwelt on...” (Austen 12). These words reflect Mr. Darcy’s excessive pride and heightened awareness of social status, while inducing him to recount all the ways in which he and Elizabeth are an illogical union, rather than relaying anything complimentary. In response to this insult-ridden proposal, Elizabeth proclaims that if he had acted in a more “gentlemanlike manner,” she would have been more inclined to express sympathy following her rejection of his advances. Despite Elizabeth’s clear message that she will not observe his insensitive words in submission, Mr. Darcy endures in the conviction that his prideful manners toward Elizabeth are well-justified and merely detail the truthful, adverse nature of her inferior social standing with the utmost sincerity.

Even though, Elizabeth is very smart she is too quick to let her opinions stop her from understanding the people around her. She also lets her emotions cloud her judgment, especially when her friend Charlotte Lucas decides to marry Mr. Collins. She states, “And to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem, was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen”(87). About halfway through the book, Elizabeth realizes ‘“How despicably have I acted!” she cried. “I, who have prided myself on my discernment... Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment, I never knew myself”’. She sees that her clouded judgment has misled her in seeing the true nature of Darcy and Wickham. Towards the end Elizabeth and Darcy are finally together and she reveals to him that she was being rude towards him at the beginning and he tells her that he was attracted to her because of her ‘liveliness ’, she tells him “You may as well call it impertinence at once. It was very little less”. In observing this evolution Austen shows us that we need to put our pride

Also, Elizabeth's perception of Mr. Wickham is incorrect (Molar 25). She thinks he is, and he does appear to be, a perfect gentleman on the outside because of the way he portrays himself, but really, he is one of the most flawed characters in the novel. Elizabeth is "completely taken in by the almost transparent duplicity" (Moler 25) of Mr. Wickham, especially when he speaks. "A thorough, determined dislike of me, a dislike which I cannot but attribute in some measure to jealousy. Had the late Mr. Darcy liked me less, his son might have borne with me better; but his fatherÕs uncommon attachment to me, irritated him I believe very early in life. He had not a temper to bear the sort of competition in which we stood, the son of preference which was often given me" (Austen 72), Mr. Wickham speaks with eloquence and Elizabeth takes it for face value, and believes everything he says. If what he says is true, problems do not arise, but what he says is false and is in fact hurtful to another man, Mr. Darcy. Austen shows it is important to see all sides of the story before making a judgement, otherwise it is called being prejudice. She also portrays the fact that there is probably a lot more to people than what they show to the world. This

In this case, Mr. Darcy possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast and comparison, the qualities of Elizabeth. Many romantic stories begin with the “love at first sight” idea, however, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s relationship started off the opposite way: resentment at first sight. Mr. Darcy’s arrogance and Elizabeth’s pride clashed during their first encounter at the ball. The idea of unjustly judging an individual and thinking lower of them on the basis of a first impression is one of the main themes of the novel. Although Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship started off on a rocky surface, their feeling towards one another changed as they became more familiarized with each other.

Elizabeth then forms prejudices against both Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham. She immediately looks poorly upon Mr. Darcy, but very highly on Mr. Wickham, who she believes to be too handsome and trustworthy-looking to lie. With this, she also looks down on Charlotte for marrying for money, but believes it’s okay for Mr. Wickham to as “a man in distressed circumstances has not time for all those elegant decorums which other people may observe” (Austen 115). This is not only evidence of her prejudice, but shows the difference on how males and females are viewed, for what is okay for one to do may not be for the other.

Elizabeth feels she needs someone who can realise their faults and their inadequacies which the arrogant Darcy cannot do as he formed a negative judgement of her just because of her social class. Later, Elizabeth again is very open and unafraid to speak her mind, challenging the values of the time when Lady Catherine comes to speak to Elizabeth, forbidding her to marry Darcy. Elizabeth challenges social class values through Austen’s use of characterisation in “He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter: so far we are equal.” This is the first time in the novel Elizabeth has stood up for herself and her family concerning their social class. Austen shows development in the character of Elizabeth through this characterisation which defines the fiery and independent woman that Elizabeth has become.

Elizabeth makes this claim about Darcy very early in the book, before she knows his true character. She makes very strong personal statements about Mr. Darcy’s affection as well as his wealth and his own pride. Elizabeth displays more of her prejudice when she is talking with Mr. Darcy and says, “And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody” (Austen 39). Elizabeth’s prejudiced behavior towards Mr. Darcy and gall to confront such a noble man, is very astounding. Elizabeth is opinionated enough to display her thoughts about anyone, no matter how long she has known them.

Elizabeth begins to see how she was too hasty in her decision to judge Darcy’s full character after only knowing him for a few short days. She knows that she was being prejudice towards Darcy and began to regret her rejection of his proposal after visiting his estate. Elizabeth then falls in love with Darcy and is engaged to him by the end of the

This immediately raised a red flag to Ms. Elizabeth. Father into the evening, Ms. Elizabeth had the ‘pleasure’ of hearing Mr. Darcy’s feeling towards her. “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me….” (Page 8) Upon hearing such words spoken about her, she began to feel prejudice towards the fine Mr. Darcy.

In the beginning of the novel, Elizabeth Bennet prides herself on being a good judge of character. The Meryton Assembly is where she first got her bad impression of Darcy after he said that Elizabeth was not handsome enough to tempt him. After that it stuck with her that he was pompous guy. Darcy, however, starts to have feelings for her and her for him but she switches back and forth throughout most of the book. She likes him

Elizabeth thinks of Darcy as being “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world” (15). After Darcy discomfits Elizabeth, “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me” (13), she herself becomes prideful and prejudiced against him. Prejudice also is an issue for Darcy because he dislikes Elizabeth in the beginning for her low social status, for being impecunious and socially inept family: “Their struggle is as much as against each other as it is against the pressure of society or family. The novel presents a balance of power not only between two characters but between two conflicting modes of judgment” (Bloom 50), but Darcy is forced to deal with his pride and prejudice when he falls in love with Elizabeth. Elizabeth rejects Darcy’s first proposal based mostly on his pride and condescension.

Elizabeth's prejudice against Darcy is fuelled when she hears from Wickham that Darcy has treated him wrongly. Elizabeth accepts Wickham's story without exploring it fully because she believes that he is a gentleman and so is trustworthy. This is another example of how first impressions can be wrong, as Wickham is not a gentleman as Elizabeth first thought and has not told Elizabeth the whole truth about why Darcy treated him wrongly. When Elizabeth finds out the vital information that Wickham has not mentioned her opinion of both Wickham and Darcy changes dramatically. This is a crucial point in the novel as this is when Elizabeth realises how easily she has formed prejudices and opinions about people that are wrong.

Elizabeth’s snobbish pride hinders her from understanding her friend Charlotte Lucas’s best interests in regard to her desire to marry Mr. Collins. Elizabeth “prides herself on being a perceptive “studier of character,” as Mr. Bingley calls her, but how well does she really know her very good friend Charlotte…” when she “responds with amazement and horror” upon hearing that Charlotte wants to marry a man who is “dull”, “pompous” and “physically unattractive”. Elizabeth’s excessive pride blinds her from recognizing that Charlotte is “not much interested in men and very much interested in marriage” (Moler, 26). Elizabeth could have ruined the prospects of Charlotte’s marriage because of her self-importance in the way she

Darcy’s conception of Elizabeth was established on the fact that her family is embarrassing and discourteous, making her promptly inferior to him. However, Elizabeth’s strong-willed and independent character attracted Darcy’s difficult attention, proving to him her true and unique reeling personality. Particular plot twists throughout the novel have occurred that helped Darcy and Elizabeth reveal their true identities. Darcy’s boastful attitude backfires when he first proposed to Elizabeth, who immediately refuses his offer due to his unintentional insults concerning her class and familial relations. However, Elizabeth’s reason for rejecting Darcy was not only for his abusive remarks, but also because of his interference with Jane’s happiness owing to the fact of his belief that her social class and emotional status were not good enough for his dear companion. After the incident, Darcy and Elizabeth did coincidentally meet when Elizabeth and the Gardiners were visiting Darcy’s estate thinking he would be out of town. Darcy got to see the other half of Elizabeth’s family, who were well mannered and delightful. While Darcy and Elizabeth explored other sides of each other, Wickham was taking advantage of Lydia’s ignorance and ran away with her. When Darcy receives the news about what Lydia and Wickham have done, instead of just mocking how reckless the Bennet’s are he decides to help them. Having a