Essay on Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen is centred on characters that either gain self awareness and knowledge or possess none at all. Happiness is found even when one has no understanding of selfhood but the most happy and satisfied people in the novel are those who have self knowledge. People that possess self knowledge understand their strengths and weaknesses and characters that gain self knowledge are able to decipher these characteristics and act upon them. As marriage was seen as a great achievement for women in their society, happiness in Pride and Prejudice relates to whether one is happy or unhappy in their marriage.

Throughout the novel, Elizabeth only has bad things to say about Darcy. She believes that he is a vain and conceited man who sees her family as incompetent and inferior. Darcy’s bad habits and pride make Elizabeth form prejudices that mask Darcy’s true personality. And due to her preconceived notions on Darcy, Elizabeth believes Mr. Wickham’s story about Darcy and also speculates that Darcy

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.

or other, and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense

The progress between Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s relationship, in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) illustrates and explores several the key themes in the novel. Their relationship highlights class expectations, pride and prejudice, and marriage, and how they play a major role in determining the course of their association. These are outlined through their first prejudiced dislike of each other when they first meet, the stronger feelings for Elizabeth that develop on Darcy’s side, her rejection in Darcy’s first proposal, then her change of opinion and lastly the mutual love they form for one another. Pride and Prejudice is set up as a satire, commenting on human idiocy, and Jane Austen

The families of Elizabeth and Charlotte play a very important part in their lives, and in the prospect of their future companions. Elizabeth’s family are more prone to exposing themselves and being ridiculous , and it is partly down to her family that Mr. Darcy is so adamant on Mr. Bingley not marrying her sister Jane. However, unlike her family, Elizabeth is socially graceful, sensitive and conscious of her appearance in the eyes of others. This leads to her acute awareness of the social failing of some members of her family, particularly her mother and youngest sister.

In the novel Pride and Prejudice, first impressions mean everything; you want them to go perfectly but that does not always happen. Therefore when you meet new people, you are immediately influenced by that person for better or worse. Elizabeth’s character is influenced on a daily basis by men coming in and out of her life, forcing her character to change the way she views others, each time a man comes in contact with her. There are three men in particular that influence Elizabeth the most in this short novel; Mr. Collins, Mr Wickham, and the handsome and powerful Mr. Darcy. They each impact her in a way that is both positive and negative, and they all help her lead into her final conclusion of who she is supposed to spend the rest her life

Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen uses most of the characters to display a prideful attitude. Although many of the characters display pride through the novel, Mr. Darcy has the most pride. Despite the fact of Mr. Darcy being very prideful at the beginning of the novel, he became a lot less prideful toward the end of the novel. Austen displayed Mr. Darcy this way to show that it is possible to overcome pride. In the novel almost all of the characters show prideful behavior, but Austen transformed Mr. Darcy’s pride from unfavorable to respectable. This displays pride as being one of the main themes in the novel, and shows how Austen believes it is possible to overcome pride.

            The issues of pride and prejudice certainly come to the fore in this chapter, both in direct mention as well as their presence in Elizabeth's character. It is a common interpretation that the two qualities of the book's title apply to Elizabeth and Darcy, the former to him, the latter to her,

Mr. Darcy manages to screw up the future engagement of Elizabeth’s older sister, Jane to Mr. Darcy’s close friend, Mr. Bingley. Mr. Darcy also ruins his friendship with Mr. Wickham a love interest of Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy did not deny that he had been in charge of ruining these situations, at some points he was even proud of it. Mr. Darcy is known as “the proudest, most disagreeable ma in the world” (Austen 14). Because of this statement, which is being spoken by many of the people in the town, Elizabeth has a hard time of liking Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth then becomes “disgusted with his pride. [She cannot] find him more favorably spoken of by anyone (Austen 75). The rumors and gossip going around the town just encourage Elizabeth to continue her basic instinct on the way Mr. Darcy is as a gentleman. Elizabeth has no problem in telling Mr. Darcy her true feelings on him at any moment, but “Mr. Darcy’s concern for Elizabeth is so great (…) that whether or not she loves him, he wants to make her happy and never claim the credit” (Kneedler). At this moment Elizabeth realizes that Mr. Darcy truly does have feelings for her but she ignores the fact because she is to upset with him from his previous actions to act upon the feeling.

Elizabeth learns that "all his [Darcy's] actions may be traced to pride; and pride has often been his best friend" (Austen 71). Wickham continues his conversation and eventually tells Elizabeth that Darcy threw him from his household into a life of poverty. "Most important, of course, is Elizabeth's misjudgement of Darcy's character: the overreaction to his pride and reserve that makes her unable to see what lies beneath it" (Moler, 26). Wickham's actions and words lead Elizabeth to a harsh perception of Darcy and a kind perception of himself. This same perception of Darcy eventually leads her to confront him about his abuse of Wickham. "He has been so unlucky as to lose your friendship, and in a manner which he is likely to suffer from all his life" (Austen 80). At this point Elizabeth's original perceptions of both Darcy and Wickham reach their climax, and slowly begin to decline.

Darcy’s pride and his sense of superiority are considered rude and ungentlemanly behavior, and no amount of money or fine looks can save him from falling into disgrace with the people of Hertfordshire. Later, when Darcy first proposes to Elizabeth, she shocks him when she angrily exclaims that “had [he] behaved in a more gentleman-like manner” (168), then she may have felt

The first impression is the hardest impression to overcome. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy did not have a very smooth first interaction. Because of his social status, Mr. Darcy comes across as very pride during his first interaction with Elizabeth. Mr. Bingly (Mr. Darsy’s friend) suggests that Mr. Darcy dances with Elizabeth at a social event – a ball. “She [Elizabeth] is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I [Mr. Darcy] in no humour to present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” It is at this even that both characters reveal their flaws to each other. Instead of saying “no” politely, Darcy shows his prideful character by insinuating that Elizabeth was not charming enough for him. On the other hand, the comment by Darcy causes

Pride is a characteristic that will always cause the largest distance between two people. Darcy’s personality changes throughout the course of the novel from being extremely arrogant to becoming humble. During the course of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the character of Mr. Darcy goes on a journey to find himself. Austen emphasizes the importance of humility through Darcy who must face challenges of overcoming his pride in order to reach the heart of the woman he loves.

When discussing the previous night’s ball with some of the other women of Longbourn, Elizabeth agrees that Darcy’s pride is justified because he has everything in his favor. She continues and claims that she could easily forgive him for his pride, “if he had not mortified” hers through his demeaning words and gestures (Austen 17). Elizabeth, ironically, is too prideful to admit Darcy’s fine character, and she defends herself by belittling him. Even after meeting and conversing with Darcy numerous times, Elizabeth finds it difficult to overlook his arrogance. Elizabeth conceives the idea no good can branch from Darcy’s pride, and she questions if his “abominable pride has ever done him good?” (68). Elizabeth sees his pride as a negative aspect to his character and views it as unadmirable. In her mind, wealth directly correlates with arrogance. Elizabeth makes a promise to herself to never become involved with Darcy, for she wants no relationship with such a seemingly crude