Prejudice In Pride And Prejudice

Introduced to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as a tall, handsome, self-absorbed aristocrat, Darcy experiences a change in personality and character. In order to dispose of his existent views on money and marriage, Darcy needed to feel something, to fall in love. Although he was well mannered, he did not know how to treat women with respect, especially those of a lesser economic status. The love of Elizabeth Bennet, however, changed his behavior.

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

He tells her that Darcy convinced Bingley not to marry Jane because he did not approve. Lizzy blames Darcy for her sister's unhappiness. In contrast to Mr. Collins proposal Darcy declares his love for Elizabeth and she at first has no clue how to react. She proceeds to tell him he is the last person she would want to marry. When Elizabeth and Darcy meet again he gives her a letter. It is from him explaining how he feels terrible and explains who Wickham truly is. Lizzie realizes how she had overreacted and how prejudice she was toward

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

Darcy as a proud, arrogant man based upon his actions at the assembly where she first sees him. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy first meet at a ball where she instantly believes him to be a rude individual as she watches him only dance with women he knows and hears him call her tolerable. Elizabeth is offended by Mr. Darcy’s actions at the ball, and uses this knowledge to instantly form a negative opinion of his character. Mr. Darcy’s good nature and kind heart is therefore overlooked by Elizabeth as they continue to see each other, and she does not let go of her original prejudice of him until the end of the novel when she eventually realizes her love for him and marries him. Elizabeth’s poor and unchanging opinion of Darcy led to her initially saying no to Darcy’s first marriage proposal. Had Elizabeth not held a grudge on Mr. Darcy for his original actions at the ball, she could have realized her love for him sooner. Her mistrust of Darcy also led to repercussions that negatively affected her and her family’s lives. She would not have been deceived by Mr. Wickham and she would have saved her family from shame and embarrassment if she would have waited longer to form an opinion of Mr.

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.

In the movie Darcy belittles Elizabeth during the ball, but she doesn’t care. She says to her mother and father that if he would ask her to dance later, she would say no on the spur of the moment. The story that Jane Austin wrote, only tells that Mrs. Bennet explains Darcy’s insult to Mr. Bennet but

Pride & Prejudice starts off with Darcy being evaluated as a stuck up, evil man. However, the readers are only seeing Elizabeth’s perception of Darcy by gathering information from her outside community. The climax of Pride &

Darcy realizes that his pride is keeping he and Elizabeth apart. Mr. Darcy earns Elizabeth’s love by fixing all the wrongs he has committed to her and her family. He brings Elizabeth’s sister and Mr. Bingley back together, saying, “ I told him, moreover, that I believed myself mistaken in supposing, as I had done, that your sister was indifferent to him; and as I could easily perceive that his attachment to her was unabated, I felt no doubt of their happiness together” (Chapter 58 ). Elizabeth is also grateful when Mr. Darcy persuades Wickham to marry Lydia as shown in this quote: “ The vague and unsettled suspicions which uncertainty had produced of what Mr. Darcy might have been doing to forward her sister’s match, which she had feared to encourage as an exertion of goodness too great to be probable, and at the same time dreaded to be just, from the pain of obligation, were proved beyond their greatest extent to be true!” Elizabeth sees that Mr. Darcy is good at heart (Chapter 52). With this new information, she accepts his second marriage

This is why she despises Mr Darcy for so long, but initially admires the lying Wickham. She thinks her initial opinions and ideas are always correct and this leads us to 'prejudice'. Prejudice is affected by first impression and would also affect the personal thoughts of a person or an object in the future. The great prejudice which Lizzy holds toward Mr Darcy is just because their first unpleasant met at the ball. Within a few sentences, Mr Darcy has already given Lizzy a feeling that he is really pride and never cares for others' feelings. This makes Lizzy to hold prejudice towards Mr Darcy for a long time and leads to some misunderstanding between them as well. On the other hand, Mrs Bennet has prejudice towards Mr Darcy since the start of the book. 'I simply just hates him!' Said by Mrs Bennet after the ball. Mrs Bennet had such strong prejudice towards Mr Darcy just because that he refused to dance with Elizabeth at the ball and embarrassed their whole family. As we can see here, prejudice is mostly depend on the first impression of a person.

When Elizabeth flatly turns down his marriage proposal, it startles Darcy into realizing just how arrogant and assuming he has been. Soon, there is reconciliation between Darcy and Elizabeth where each admits how much they have changed as a result of their earlier encounters. An example of this is when Lady Catherine visits to insure the marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth. She came in order to prevent it, but when Darcy hears the manner in which Elizabeth answered Lady Catherine, he realizes that Elizabeth regards him differently. He saw that her attitude of him had changed which prompted him to make his marriage proposal. Thus, we can now see that Darcy and Elizabeth both have balance in their relationship because they are able to reflect against each other and each is capable of undergoing a change. In the end, Darcy is willing to marry into a family with three silly daughters, an embarrassing mother and is willing to make Wickham his brother-in-law .It may be that he is more easygoing about other people's faults because he is now aware of his own.

Just as the characters unknowingly follow Darcy's example of pride, they commit Elizabeth's crucial mistake, prejudging people (especially Darcy) according to horribly inadequate experience. Elizabeth's positive judgement of Wickham and negative one of Darcy prevent her from seeing Wickham's devious and whimsical nature and Darcy's honest efforts to improve despite the apparent lack of incentive. Like Elizabeth, the rest of the Bennets, and indeed the rest of those living in the vicinity of Meryton, believe Darcy to be a wholly disagreeable man. (In fact, he began as such, but even when he began to change, everyone refused to realize it, and maintained their dislike of him because of their previous judgements.) Mrs. Bennet is prejudiced against all other mothers with young daughters, believing them to be just as ambitious and scheming as she herself is. When told that Mrs. Long promised to introduce the Bennet sisters to Bingley, Mrs. Bennet hisses

Her dislike of him grows as his liking of her increase until whilst she is visiting her recently married best friend Charlotte, and her husband, Elizabeth’s cousin Mr Collins, Mr Darcy proposes. Elizabeth refuses, however when she discovers she was mistaken in her view of him her feelings towards him warm, particularly after she finds out he saved her sister from disgrace by paying Mr Wickham (Darcy’s adversary and the man who had eloped with her sister) to marry Lydia. They finally put aside their differences and marry, to Darcy’s aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Miss Bingley’s disgust.

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

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