Essay on Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was originally titled First Impressions. This is significant because it reflects the values and attitudes of 19th century England, and portrays the main themes of the novel. It is set in England during the 1800’s and Austen focuses on a society whose opinions are based on first impressions.

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In her novel, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen portrays a world in which society is actively involved in almost every individual’s lives. Its affects not only the individual, but the world around them. It has the power to affect the social conventions of the world, such as how people love, the ideals of a family, and how high or low an individual holds themselves in the world. Jane Austen illustrates this in her novel, Pride and Prejudice, by the novel 's reoccurring themes of love, family and 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,

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 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

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, he first comes into her life the same time Mr. Bingley comes into town. At first he is scene as this mysterious man that does not say much, and tries to avoid contact with any new people, but quickly becomes an important role in this story. When he first meets Elizabeth they do not get along very well, in fact it seems as if they are the exact opposite of each other; which leads to them starting to enjoy the challenges they both bring to one another. Mr. Darcy first influences her when disrespects her family for being odd and unusual, saying how (quote), her sister Jane is not a good fit for Mr. Bingley and how he shouldn’t waste his time with people who aren’t as rich, educated, or as sophisticated as him. This influences Elizabeth in a positive way because it finally gets her to speak up for herself and her family, and by her debating against Mr. Darcy, it influences the both of them to get to know one another, because he finally sees someone who might be interesting enough for him to enjoy. Another way Mr. Darcy influences Elizabeth is when he splits up her sister Jane and Mr. Bingley because he thought she wasn’t serious about him because she never openly expressed how she felt about him. This affects Elizabeth in a negative way because she is the only one who truly understands her sister, and know that she does that because she is shy, this leaves Elizabeth heartbroken because she was really

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.

Pride and Prejudice are both influences on Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy and their relationships. Ironically this attitude changes as Elizabeth forces Darcy realize his faults, and he does the same to her “How despicably have I acted!.. I, who have prided myself on my discernment! - I, who have valued myself on my abilities!” (Austen 236). Elizabeth realizes after reading Darcy’s letter, after she rejects his first marriage proposal that she has no reason to despise him as she had, and that he is a very delectable person. This serves as a turn pointing as Elizabeth becomes aware of her pride

Despite him going through a dynamic character change throughout the course of novel, Darcy’s prideful personality can still be seen even after he has become a loveable person. In one of the conversations between Darcy and Elizabeth, he tells her, "…I admire and love you." Elizabeth describes his actions as, "…his sense of inferiority – of its being a degradation – of the family obstacles." Darcy proclaims his love for Elizabeth and does not allow her to forget her inferior ranking within society. He seems to have a personal conflict within himself, he does not want to love her but he is unable to not love her.

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

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.

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

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.