The Signs of Being Prideful and Having Prejudice in Pride and Prejudice, a Novel by Jane Austen

In the Book Pride and Prejudice both main characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, show many signs of being prideful and having prejudice. Mr. Darcy, showing pride and Elizabeth Bennet showing prejudice. Each reflect on this throughout the book until reaching the end when they see the truth about one another and finally open their eyes. Darcy and Elizabeth ae just normal people who struggle with thing we face in life, being prideful and holding grudges.

Now, I first want to clarify what pride is from other selfish desires and I feel that Mary Bennet, one of Elisabeth’s sisters, puts it the best way. “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonimously. A person can be proud without being vain (Austen 12-13).” This referred to Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth who both believed they existed outside of these cultural norms of these words. So, let’s jump right in!

Fitzwilliam Darcy, or Mr. Darcy as I will call him throughout this paper, is an extremely wealthy man who comes from a long line of nobles. When I think of Mr. Darcy, having read the book, I think of a shy and prideful man in the beginning, but who then turns out to be this wonderful humble man. I am just going to talk about his pride though, which I thinks he resembles best. “His character was decided. He was the proudest most disagreeable man in the world… (Austen 6).” I can see why many people saw this of Mr. Darcy, he was a very seemingly proud man. “She is tolerable, I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me… (Austen 7).” Darcy answered this to his friend Mr. Bingley when he suggested that he dance with Elizabeth. All this shows why people would label him proud and maybe arrogant, but like Mrs. Reynolds describes him, Darcy’s housekeeper, “Some people call him proud; but I am sure I never saw anything of it. To my fancy, it is only because he does not rattle away like other young men (Austen 166).” We also see how people can mistake labeling him proud. Now, enough about Mr. Darcy and on to our prejudice.

Elizabeth Bennet is a great example being prejudice. Like Mr. Darcy she does change in the end and does not hold prejudice against him anymore. She does though for a long series of time hold a strong grudge against him that was enough to even turn down a proposal by him. “…I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine (Austen 12).” You heard it right out of Elizabeth’s mouth, one perfect example of why she is so decided on his character. There are other reasons to. Like, Mr. Darcy splitting up Mr. Bingley and Jane Bennet, another one of Elisabeth’s sisters. And then why Mr. Darcy is so mean to a man named Wickham, which all comes to light later in the book. Therefore, “…a strong prejudice against everything he might say…” (Austen 138) has taken place inside of Elizabeth.

Looking at all this, one thing I see for sure is how mankind is so corrupt. Like it says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things…” we see how people can easily be swayed into thinking something of someone just by their own judgement or by what other people might say. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are wonderful examples of this, and really, we could learn from them. All in all, they were a wonderful addition to this book and a great example of pride and prejudice. They also make a great couple… woops, too many spoilers.

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