Key Themes in 'Pride and Prejudice'

456 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Perspectives of pride and prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

In fact, Pride and Prejudice was originally entitled First Impressions. However, the novel is not only about first impressions. Although we can find the first impressions about the characters through the first few chapters, this book shows us the effects of those impressions on the individual characters--prejudices of the characters. The story almost evenly describes the defects of Fitzwilliam Darcy who show "pride" at the beginning of the novel; he speaks carelessly and insultingly to Elizabeth Bennet, and George Wickham who deceives others on purpose and conceals his truthless character. Elizabeth misunderstood both of them at first because of her prejudice.

At first I have assumed that the title of this novel alludes clearly to Darcy's "pride" and Elizabeth's "prejudice." I also thought that the novel tells how Darcy and Elizabath overcome their pride and prejudice. However, I realize that this over simplifies the author's purpose. We can certainly see that Elizabeth has "pride" as much as Darcy has. She is proud of her intelligence, comprehension and independence. Actually, Darcy's pride disappears quite a bit early in this novel. By chapter 6, he is starting to change his attitudes towards her. He is humbling himself to be close to her. This shows

Darcy's change: "But no sooner had he made it to clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly

intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eye" (16 page) "He began to wish to know more of her, and as a step towards conversing with her himself, attended to her conversation with others." From this point, Darcy's prejudice against Elizabeth begins to fade while her prejudice towards him still remains because he refused to dance with her at the ball. Her prejudice spreads throughout the book, and that prejudice is an outcome of her wounded pride.

The main subject of this novel is courtship and marriage. Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, shows and indirectly criticizes the 18th century England's rural society and the pride of high class through several people's marriages who are in different social position.

Show More
Related

  • Cherokee Removal Case Study

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    President Jackson declared that “our ancestors found them the uncontrolled possessors of these vast regions” (188). It has been through persuasion and force that we have moved the Native Americans until some tribes have become extinct. The governor, Lumpkin, of Georgia argued that the state cannot exercise against the constitutional rights and moral duty. The Cherokee’s claimed that the treaties and laws of the United States had guaranteed their residency, their privileges and secured them against intruders. Even though the Cherokees had successfully appealed to the Executive, Legislative and Judicial governments Georgia continues to rob them of their laws government and land rights. The Cherokee people petitioned to the government of the United States to fulfill their promises and protect them and all they were given for a response was that the United States could not interfere. Even though I believe the Cherokee Nation had to fight for their sovereignty none of the choices available to them would have provided them with a good resolution. The white people really did not want them to assimilate because they feared them and considered them uncivilized. Moving freely to unknown lands would have been very difficult. By this time the Indians had suffered many losses from disease, they were becoming dependent on

    Read More

  • Wernher Von Braun: Idealist And Visionary

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wernher von Braun. Idealist and visionary. Braun began his career in 1925 with the hopes and dreams of leading humanity to the stars. Do you know what he said when the first rocket hit London? He said that “the rocket performed perfectly, it just landed on the wrong planet.”

    Read More

  • Western Indians

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thomas Fitzpatrick was an Indian agent that had convinced the Natives to move and live in the west side of the Mississippi River. Natives thought they would be safe there because it was illegal for Americans to go in their territory. Even with that protection of the land Americans will sneak in to find gold, which caused for the Indians to be displaced again. It made the Cheyenne and Arapaho move from the land that was once promised to them. Thus to find steady to the invasion, the government passed the "concentration" policy which stated that the Natives are to be paid to stay in general areas of land away from the major transportation routes. This policy didn't work as well as the government had thought so they implemented the "reservation" policy. The "reservation" policy was made so they could remove Native Americans from direct contact with the white migrants who were pressuring the governments for each territory that will ultimately destroy the Indians culture.

    Read More

  • Elizabeth Bennett Pride And Prejudice Analysis

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    Darcy, the illusion that Mr. Wickham had built surrounding himself was now shattered: “How different did everything appear in which he was concerned.” Elizabeth now realizes her mistakes, which her prejudice was built and hopefully will never fall for such deceit again. Mr. Darcy is not the only one who is haughty, Elizabeth’s pride takes a massive blow after reading the letter, “she grew absolutely ashamed.” Realizing her mistakes will make Elizabeth grow as a person as she realizes how despicable she was, and has learned from her mistakes. Elizabeth had always thought she had the perfect judgement, but in fact she was horribly blind: “Till this moment I never knew myself.” Elizabeth now sees that she has flaws and it got in the way of her judgement rendering it blind. It is in maturity that people see their flaws; now Elizabeth has to make sure the same mistakes does not happen again. It was only after her prejudice of Mr. Darcy was finally gone that Elizabeth realized her true feelings towards him: “She explained what it’s [the letter] effect on her had been, and how gradually all her former prejudice has been removed.” After reading the letter, Elizabeth was able to realize her flaws as a character and grow into maturity and because of that she was able to see her true feelings about Mr.

    Read More

  • Compare and Contrast the Two Proposals in Pride And Prejudice

    1462 Words  | 3 Pages

    Elizabeth's lively, straightforward, daring character and her disregard for considerations of rank show through clearly in her reaction to Darcy's proposal. Her pride is also evident, for the lack of civility in her refusal is due primarily to injured pride resulting from Darcy's frank explanation of his reservations about proposing to her because of her inferior connections.

    Read More

  • Indian Removal Dbq

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    It has for some time been the strategy of the Government to present among them human expressions of progress, in the hope of bit by bit recovery from a meandering life (“Andrew Jackson Calls”). This is where they concluded the need for terrains that belonged to Native Americans for expansion and growth of resources. In correlation, the United States Government gave it its best shot to help the white settlers obtain Indian area. The US Government took the approach of becoming oblivious to the matter and by also passing lawmaking body requiring the Indians to surrender their property (Zinn). The Native Indians were compelled to yield and assimilate to US law or leave their countries where they were also forced to move and wound up in Oklahoma. An article states, “The five noteworthy tribes influenced were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole” (Remini). These were known as The Civilized Tribes that had effectively tackled a level of coordination into a more advanced westernized society, by for example, creating composed dialect and figuring out how to write and peruse

    Read More

  • Westward Expansion

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “There is no True History of Westward Expansion”, by Robert Morgan, he argues that history is inaccurate, history only names the famous people or actions which happened in history. He accurately states in his text that history is made up of heroes, villains, and also average citizens. This viewpoint is true because the more that is examined about history the more that is discovered. Other texts give support , such as,“Thomas Jefferson’s America, 1801” by Stephen Ambrose, “Reporting to the President, September 23- December 31, 1806” by Stephen Ambrose, and “American Progress” by John Gast, to Morgan’s idea that history is not made up of just hero and villains.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Mr Wickham And Darcy

    1961 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has emphases on how characters are perceived by the world they live in. Mr. Darcy is an unpopular and misunderstood character who is the symbol of pride throughout the novel. Mr. Wickham is a charismatic soldier who is perceptive of those around him and capitalizes on his knowledge. Throughout the novel similarities and differences between characters are highlighted. Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy grew up together, yet Mr. Darcy is known for having a disagreeable countenance and a large sense of pride and Mr. Wickham is more charming, charismatic, and socially well-versed. In the fourth chapter of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth says “It does not necessarily

    Read More

  • Impact Of Westward Expansion On Native Americans

    432 Words  | 1 Pages

    “Back in the 1830s, President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act led to a forced westward march of the Southeastern-based Cherokees by the U.S. Army that has become known as the Trail of Tears.” The Indian Removal Act actually forced all Indian tribes to move. Really, it was the Indian’s that decided to move because the gold rush forced settlers through their hunting land. Indian’s were no longer able to get food other than what they grew and harvested because people scared all the animals away. So the Indian’s made a treaty with the government. The government promised to keep people from coming on the new Indian land. Some Indian tribes moved to peaceful grounds. That is why Indian’s agreed to travel hundreds of miles to new land. And their travels took years to walk.

    Read More

  • Western Heritage

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order to understand how these influences or principles have spread, it must also be figured out how these principles developed. Again here, it must be asserted that the historical context is of vital importance because it reveals the manner in which some actions that took place at particular points in time had formed consensus notions. It is these notions that were carried through and developed into what have become western democratic principles. These had evidently developed with the passage of time due to the occurrences that took place on the American continent; the types of people that landed there were responsible for the influences they had in the formulation of law. Though other western countries experienced similar transition America is one country that must be particularly mentioned (Kagan et al, 2000).

    Read More

  • Robert Hutchins Goddard

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many of the the most important features of modern rockets, missiles, and even spacecraft use the principles pioneered by Dr. Robert Goddard. Before his work, many people didn't even believe thrust could propel a rocket in a vacuum and, because of this, he was ridiculed by the New York Times when he proposed that space travel with rockets was possible4. When he tried to tell the U.S. Army about the possibility of the Germans using rockets as weapons just before World War II, he was rebuffed. What he had warned became a reality however, when German V-2 rockets hit London. After the war was over, German scientists admitted that much of the design for the V-2 had been taken from Goddard's patents, which were publicly available4.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

    1623 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel Pride and Prejudice, is a romantic comedy, by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is a story about an unlikely pair who go through many obstacles before finally coming together. Pride is the opinion of oneself and prejudice is how one person feels others perceive them. The novel, Pride and Prejudice, uses plot, the characters of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and the status of women and social standing, to portray the theme of the novel - pride and prejudice.

    Read More

  • Wernher Von Braun Biography

    1749 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the early 1930s, “rocket clubs” began to spring up all over Germany. Wernher expressed such an interest in one of these clubs in particular, Verein fur Raumschiffarht (Rocket Society), that he joined it.

    Read More

  • The Significance of 'First Impressions' in 'Pride and Prejudice'

    1374 Words  | 3 Pages

    Both characters develop throughout the novel, and their first impressions of each other gradually change. Darcy’s pride diminishes, as does Elizabeth’s prejudice.

    Read More

  • A Critical Review of Pride and Prejudice

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elizabeth was her father’s favorite child. Being twenty years old she possesses brains, beauty, confidence, and independence. A lot like her father, Elizabeth knew that society was all about money and rank. By being prejudice against society, she attacks Mr. Darcy's pride (Moore). Her pride comes from discriminating against others by believing she knows everything.

    Read More

More about Key Themes in 'Pride and Prejudice'

Open Document