Today’s
society is constantly reminded of the importance of first impressions. Every
time you encounter a new individual, a judgement is made based on how you look,
how you speak, and how you act. In just a few moments, an individual can have
the impression that you are smart, kind, arrogant, poor, proud, etc. The
original name for Pride and Prejudice was First Impressions,
which is why there is such a strong theme of first impressions within the
novel. The power of first impressions is strong, yet Jane Austen works to prove
that they are inaccurate. She uses the unreliableness of first
impressions to shape the love story between Elizabeth and Darcy throughout the
novel, which expresses the pride and prejudice each of them possess.
When Elizabeth and Darcy first
happen upon each other at the ball, Elizabeth is soon appalled by the
ungentlemanly behavior he expresses while Darcy is weary of her as she is “not
handsome enough to tempt” him (Austen 13). Elizabeth believes that his
“character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the
world, and every body hoped that he would never come there again” (13). After a
short period of time, Elizabeth develops a very strong opinion of Darcy in the
most negative way, carving the prejudiced lens with which she sees him
throughout the rest of the novel. Likewise, Darcy has no interest in her as her
looks and status do not reach his standards, thus he struggles to realize his
true feelings towards her as his pride constantly controls his actions.
As the novel progresses, Darcy and
Elizabeth slowly realize the misconceptions their first impressions of each
other created and adjust their opinions of one another as their feelings
develop. Darcy is the first to realize there is more to Elizabeth than her
physical appearance and goes as far as to fall in love with her. Upon asking
for her hand in marriage, the narrator states that “he was not more eloquent on
the subject of tenderness than of pride” (185). Although Darcy admits his love
for Elizabeth, he still lacks the capability of looking past her inferiority to
him; he struggles with the idea of marrying someone with so little connections
and money due to his pride. This leads Elizabeth to feel no compassion, just
anger, as she rejects the proposal: “From the very beginning, from the first
moment I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressing
me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish
disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that ground-work of
disapprobation...I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the
last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry” (188).
Elizabeth refuses to see Darcy in any other way than what her first impressions
will allow because of the prejudice she developed around his character. Her
pride also comes into play at this point in the novel - how can she marry a man
that she, her family, and others have so negatively discussed?
Finally, Elizabeth realizes the good
in Darcy’s nature and begins to “comprehend that he was exactly the man, who,
in disposition and talents, would most suit her” (295). Elizabeth recognizes
that she created an untruthful prejudice about Darcy due her first impression
of him that, mixed with her pride, blocked her from seeing the real him and how
happy they could have been together. She allows herself to judge him in a
negative light based on meeting him just a few times as well as on the stories
she heard about him and his family being proud. She understands her own faults,
which allows her to see individuals for their real selves, not just what their
first impressions depict of them.
Although
First Impressions would have been a fine name for this novel, Pride
and Prejudice fits better due to the characteristics of pride and prejudice being the basis of
what creates the first impressions and fuels both Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s
opinions of each other throughout the entire novel. As Austen proves the inaccuracy of first impressions, she allows Darcy and Elizabeth to realize their misjudgments and overcome the pride and prejudice they each hold. By surmounting these characteristics, they understand each other's true self and the love they have for one another - creating the happy ending to this timeless love story.
Certainly, both First Impressions and Pride and Prejudice are fitting descriptions of the novel’s contents, with Austen most likely selecting the latter over the former due to its pleasant-sounding alliteration (as in Sense and Sensibility) and antithesis. As you stated, Elizabeth struggles with hasty judgments of character throughout most of the novel, as when she dismisses Jane’s appraisal of Mr. Bingley’s sister and cites Jane’s tendency to be “blind to the follies and nonsense of others” (16). Scarcely a dozen pages into the novel, Austen makes multiple points of the protagonist’s propensity “to be hasty in censuring any one” (16). While Elizabeth may have been partially correct in regarding Miss Bingley as proud and conceited, she was entirely wrong in her quick judgment of Mr. Wickham. As soon as she meets Mr. Wickham, Elizabeth holds the “young man of such amiable appearance” (84) in high esteem. Wickham’s seemingly friendly nature, in combination with Darcy’s bad first impression, causes Elizabeth to readily accept his slandering stories of her wealthy future husband. It seems, as in Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, this tale of romance reveals the role of immature judgments and childish actions in damaging and delaying future relationships. Without Elizabeth and Darcy’s “implacable resentment” (57) or Kathy and Ruth’s teenage jealousy, both books would have reached their “happy endings” much sooner.
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