by Naomi Garton

Created on: February 13, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

In my opinion Elizabeth's first and foremost mistake is that she misjudges Darcy, right

from their initial meeting. Although she thinks she has his character pinned down,

Elizabeth is exceedingly wrong about Darcy and here I feel this shows her almost lazy approach

with him. She is only concerned with his faults, right up to chapter 16, and even at

Darcy's best attempts to revise her judgement of him around, she turns him down. This is

partly because of his first opinion of her in Chapter 3 where Darcy states, "She is

tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me;" and partly because of the way he

addressed her acquaintances and family on the night of their first meeting. However

Elizabeth is just naturally being spiteful to him for after all, who would want to be

described as tolerable? This could be one explanation for her behaviour towards him, but

another could be her naively conversing with the sly Wickham about Darcy in Chapter 16

where Wickham states "The world is blinded by his fortune and consequence, or frightened

by his high and imposing manners, and sees him only as he chuses to be seen," about

Darcy. Therefore Elizabeth thinks she has enough information to form what she thinks, is a clear vision

about what Darcy is. However if she dug slightly deeper into Darcy's complicated mind

and stopped rejecting every attempt he makes to be acquainted with her she would find a

very agreeable, courteous man. Nevertheless, she does not and therefore is blinded

towards any attempt Darcy makes to redeem himself of the image she has of him. Here I

think my opinion would be quite similar to that of a girl in 1810 because, like Elizabeth's sisters, I

would also be blinded by the first impression of Darcy rather than persevere to see what

he was really all about. Therefore I think Austen is suggesting that many people in the

1800's stayed faithful to their first impressions of the people they met in their lives, and

she is trying to get her point across that this was wrong, because you were losing out on

valuable friendships and even marriages. This is a possible reason why Austen may have

titled her book "First Impressions" before she thought of "Pride and Prejudice".

The second mistake Elizabeth makes is in chapter 7, where she chooses to

walk to Netherfield, causing her white dress to be stained as she enters the prestigious

residence. She is proving to the Bingley sisters the unworthiness of her family, and how

she finds her appearance to be not important. Although this is a clear insight

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>