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Question 1 :

Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” is a story ingrained pride and prejudices.
Comment on these ingrained perceptions with reference to two characters in the
story.

The formation of our own perceptions regarding matters of life based on either
the ideal or the reality perspective has undeniably influenced the way we see things in,
which is rarely objective and rational. The unfair and unreasonable opinion or feeling,
especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge and how we humans tend
to belief that we deserve respect as we are far better and more important than the others
are the main issues that are tried to be conveyed by Jane Austen in her most popular
novel “Pride and Prejudice”. Obviously, the title of the novel itself has represented the
general appeal of the story

The most outstanding characters who significantly display the deep-rooted

perceptions of pride and prejudices in the story are Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. For the first
two chapters of the novel, both characters are pre-judging and re-judging each other. As
an intelligent and spirited young woman who possesses a keen wit and enjoys studying
people’s characters, Elizabeth has criticized her sister, Jane for being blind to people’s
flaw, which she will find her accusation as ironic and opposing to her principle when she
discovers her own blindness regarding appearances and prejudices.

This can be justified when she has her prejudices stemmed from her first
impressions of the two men she known, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham. Initially, she was
repulsed by Mr. Darcy’s arrogant and reserved manners and his insulting refusal to
dance with her but, she is attracted to Mr. Wickham’s “happy readiness of
conversation---a readiness at the same time perfectly correct and unassuming.” In fact,
Mr. Wickham further pleases Elizabeth by favouring her with his attention at her aunt’s
house. In other words, the sense of etiquette has affected her perception in which Mr.
Wickham has behaved oppositely to Mr. Darcy in his first encounter with Elizabeth, that
is considered to be more appealing to her appreciation of friendly manners and
conversation as well as her pride in being the woman he chose to sit with. However,
when she receives the letter of explanation from Mr. Darcy about Mr. Wickham’s true
nature, she realises that her refusal to see any view point other than her own had
rendered her from seeing the true nature of the men respectively and all the while, she
had been “blind, partial, prejudiced and absurd” and it is a fact that her confidence in her
own judgment, which is actually the combination of both pride and prejudice, is what
leads her into her worst errors.

Due to honouring her pride, Elizabeth has rejected the marriage proposals by Mr.
Collins and Mr. Darcy. She has her own dream and hope, which is to marry for love, not
convenience that is clearly opposed to Mr. Collins’ view point who takes marriage as a
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business transaction and not the culmination of love for Elizabeth. Thus, her romantic
view of marriage results in her feelings of shock and disappointment when her best
friend, Charlotte decides to marry Mr. Collins. It is perhaps her objections to Charlotte’s
realistic perception of marriage reflects her own objections of accepting the necessity of
marriage for security and denies the pure dream of marrying for love.

On the other hand, her declination to accept Mr. Darcy proposal is because she
wants to preserve her pride that has initially been hurt by him and due to her prejudices
of his role together with the Bingley’s sisters in keeping Jane and Mr. Bingley apart as
well as the successful influence of Mr. Wickham’s act of imposing his prejudice upon
Elizabeth, which hinted Mr. Darcy to be prejudices against all people. This shows us that
even though Elizabeth is perspective enough to immediately sense there is something
wrong between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham, her perspective abilities was again easily
blinded by her unfair prejudices towards Mr. Darcy.

As for Mr. Darcy, being a wealthy and proud man who has a stiff demeanour, he
has guarded himself from mixing around with people whom he is not familiar with. In
fact, his remark of not wanting to dance with Elizabeth who he takes as not handsome
enough for him shows us that he really prides himself for being better as compared to
Elizabeth. However, Charlotte’s discussion of Mr. Darcy’s proud nature was indeed an
acceptable excuse but is still hard to be digested by Elizabeth who supports the equality
treatment among the members of the society; “ His pride does not offend me so much
as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very
fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of
himself. If I may express it, he has the right to be proud.”

The moment Mr. Darcy starts to look at Elizabeth attentively especially her eyes
and eventually falls in love with her, the prejudice that lies inside him has lessened
through time. The rejection of proposal that is meant for Elizabeth had affected him
deeply as the proposal itself is filled with pride as he refers to all the obstacles which he
has had to overcome in order to make him take the step. The vitality of pride is seen
when he focuses on the negatives situation and makes disparaging comments about her
family, rather than emphasizing his love towards Elizabeth.

The ingrained perceptions of both characters can also be identified when Mr.
Darcy accuses Elizabeth of pride, while she in turn, accuses him of prejudice, which
happens during the proposing scene. She tells him that he was prejudiced against Mr.
Wickham, Jane and the things that do not fit into his social world. Sequentially, he tells
her that she would not be so adamant “had not your pride been hurt by my honest
confession.” This ironic reversal emphasizes that both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have
been guilty for both pride and prejudice.
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As a man who is ruled by reason and reflection, Mr. Darcy continues to find
Elizabeth more attractive when she has frequently challenges his comments. However,
only the social class of some of her relatives prevent him from pursuing the attraction.
The prejudice that he has towards Elizabeth’s family especially her mother, who seems
desperate to marry off her children in order to improve their family social class, has
indirectly reminded him regarding his pride, which should be well-preserved.

The incident of Lydia’s elopement with Mr. Wickham has made Mr. Darcy to feel
disgrace, a result of his earlier pride for not exposing Mr. Wickham’s untrustworthiness
when he tried to elope with his sister. Thus, he has proven his willingness to sacrifice a
little pride for Elizabeth’s happiness by dealing with Mr. Wickham in terms of marrying
him off with Lydia to save her family’s pride.

Throughout the novel, we can see that the refusal of Mr. Darcy’s first proposal
has caused him to examine his pride and prejudices and to subsequently alter his
behaviour. As for Elizabeth, she has brought herself to a self-revelation of her own pride
and prejudice and is able to analyze herself to gain moral insight. Undeniably, the
perceptions of pride and prejudice are deeply rooted within us despite of the
justifications and principles of rationality and objectivity that we always emphasize in our
daily life.

Thus, we can say that before people can find the complete understanding of
another, they must first fully know themselves. As civilized human beings, it is essential
for us to be aware of the difference between appearance and reality. It is without a doubt
that Austen had successfully presented a drama of insight that acts by revision and sees
things as they really are and not what was presumed through her master piece.