The word Prejudice means a preformed opinion, usually an unfavourable one, based on insufficient knowledge, irrational feelings, or inaccurate stereotypes. Both Darcy and Elizabeth suffer from prejudice towards each other. At the Netherfield ball, Elizabeth meets up with her good friend, Charlotte Lucas. Elizabeth suddenly finds herself addressed by Darcy for a dance, and she was so surprised that she didn’t even know she accepted his offer. This shows us that Elizabeth’s prejudice towards Darcy changed her feelings towards him as she becomes surprised in him asking her to dance, even though he said that she was not ‘handsome’ enough to dance with at the Meryton ball. He then walked away immediately, and she was left to fret over her own want of presence of mind. Charlotte reacts by saying, “I dare say you will find him very agreeable,” and Elizabeth responds by saying, “Heaven forbid! - That would be the greatest misfortune of all! - To find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate! - Do not wish me such an evil.” We are shown Elizabeth’s prejudice towards Darcy in this chapter. Furthermore, Darcy and Elizabeth begin to dance. They stood for some time without speaking a word and then Elizabeth told Darcy to speak as she had already spoken about the dance. Darcy then goes on to speak about the ball. Elizabeth goes on to say, “We are each of unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room…” As they continue talking, Elizabeth commences to become increasingly irritated by Darcy’s conceit behaviour. On the contrary, Darcy is being drawn to Elizabeth’s ‘fine eyes’ which is the turning point of their relationship as Darcy begins to find Elizabeth attractive. The story moves along by Mr Collins proposing to Elizabeth. Elizabeth is very shocked by this proposal and doesn’t accept it. However, Mrs Bennet is very keen for Elizabeth to marry Mr Collins because if Mr Bennet were to pass away, then their home will be in the hands of Mr Collins and if Elizabeth is married to him then he would still allow Mrs Bennet and the rest of the family to continue living in it. Mr Collins reasons for proposing to Elizabeth are as following; firstly he says that a clergyman in easy circumstances (like himself) should set the example of matrimony in his parish. Secondly, he believes that accepting his proposal will add very greatly to his happiness, and thirdly he says that Lady Catherine DeBourgh, an extremely wealthy lady who happens to be Darcy’s aunt and Mr Collins patroness, has recommended for him to get married. Elizabeth refuses, and after proposing persistently, he finally gets the idea that Elizabeth doesn’t want to marry him. Mrs Bennet is extremely annoyed with Elizabeth’s refusal and she advises Mr Bennet to force Elizabeth to accept Mr Collins proposal. Mr Bennet then says to Elizabeth, “Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr Collins and I will never see you again if you do…” Elizabeth is then stuck in the middle and has to choose between her two parents. She follows her instincts and decides to stick with her refusal to Mr Collins proposal. The Bennet’s then dine with the Lucases and Charlotte tolerates Mr Collins well. Mr Collins then goes on to propose to Charlotte Lucas the next day and she accepts. Charlotte goes to tell Elizabeth about her engagement and Elizabeth is shocked and disappointed that her friend would marry such an obnoxious fool. But Charlotte expects a comfortable life with Mr. Collins and aspires to nothing greater; however no true love between the two seems to be present. Elizabeth feels that their friendship is quite altered by Charlotte's decision, but she tries to move past her complete disgust. In chapter fifteen, we are introduced to a new character at Meryton, Mr Wickham. Wickham is a charming con-man who convinces Elizabeth that he was greatly wronged by Darcy, although things are actually the other way around. The dinner party at Mrs. Phillips' homes, Mrs Bennet’s sister, Elizabeth sits next to Wickham. He is charming and pleasant as well as handsome. They begin a conversation, and Wickham tells Elizabeth how he grew up with Darcy and was a particular favourite of Darcy's father. Wickham was expected to become a minister, and Darcy's dad promised Wickham a parish at their estate, but after Old Mr Darcy died, Darcy disregarded his father's promise and refused the parish to Wickham. Wickham then says, “His pride never deserts him,” and adds that Darcy didn’t allow him to give the life he had deserved. Blinded by her prejudice towards Darcy, Elizabeth believes Wickham is a noble man and believes his story. This adds to her revulsion towards Darcy. In chapter twenty one, Jane gets a message from Miss Bingley, and she seems upset by what she reads. Jane tells Elizabeth that the Bingley’s have all left Netherfield for good. Miss Bingley also conveniently mentions that her brother is interested in Darcy's young sister, Miss Darcy. Elizabeth believes that Miss Bingley is just being cruel because she knows that her brother likes Jane and that Jane likes him. Jane, however, is too good hearted to think that Miss Bingley would ever intentionally hurt her feelings, so she believes that Miss Bingley was just mistaken. Elizabeth then suspects that Darcy might have been involved in taking Bingley away from Jane. Yet again we are shown Elizabeth being blinded by her prejudice towards Darcy but this time her prediction is true. Moving on to chapter thirty four, Elizabeth sits reading Jane's letters and finds a lack of Jane's typical cheer in each line when Darcy rushes in. He tells her that he's concerned about her health, and Elizabeth is surprised by his worry. But she's even more surprised when he says, "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." He goes on to tell her that he loves her despite her lack of wealth or connections to important people. He says that he's tried to ignore his feelings for her because it would be beneath him to marry anyone like her, but he can't fight it anymore. He asks Elizabeth to marry him. Despite the flattery of someone as wealthy and sought-after as Darcy proposing to her, Elizabeth is outraged at his assumption that she'll say yes because it's such a great offer for someone like her. She refuses him and also tells him of her dislike for his personality and his behaviour towards her as well as his role in Jane's unhappiness and Wickham's misfortune. “…to accept the man, who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?” Darcy doesn't deny his part in either Jane or Wickham's situation, but he seems absolutely shocked that Elizabeth has disliked him from the beginning of their acquaintance because of his own personality. Darcy exposes his pride to the maximum in this chapter and when he leaves, Elizabeth is so shocked and upset that she cries although she feels no remorse for refusing him. The next day Darcy hands a letter to Elizabeth and she reads it. The letter explained that Darcy thought that Jane and Mr Bingley weren’t truly in love, and didn’t want to see Jane hurt as Bingley has been in love before. “…I had my apprehension of his feeling a serious attachment – I had often seen him in love before.” Also he states that her family’s behaviour at the Netherfield ball was inappropriate and improper for a high standard family, such as the Bingley’s. Darcy admits that the only underhanded behaviour he took part in was concealing from Bingley that Jane was in London, but even that Darcy is not sorry for because he was trying to protect his friend. He also adds in letter that Mrs Bennet was from a low social background whereas Bingley is from a high social background, “…The situation of your mother’s family, though, objectionable, was nothing in comparison of the total want of prosperity…” Darcy shows us his prejudice towards Elizabeth and her family; she is blinded by this throughout the novel prejudice. As for Wickham, Darcy writes that when his father died the will recommended that Darcy should give Wickham a parish at or help Wickham find a suitable position at some other estate. But rather than be a preacher, Wickham decided that he'd prefer to have money that he claimed would support him while he studied law. Darcy gave him his money and considered them all evened out. No more was owed to Wickham. Darcy had known all along that Wickham was underhanded and manipulative because they were the same age and were often around each other. But Darcy never told his father the truth about Wickham because Darcy's father was so attached to Wickham, “My father was not only fond of this young man’s society, whose manners were always engaging; he had also the highest opinion of him…” But not long after Wickham had gone to London, he wrote to Darcy for more money because he'd changed his mind about studying law. Darcy knew that Wickham wasn't using the money to study but to spend it on immoral pursuits. Darcy refused to pay him so Wickham decided to seduce Darcy's sister who was fifteen at the time, as she was worth a lot of money and Wickham saw this as an opportunity to get the money and spend it on himself. Miss Darcy told her brother of her naive plan to elope with Wickham whom she fancied herself to love. Darcy wrote to Wickham, telling him he was aware of him trying to elope with his sister just for the money. Wickham disappeared until Darcy saw him again in Meryton. Elizabeth doesn't know what to think of the letter. After realizing the truth in Darcy's explanation about Wickham, she also remembers that Charlotte had warned her that Jane's behaviour around Bingley could very well be a mistaken for a lack of interest because she tried to contain her feelings for Bingley as she didn’t want to act like other women when they are around handsome men. Charlotte says, “If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him…” Elizabeth hadn’t believed Charlotte at the time but had now realized that she was right. In conclusion, I think that without the pride and prejudice blinding both Elizabeth and Darcy, there relationship wouldn’t have been successful. Albeit pride and prejudice prevented the two from getting to know each other from the beginning, it allowed them to realize that they have underestimated each other, and that both of them are actually fond of each other. If they had withheld their stereotypical views towards each other from the moment they had met, then they would have realized that they were actually affectionate towards each other. We can say that pride and prejudice slowed the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. Also, after reading Darcy’s letter, Elizabeth begins to understand that her pride and prejudice got in the way of recognising Darcy’s true character and that she let herself fall for Wickham’s story. At first she wasn’t fond Darcy because of his comment towards her at the Meryton ball, as he hurt her pride. After realizing that she let her views come in the way of Darcy’s real personality, she starts to doubt all the views she had of Darcy and begins to like him for who he really is and this results in her accepting his proposal at the end, after all.
