Pride and Prejudice

In the book Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth is the heroine of the text and Darcy is the hero of the text. Jane Austen first named her book "First Impressions" but later changed it to "Pride and Prejudice". While the earlier is still a very apt title for the text, "Pride and Prejudice" is an even more appropriate title as there are evidences of pride and prejudice throughout the text especially in the main protagonists of the text; Elizabeth and Darcy. But it could be said that the prejudice is just an extension of both Elizabeth's and Darcy's pride and the point of this essay is to show exactly that.

Darcy is a part of the aristocracy. People who were apart of aristocracy were royalty and they believed that they were a higher race. They felt that marrying someone who wasn't a part of the aristocracy would contaminate their blood so it can be understood where Darcy's pride comes from. One example from the text would be Darcy's reaction at the Meryton ball in Chapter 3 to Bingley's suggestion that he dance with Elizabeth: "Which do you mean?" and turning round, he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me." In just this one statement Darcy's sense of social superiority is exposed. The rudeness with which darcy treats Elizabeth creates a negative impression in her mind. He damages her pride and this is when Elizabeth starts disliking Darcy as can be seen when Elizabeth says "I could easily forgive his pride if he had not mortified mine". Although the prejudice she feels toward Darcy are enhanced by Wickham's account on Darcy, her prejudice towards Darcy started