Pride And Prejudice Character Development Essay

How Does the Concept of Characters in Works of Literature Needing to Grow and Change in Order to Reach a Goal Apply to Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy? Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen divulges the transformations of Elizabeth Bennet, the daughter of a gentleman, and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a wealthy estate owner. Both of these characters hold bigotry toward one another that encumbers their ultimate engagement and requires them to change in order to find happiness. Elizabeth grows to be self-aware of her own prejudices and misjudgments, and Mr. Darcy becomes self-aware of his pride and moral blindness toward social classes in order to marry one another. Mr. Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth unveils his moral blindness towards people beyond his social circle and initiates his endeavors towards self-awareness. After he confesses he loves and admires Elizabeth against his own will, reason, and character – and after he notes that to marry Elizabeth would wound his and his …show more content…
Darcy prompts Elizabeth to reassess her own judgment. At first read, Elizabeth does not believe the letter to be true, because she has for so long held Wickham to a higher regard than Darcy, and thought Darcy to be arrogant and ungentlemanly. She has also been under the impression that Darcy disregarded his father’s wishes and refused to give Wickham money for no good reason. But through further contemplation of her interactions with Wickham, such as his quickness to speak ill of Darcy after only just meeting Elizabeth, Elizabeth takes to introspection. She memorizes the letter and comes to realize that she is guilty of the same prejudice she believed Darcy to have. Elizabeth’s pride caused her to mistake Darcy’s compliments for taunting, shyness for arrogance, and flirtation for mockery. She allowed her surface view of Darcy, her first impression, to determine her entire opinion of him. This recognition of her faulty perception drives Elizabeth to second guess her own