Pride And Prejudice Psychology

What would you say if I were to ask you if you've ever had the wrong first impression of someone? And if you've ever had first impression of someone that was right? Yes, they tell us “to not judge the book by its cover”, but we humans are overly quick to judge people based on various reasons. Psychology says this is because we don't have the mental capacity to carefully evaluate each person we come across, for us judgement is simply a shortcut. Pride and Prejudice provides a case study of first impressions, exploring this universal theme from various points of view. As you may know First Impressions was the original title of Pride and Prejudice. The original title reflects the beliefs and values of the 19th century and Austen focuses on this theme as one of the bases of society at that time period. Austen reminds us from the first line to the last that first impressions are an essential part of human interaction. She explores the nature of first impressions from many different angles and shows us that we are extremely prone to make mistakes in judging people for the first time, specifically because of our pride and our prejudices. Mistaken judgements effect both leading characters, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, and almost destroys their relationship. Compared to the …show more content…
This enables him to deceive people by taking advantage of quick judgements and leaving town when people become too familiar with his behaviour. Wickham also does not offend Elizabeth’s pride, which is why she immediately befriends him. Elizabeth’s pride and prejudice is manipulated by Wickham in a way that makes him seem like an honourable and sympathetic person in comparison to Mr Darcy. This is shown when Miss Caroline Bingley gives her opinion of Mr Wickham, warning Elizabeth away from him. Caroline means well but Elizabeth assumes that she is only saying it because of Mr Wickham’s social