Pride and Prejudice

Essay by captaindoorknobHigh School, 10th gradeA-, November 2014

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Nathan Rothermel

Mrs. White

Honors English 10

January 18, 2014

Pride and Prejudice

In Pride and Prejudice, a novel by Jane Austen, many of the characters have very obvious character traits. While this is true, there are also a good deal of figures who are not as they initially present. Elizabeth's first impressions of Wickham and Darcy along with Wickham's elope with Lydia and Darcy's first proposal lead Elizabeth to discover that appearances are not always what they "appear" to be.

Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham both imprinted extremely distinct first impressions. Additionally, both first takes on the men's inner character are revealed to be excruciatingly wrong. At the ball, "Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features" and the fact that he was soon found to be worth "ten thousand a year" (Austen 18). Alas, this was not to remain so. Many people soon realized that he was "proud" and believed that he was "above his company" (Austen 18).

This coupled with the fact that Elizabeth happened upon a certain conversation where Darcy informed Mr. Bingley that he believed that "[Elizabeth] [was] tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me" (Austen 19) gave Elizabeth such an excellent reason to despise against him. Elizabeth found that "his appearance was greatly in his favour; he had all the best part of beauty -- a fine countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing address" (Austen 72). Wickham's initial appearance bestowed a great deal of charm and good countenance, which was all that Elizabeth had in evidence to his quality as a man. Since this fine specimen of a man contained an eagerness to engage in conversation, Elizabeth assumed he was of the highest standard. When Wickham brought up the fact that "[Darcy and Wickham]...