SỰ THAY ĐỔI CỦA DARCY TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT KIÊU HÃNH VÀ ĐỊNH KIẾN CỦA JANE AUSTEN

This article mainly describes the image of Mr. Darcy before and after he falls in love with Elizabeth. These “images” would be discussed in two separated part so that readers can distinguish the differences easily. This research will consist of interpreting, comparing and contrasting the sources of material that the researcher gets. After having adequate knowledge and data, the researcher will analyze and synthetize these sources of information and draw conclusion. The reasons for the transformation, the process of the changes will be discussed as well to find out the significance of the entire progression.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮKHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

SỰ THAY ĐỔI CỦA DARCY TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT KIÊU HÃNH VÀ ĐỊNH KIẾN CỦA JANE AUSTEN

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.s Văn Thị Thanh Bình Sinh viên: Nguyễn Huyền Ly

Khóa: QH2010

HÀ NỘI - 2014

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: (Nguyen Huyen Ly, class Qh2010.F1.E1), being a candidatefor the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the Collegerelating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in thelibrary

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in thelibrary should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordancewith the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan orreproduction of the paper

Signature

Ha Noi, 2014

From when I started to the end of this thesis, it had been for many people whohelped me a lot in conducting the content Without them, this paper would not havebeen as you can read now

The first and foremost thank I would like to say to my supervisor, Ms Van ThiThanh Binh She was the one who inspired me to literature and to English love stories,especially in the Medieval Literature – the type I have never spent any interest in.When I was doing my thesis, she was the one who guides me all essential steps as amother taught her toddler daughter to walk She was the one that I wanted to say mydeepest thank to

Besides, I would like to say thanks to my friends, especially Kieu Thi Ha She alsohelped me a lot in checking my expression and encouraging me to go on with mythesis

And, finally, I would like to give many thanks to our university, especially ourdivision that created opportunities for other students and me to do thesis and everyguide that they sent

This article mainly describes the image of Mr Darcy before and after he falls inlove with Elizabeth These “images” would be discussed in two separated part so thatreaders can distinguish the differences easily This research will consist of interpreting,comparing and contrasting the sources of material that the researcher gets Afterhaving adequate knowledge and data, the researcher will analyze and synthetize thesesources of information and draw conclusion The reasons for the transformation, theprocess of the changes will be discussed as well to find out the significance of theentire progression

Table of content

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Significance of the study 2

3 The scope of the study 2

4 Research methodology 2

4.1 Data collection procedure 3

4.2 Data analysis procedure 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Definition of fiction 4

1.2 Elements of a fiction 4

1.2.1 Theme 4

1.2.2 Plot 4

1.2.3 Setting 5

1.2.4 Point of view 5

1.2.5 Characters 6

1.3 Historical background and the hierarchy 6

1.4 Jane Austen 7

1.4.1 Jane Austen’s life 7

1.4.2 Jane Austen’s literary career 8

1.5 The novel Pride and Prejudice 9

1.5.1 Setting 9

1.5.2 Summary 9

CHAPTER 2: DEVELOPMENT 12

1 The image of Mr Darcy before falling in love with Elizabeth 12

1.1 Mr Darcy’s haughty way of thinking 12

1.2 Mr Darcy’s cocksure and prejudiced behavior 15

2 The whole new Mr Darcy after falling in love with Elizabeth 18

2.1 Mr Darcy’s gentle way of thinking 18

2.2 Mr Darcy’s civil and amiable behavior 20

3 The reasons and significance of the changes of Mr Darcy 24

3.1 Reasons for changes 24

3.1.1 Darcy’s initial peculiar attention to Elizabeth 25

3.1.2 Elizabeth’s inner beauty 26

3.1.3 Elizabeth’s intelligence 27

3.2 Process of the changes: 28

3.2.1 Initial dominance of pride and prejudice in Darcy’s mind 28

3.2.2 Struggle between Darcy’s pride and prejudice versus love 30

3.2.3 Triumph of love over pride and prejudice 31

3.3 The significance of the changes 33

PART 3: CONCLUSION 35

1 Issues addressed in the study 35

2 Limitations of the study 36

3 Suggestions for further research 36 List of References

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

The first time the researcher heard about the novel Pride and Prejudice waswhen she studied in primary school However, she did not read or even care for itbecause she was not interested in the English Medieval literature then It was not untilshe became a sophomore did she got a great chance to watch the movie and fell in loveimmediately with this masterpiece The author kept on watching the movie again andagain without feeling bored at all Watching is not enough; the investigator dug deeperinto the film by reading the original novel in both languages: English and Vietnamese.The decision was not wrong, as the author has found lots of fabulous detail in thenovel and after each time reciting it, she experiment some more attractive points Afterhundreds of time enjoying the masterpiece, the researcher decides to investigate thislove story as her B.A thesis

As the author had some explorations, many researchers have studied thismasterpiece before The topic can be simple as analyzing the main characters as

Student Companion to Jane Austen (Teachman, 2000) and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Bloom, 1987); to the deeper topic as studying the society in Understanding the society in which Jane Austen sets Pride and Prejudice (Whalan, 2003) or examining about artistic as in Jane Austen: New Perspectives (Todd, 1983) It seemed

that this novel has been studied in many aspects However, the author found out thatthere were some slices of the masterpiece have been glanced through only One ofthose is the changes of Mr Darcy – the main character of the novel

Apart from that, in the context of University of Language International Studies,there exists few research on the novel There are only two studies about the lovebetween Mr Darcy and Elizabeth (Lizzy); and a few ones penetrated further into thepersonality of Lizzy It appeared that in the whole world for general and in ouruniversity for particular, the love and the personality of women are more interested

than that of men, that is the reason why Mr Darcy is considered to be the most perfectman in the world but there is not many research about him If there is, they are usuallyessays, not a real research In addition, the author realized that from the beginning tothe end of the novel, this gentleman have gradually changed in his behavior towardeveryones, especially to Elizabeth He was described as “the proudest, mostdisagreeable man in the world” at his first appearance to everyone and at the end of thewriting, he became the man respect all others and very “pleasing” This factor can be

an interesting topic for examining

With all the reasons aforementioned, the author decided to investigate the mainmale character – Mr Darcy, focusing on the changes in his behavior and its effects to

others and even himself The tittle for the research is “The changes of Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.”

2 Significance of the study

When the investigation is completed, it will bring some certain benefits foranyone who is interested in this novel They will understand more about thecharacteristic features and the nature of main characters Apart from that, from thechanges of Mr Darcy, readers may recognize that for human being, there is no one is

“perfect” Nevertheless, we can limit our down side and improve our own personality

so that we can get the bliss in our life Besides, for those who would like to study thenovel, he can use this research as a reference

3 The scope of the study

It can be seen that “Pride and Prejudice” tells us a very nice love story and therelationship among people However, this study will only focus on investigating thebehavior of Mr Darcy to see how much he changed and how his new actions influencepeople and counter-act to him

4 Research methodology

By carrying out this research, the author aims at finding how the behavior of

Mr Darcy changed as time went by, the reason(s) and the effects of the changes toother people in the novel and to himself as well To achieve these aims, the researchercarries out the study to address the following questions:

 How did the personality of Mr Darcy change throughout the whole novel?

 What are the reason(s) and effects of the changes on Mr Darcy’s behavior to other people and to himself?

4.1 Data collection procedure

To conduct this investigation, the researcher has to collect and read the novel and otherresearch about this mastepiece to have deeper understanding about it Besides, researchabout the people, society and norms of that society are also sources of material for thestudy The discussion of researchers and others about the content of the novel arebackbones for the researcher to analyses characters’ thought and behaviors They aresignificant background knowledge for researcher to base on during the process Thetypes of sources are various such as books, journal articles oand previous study related

to the topic

4.2 Data analysis procedure

This research will consist of interpreting, comparing and constrating the sources ofmaterial above After having edequate knowledge and data, the researcher will analyseand synthetize these source of information and draw conclusion Therefore, researcherwill use document observation as the main instrument to conduct the study Afterbeing analyzed, the result would be presented in Part 2 “Development”

According to the definition of fiction by Hirst, fiction may consist of novels,

short stories, plays and poems; and literature works which based on the truth such asmemoirs, biography, investigation papers, etc are non-fiction

1.2 Elements of a fiction

In fiction, because all the words written down are based on the imagination ofthe writer, then he has to set up the entire essential factors as the foundation for hiswork So, what are the elements a writer must have to build his base? Below are somemost important ones that the researcher has found after examining about fiction

1.2.1 Theme

In daily use, a theme is the subject or topic that a person writes or speaks; but infiction, theme is the center idea or meaning of a story[ CITATION Sat08 \l 1033 ] Thetheme in a daily life may be presented by the speaker(s), however, in fiction, the themecan seldom be stated in a fiction, therefore readers have to infer from the words theyread by themselves The theme supplies “a unifying point” to help the author organizesall the plot, setting, point of view and characters in a story

1.2.2 Plot

Plot is an essential element of fiction, which consists of the arrangedhappenings in the story Normally, a fiction may start with a conflict, struggle ormistakes between/among opposing forces which is solved at the end In general, at thebeginning of the fiction, the background information of the story is stated, setting isgiven (background), then the actions gradually increase (blooming) until there is aclimax and resolution (can be any of victory, defeat, sad, happy) (Swenson, 2011).

1.2.3 Setting

According to Swenson (2011), setting is the place that readers can find thecharacters Or in another word, setting is the surround in which all actions ispositioned The setting of a fiction can include the “atmosphere, mood, or tone of thestory and the emotional state” that the author builds up for readers to image whilereading the story Apart from that, although fiction is “invented” by imagination, itsauthor must still put lifelike and realiable information therefore the story could bemore “plausible”, as Road stated (2010)

1.2.4 Point of view

Stories are expressed by the narrator’s point of view There are three known kinds for point of view: the first-person point of view, second-person point ofview and third-person point of view The first-person point of view consists of “I”,

well-“me” and “we” – This can be the author himself or a character in the story This point

of view can help the story become more reliable by giving the most truthful emotions

of the main characters, but in contrast, it also bring unreliable for the narrator because

of subjectivity - In case “we have reason to doubt the information we are getting”(Swenson, 2011) The second-person point of view is seldom used because it includesthe readers (the “You” pronoun) The third-person point of view (includes “he”, “she”

or Imaginary – the story-teller can have “omniscience” (know all details) or “limitedomniscience” (narrator tells us the feelings/thoughts of only one character) There can

be some more kinds of narrator which depends on the aims of the author It can be

“objective, subjective or multiple-person narrative mode point of view”, as Satwasehas specified

1.2.5 Characters

As usual, a narrative fiction has “round, flat, dynamic and static” characters(Satwase, 2008) Among them, the dynamic and static characters are the two mostcommon kinds of characters If a story in which these two types are highlighted thanany other characters; we may call them Protagonist and Antagonist The Protagonist –

as Swenson claimed (2011) – is the core character which develops as all other humanbeings, gets a life-and-death lesson or turns into something else more significant or

“right” Apart from that, the static character does not change in the whole story; eventhey are affected by some shocking event This kind of character usually is thesecondary character

1.3 Historical background and the hierarchy

According to Lambert (2012), in the 19th century the whole Britain wasconverted by the “industrial revolution” At the early of the century, there was a fewpeople lived in towns The majority of population lived in urban areas However, astime passed by, they gradually moved to towns and until the last two decades of thecentury, about two thirds of the population lived in cities Apart from that, theIndustrial Revolution brought with it new social classes (Dale, 1992) There are threemain classes in 19th century; they are aristocrats, middle class and the working class.

The Aristocrats master the highest power; authority and social status holder of the 19thcentury England social hierarchy were the aristocrats These people usually were notinvolved in any manual work since their time was so valuable to do such work thatwere non artistic and could be completed by normal people These Aristocrats includethe following profiles: The Royal Family, Spiritual Lords, Temporal Lords, GreatOfficers of the State, Baronets, Knights and Country Gentlemen In the novel Pride

and Prejudice, Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley can be seen as Country Gentlemen or moregeneral, they are aristocrats

According to Hughes (1998), the middle class of the 19th century Englandsocial hierarchy included people who were quite wealthier than the lower class This

‘middling class’ referred to a wide band of the England population Lastly, theWorking Class - this was the lowest social class in the 19th century England socialhierarchy This class was further sub categorized into two parts They are the Workingclass and the Poor The Working Class is the upper lower class in the hierarchy Thesewere men, women and children who used to do the lowest level work for the country.The Poor – the lowest class in the Working Class are the people living on the charity.They are not involved in any work The Bennets in the masterpiece Pride andPrejudice is one family of the members in the Poor

One thing which the researcher learned from the novel and the society in the

19th century, as Karam (1994) stated, families in each class allow intermarriageaccording to specific conventions The two families should have suitable alliance sothat the marriage can be accepted Besides, because of the condition of living, thechildren in aristocrat family were usually well-educated, and the children in the lowerstratum got the lower quality, even no education This led to the unequal amongstratums and convention of each class for the others was gradually set up from thisproblem

1.4 Jane Austen

1.4.1 Jane Austen’s life

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) though did not well-known at her time, has becomeone of the world’s famous writer Austen was the seventh child in her family (out ofeight) and her parents were both respected by the people as Jane’s father was anOxford-educated rector Thanks for her father; all her siblings are well educated andfocused on creative thinking Right from she was very young, all her brothers, sisters

and herself were encouraged reading a lot from books in the extensive library of theirbeloved father

For all Austen’s life, her sister Cassandra was closest to her in all sides, theywere both sent to boarding school for a better education As Liukkonen (2008), almostthe first 25 years of her life, she spent in Hampshire (the time in boarding school wasquite short in fact) Then, her father was retired unpredictably and the whole familymoved to Bath At that time, she focused more on creating literature work

Jane Austen died in July 18th, 1817 which was quite young then Even her lifewas not long, her work was so huge and we can still enjoy them today

1.4.2 Jane Austen’s literary career

As the Republic of Pemberly (2004), Austen’s novels are highly prized not onlyfor their light irony, humor, and depiction of contemporary English country life, butalso for their underlying serious qualities Her works consist of the six novels and

some more minor works The first novel of Jane was Northanger Abbey (1798-1799),

the second was Sense and Sensibility (published in 1811) which earned her a profit forher family’s finance Pride and Prejudice was her third novel, it was first entitled FirstImpressions which “deals with the misjudgments that often occur at the beginning of

an acquaintance and how those misjudgments can change as individuals learn more

about each other.” (Liukkonen, 2008) The next novel of Jane Austen was Mansfield Park, written between February, 1811 and the summer of 1813 Actually, this novel

was the third one which published by her, because the first work was first introducedonly when she died The fifth novel written by Austen was Emma (written in 1814-1815) – this book and Pride and Prejudice were the two most well-known masterpiece

of her life The last novel of Austen was Persuasion which was written in 1815-1816,while Jane Austen was suffering from her fatal illness

In her novels and other works, readers can see the humorous tone Still, interminglewith the humor; readers can also sense the mockery about life, about the “pride” ofhuman and even taste the bitterness of the people then

1.5 The novel Pride and Prejudice

1.5.1 Setting

This masterpiece is set in England, in the 19th century For more specific, it isplaced in Longbourn, Hertfordshire which is a “well-ordered, provincial town, filledwith landed gentry and oblivious to the sweeping changes occurring outside the fringes

of its narrow, circumscribed vision”, as TheBestNotes.com Staff (2008)

1.5.2 Summary

The Bennets live in Longbourn has a big problem: they have five girls and none

of them are married; until their father’s death, they would be kicked out of thehouse right away Fortunately, there is a Mr Bingley who is single and receives

£5,000 a year and he seems to pay more attention to the eldest Miss Bennet, Jane

Mr Bingley is an easy-going and pleasant man, but his sister and his best man Mr.Darcy are not When everyone in the Hertfordshire is having a ball, Mr Darcy letseveryone around him know just how dumb and boring he finds the whole thing

It is obviously that Mr Bingley and Jane has fallen in love with each other,however, Jane too shy to let her feelings shown and that make Mr Darcy think Jane

is indifferent to Mr Bingley Apart from that, Mr Darcy surprisingly finds himselfinterested in Miss Elizabeth (Lizzy), the second girl in the Bennets and as time goes

by, he realizes that he is paying her more and more attention and affection as well Everything still goes well, until a day that Mr Collins comes He is Mr Bennet’sclosest relative, and he is the one that will inherit all the property of the Bennet once

Mr Bennet dies He comes in the hope that he will get married to a Bennet girl(Lizzy) so that he will not take their house after Mr Bennet passes away

For the two youngest Bennet sisters - who always in want of a soldier as ahusband - the militia has arrived in town and they are going to stay for a very longtime They meet Mr Wickham, who is handsome, gentle and he soon becomes agood friend of Lizzy He tells Lizzy about his sad story in which Mr Darcy ruined

his life and Lizzy, unfortunately, totally believes in every single word he said.Besides, Mr Collin’s boss, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, turn out to be Mr Darcy'saunt.

A short time after making friend with Mr Wickham, all the Bennet girls go to aball at Mr Bingley's mansion Everything is nice but the Bennets’ actions in the ballare unbearable Particularly Mrs Bennet, she loudly announcing that they all expectBingley to marry Jane

Nevertheless, the things get worse when Mr Collins proposes Lizzy However,Lizzy hates him and refuses his proposal – which makes Collins irritated He thenvery soon engages to Miss Lucas – Lizzy’s best friend At nearly the same time,Jane gets a letter from Miss Bingley basically breaking up with her on her brother'sbehalf Jane’s parents suggest her goes to stay with her aunt and uncle in London toget over it Furthermore, she may have the chance to see Mr Bingley to mend herrelationship with him Lizzy travels too, she comes to visit Charlotte and when shecomes to see Mr Collins’ boss, it’s so surprised that she meet Mr Darcy there (he

is going to visit his aunt)

At this time, readers can see clearly the changes of Mr Darcy: he acts like he'sglad to see Lizzy, and even comes to visit her at Charlotte's house Lizzy gets theinformation from Darcy’s friend that Bingley was going to propose to Jane untilDarcy intervened Right after this shocking news, Mr Darcy proposes Lizzy andobviously, she refuses

After the horrible proposal day, Mr Darcy writes a letter to explain himself forthe two misunderstand of Lizzy: the full story about Wickham (he's a liar, agambler, and he tried to elope with Darcy's underage sister) and Jane (Darcy wasconvinced Jane was just a gold-digger)

Being touched by the letter of Mr Darcy, Lizzy begins to have some more goodaffection for him At the same time, she finds that Lydia (the youngest of the

Bennet girls) has been invited to follow the officers to Brighton Lizzy objects, buther father still allows Lydia to go Elizabeth then comes along with her aunt anduncle to their home, and incidentally they come to Mr Darcy’s house He’s not athome and they take a trip around his land Mr Darcy’s housekeeper says that he anice guy (contrast to what they have heard and even witness) It is even moresurprised when Darcy comes home earlier than expected and treat them politely When Darcy is about picking Lizzy up to see his sister, Lizzy finds that Lydiahas run away with Mr Wickham This scandal could ruin the family, so Elizabeth'suncle and father try to track the renegade couple down Her uncle very soon findsout the couple and take them back, however, when Lydia lets slip that Darcy is theone finds them and helps them, Lizzy knows that there’s more to the story and heraffection for Darcy increase again

The matter of Lydia has just settle down, two others matter come up First,Bingley comes back and finally proposes to Jane And then, Lady Catherine visitsLongbourn to strong-arm Elizabeth into rejecting any proposal from Darcy, whichobviously doesn't work Finally, when Lizzy and Darcy get some alone time for awalk, they clear up all their misunderstanding, fix their affection and show it: theyagree to get married And then, they all live happily ever after

CHAPTER 2: DEVELOPMENT

1 The image of Mr Darcy before falling in love with Elizabeth

1.1 Mr Darcy’s haughty way of thinking

Mr Darcy at the first appearance in the novel was discovered by the people inHertfordshire to be a man who over proud about himself and he had all personality of anoble man; and that made people “disgusted with his pride” and he was even not found

“more favourably spoken of by anyone.” Now, let us have a look at the image of Mr.Darcy in his first appearance

First, Mr Darcy’s prejudice was the same with the rich and upper class in allfaces For instance, when he thought about the Bennet girls, he stated that “it mustvery materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in theworld,” (Austen, p.52) This opinion was just exactly be the double of the noblemen inthat era; the couples getting married must be at the same class so that the two familycan match each other and the life of the couples, obviously will be happy ever afterthen In other words, this idea of the aristocrat showed the scorn to the proletarianclass and once this belief is claimed by Mr Darcy, it meant that this “gentleman” was

no different from any man of his stratum One other evidence for the horrible way ofthinking of Mr Darcy was his thought about Elizabeth Bennet After some situationshappened and he had chance to meet and talk to Elizabeth, he suddenly “began to feelthe danger of paying Elizabeth too much attention.” (Austen, p.86) As aforementioned,the aristocrat took it for granted that a man and a woman must love and get married tosomeone match them in all sides, especially they must come from the same class As aconsequence, from the strange affection which Darcy felt for the “tolerable” girl, hemade himself stop thinking or noticing her any longer This convention of Darcy andother noble man accidently created the distance among himself and all citizens inHertfordshire

From his prejudice of the poor, his way of thinking about anything and anyone

in the ball made him become an eyesore to everyone; his thought of dancing can be anobvious example The very first idea came into his mind when he was asked to dance

at the night; he did not hesitate when expressing his attitude towards dancing: “Icertainly shall not You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with

my partner.” (Austen, p.14) All inhabitants in Hertfordshire are always eager to have aball That’s a perfect way for them to meet people and break the ice among strangers.However, it is contrary to Mr Darcy: dancing is something horrible that he even

“detests” and he will only do it when his partner was someone very close to him Apartfrom that, from this beginning, Mr Darcy particularly showed his “prejudice” of theupper class towards the lowers: “Your sisters are engaged, and there is not anotherwoman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with.”(Austen, p.14) As the researcher aforementioned, dancing in a ball is one of the mostwonderful chances to familiarize with others to the entire inhabitants in an area But, to

Mr Rich Darcy, his wealth, his high rank and also his pride formed a big icebergbetween himself and the rest To him, a man’s partner - even though partner to dance -must suit him from the appearance to the level in society In the party, nevertheless, hecan find no one match him; as the most beautiful one was noticed by his best friend.The only woman he can dance with – Ms Bingley – has been engaged (he did notwant to show a close relationship to a woman engaged, it was inappropriate in the era)and the rest in the room, Mr Darcy felt contempt for them for their moneyless,thoughtless and flattery to the rich It seemed that his prejudice to the level of peopleaffects their personality was too big that he cannot see the beauty from anyone ofthem

From all of his thoughts above, Mr Darcy was a typical example for an class man in his time for all sides of his personality particularly in his prejudice Yet,

upper-he even had a higupper-her prejudice than any otupper-her rich men in his definition of an idealwoman: “A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing,

dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she mustpossess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice,her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved And to all this shemust yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensivereading.” (Austen, p.56) It can be seen clearly that the standard that Mr Darcy set upwas too high for any woman in the world How in the world can it exist someoneexactly the same as his norms? The norms were so unbelievable that Elizabeth didquestion Mr Darcy that “I rather wonder now at your knowing ANY.” (Austen, p.57)For all noble men in other novels, it was likely that no one had such a strong prejudice

as this man and for only a small portion of his prejudgment, he could be hated by allpeople around him, not to mention his great personality

Apart from the thought of Mr Darcy about dancing, his opinion about ElizabethBennet at the first time seeing her was a proof for his prejudice: “She is tolerable, butnot handsome enough to tempt ME; I am in no humour at present to give consequence

to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” (Austen, p.14) As can be inferredfrom his speech; a woman in want of a man like him: rich, gentle, well-educated firstlyshould be the beautiful one However, the girls in Hertfordshire were not as beautiful

as the standard that Darcy set The most beautiful one was Ms Jane Bennet – who was

in favor of Mr Bingley – and the rest in the room he “had seen a collection of people

in whom there was little beauty and no fashion, for none of whom he had felt thesmallest interest and from none received either attention or pleasure.” (Austen, p.22)That is why when Mr Bingley asked Darcy to choose someone to make acquaintancebut Darcy refused, and when Bingley introduced Elizabeth to him, he coldly answeredthat she is “tolerable” only And a tolerable woman does not have enough honor to beinvited to dance by him From these pride and prejudice of Mr Darcy, he was disliked

by the people in the religion, although at the first sight he attracted people by hisappearance and wealthy In here, once again, the prejudice split Mr Darcy with therest in the ball, particularly Elizabeth

In this part, we can observe that Mr Darcy at the first impression of others was anprejudice” person, which “not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save himfrom having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to becompared with his friend.” (Austen, p 12) From this sentence of the author, readerscan easily image a hateful man In the 19th society, of course the prosperous was a bigdeal and it was considered as the first criterion to choose a husband or a wife Thericher a person was, the more people want to get married to him/her However, Austenstated that his large estate still cannot save him from his contemptible characteristic,then he must be really, truly and extremely bad

1.2 Mr Darcy’s cocksure and prejudiced behavior

Not only stop at “being disliked” by means of thinking, Mr Darcy evenreceived the abomination from inhabitants in Hertfordshire for all his behavior If histhoughts can be hidden from other’s view, people still thought that he was rich andhave good manner; then from his cocksure behavior, he made the inhabitants graduallydetest him

From the very first impression in his manner, Mr Darcy gave everyone inHertfordshire an image of a man who was over proud of himself This was stated rightfrom the beginning in the eyes of inhabitants as “a disgust which turned the tide of hispopularity; for he was discovered to be proud; to be above his company” and “He was

at the same time haughty, reserved, and fastidious, and his manners, though well-bred,were not inviting.” (Austen, p.21) It seemed that Mr Darcy was basically well-known

to people for his wealth, but he became much more famous thanks for his excessivelyproud manner In addition, if he is adored by his fortune before or when he had justmet someone, then only a few minutes of seeing him, all the adorableness soon turninto aghast and disrelish

The annoying behaviors of Mr Darcy continued with his answer about dancingwhen Sir William got into a conversation with him Sir William claimed that dancing