Pride and Prejudice and First Impressions

I’ve known about Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, my whole life. I grew up knowing it as one of my aunt’s favorite books, and we watched the BBC movie every Thanksgiving break on Black Friday.

My first impressions of the movie were better than my first impressions of the book. I loved the movie—the book? Not so much. It took me a second read-through to find the same charm within the book as I did in the movie. Initially, I thought it was a little boring, a little old-fashioned, and possibly overrated. But the ending captured and surprised me—so I set aside my first impressions, and read the book again.

What I love most about Pride and Prejudice (besides the relationship between Lizzie and Darcy) is the real-life application it presents to its readers. I value the lessons, points of view, and other special insights books offer, and Austen’s novel has always struck me as a book with incredible relevancy. Pride and Prejudice was originally named First Impressions—a telling title for a book whose characters struggle with the results of the choices they make based on their first impressions of others.

Darcy, for instance, immediately writes off Elizabeth the first time he meets her. He mentions that she’s not “handsome enough” to dance with, but he also mentions that no one else is dancing with her. Lizzie knows this is because there are more women than men at the ball, so she’s sitting out to give someone else a turn—but because Darcy sees her sitting alone, he doesn’t want to dance with her. If she’s alone, she must be “slighted by other men;” in other words, no one wants to dance with her because they know something Darcy doesn’t, since he’s new to town. But he doesn’t bother finding out anything more about her; consequently, when he realizes he does want to get to know her, she’s already set against him. Because she heard him judge her foolishly, and so she does the exact same thing.

Which, naturally, explains why the beginning of Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship is fraught with so much tension.

But of course, Darcy isn’t the only one at fault; Elizabeth judges harshly, too. Even before she overhears Darcy talking to Bingley about how undesirable she is as a dance partner, Lizzie notices how Darcy behaves at the ball—dancing with only the two women he knows (Bingley’s sisters), and never talking to anyone outside of his friends. Lizzie knows that Darcy is the richest man in the countryside, and certainly the richest man at the ball. And since he never makes any effort to get to know someone outside of his own group, she assumes he’s snobby and proud, and looks down on everyone at the ball for being lower in class than he is.

So, Darcy assumes Lizzie is unpopular, and Lizzie assumes Darcy is a snob. Obviously, these first impressions harm both a potential friendship and a potential romance between the two, but they also harm the characters themselves. Darcy hurts Lizzie, and Lizzie, Darcy, by throwing their first impressions (and all their hurtful implications) at each other in a truly spectacular argument.

You’d think that the people who don’t make judgments and evaluated people on their character and behavior would be the happiest. And they almost are. Jane and Bingley are well on their way to fairy-tale romance and true love—but first impressions, once again, get in the way.

Darcy’s first impressions of Jane are what lead to the end of her and Bingley’s relationship. She is a calm, friendly woman, and he assumes that, because she can behave so calmly in Bingley’s presence, she doesn’t love him. Although Darcy breaks the couple up because he wants to look out for his friend, it’s certain that he wouldn’t have felt it necessary, had he bothered to get to know Jane.

But it’s not only Darcy’s judgmental tendencies that affect others—Lizzie’s do, too. She gets to know Wickham, who is as personable and charming as Darcy isn’t. He makes a good first impression on Elizabeth, and the trust she puts in this first impression begins a friendship that leads her to judge Darcy even more harshly, as well as judge his sister, Georgiana, to be exactly the same, even though they hadn’t met.

Throughout Pride and Prejudice, it’s clear that first impressions and snap judgments harm potential relationships, both friendly and romantic, as well as other people. Austen’s novel is a wonderful one, full of witty humor and identifiably awkward scenarios; but it’s also a novel with a message—one I’m sure you’ve heard dozens of times: don’t judge a book by its cover.

~K