Pride: The theme of pride plays an obvious large role in the novel, When Darcy pays for Lydia’s wedding Eliza knows he is a sincere gentleman. Darcy changes largely in his pride, conversing freely with Eliza’s aunt and uncle even though they are strangers, and even helping enemy Wickham for Eliza’s sake. The wrong prejudice Eliza takes Wickham for a good person, and her pride is also displayed as she struggles to accept any accusation against him. Mary discusses pride in the novel stating, “By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed, that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary.” Being in a higher social class, Darcy is very proud and openly displays his feelings of superiority. Elizabeth criticizes this with a strong prejudice, but she herself is too proud to consider that her opinion might be wrong. When Darcy pays for Lydia’s wedding Eliza knows he is a sincere gentleman. Darcy changes largely in his pride, conversing freely with Eliza’s aunt and uncle even though they are strangers, and even helping enemy Wickham for Eliza’s sake. In addition her own family is pretty disgraceful, yet she does not have open criticism for them. Why should she take one character flaw in Darcy and yet tolerate her mother and father's’ awful behavior with no opinion being stated? This shows that the character flaw in Elizabeth, is that she is too proud to admit that she is prejudice. Other characters like the parent and sister Bennetts will require a revelation of their own pride considering it is “human nature”. Mrs. Bennet for example is crazy with pride thinking that she and her ‘favorite daughters’ are absolutely wonderful and not at all annoying people.
Prejudice: Austen also portrays that prejudice must be in good amounts as Eliza had too much and was hindered in seeing the great character of Mr. Darcy, and Jane was blinded by the intentions of others to hinder her relationship with Mr. Bingley. In acquiring less of a prejudice against Darcy, Eliza was able to respect and appreciate the acts of kindness he held. However, the pride Darcy held was fixed as Eliza’s high prejudice made him act as a better person. Upon gaining prejudice, Jane is able to move on from Mr. Bingley until he shows interest again. Elizabeth becomes less prejudice with Darcy when she meets the housekeeper and hears about his always being a good person. She also recounts the fact that Darcy might yet be a good guy as her aunt and uncle comment on how proper and nice he appears. As they comment Eliza becomes more and more lenient to changing her opinion. Yet again when Darcy pays for Lydia’s wedding Eliza knows he is a sincere gentleman. Darcy changes largely in his pride, conversing freely with Eliza’s aunt and uncle even though they are strangers, and even helping enemy Wickham for Eliza’s sake.
Marriage: Austen conveys that marriage is important in several aspects; the reputation and financial well-being of both parties and their family, and its role in uniting two people in love. Lydia and Wickham are brought together under conditions where Wickham was only after money. The relationship as an entity with Lydia running off brought shame and a poor reputation back to her family. In order to reclaim their standing in society the Bennets hoped Lydia could marry Wickham, placing an importance on the role of marriage in society. It was Darcy’s money, however, that brought on the wedding and paid off indictments, which describes the role of finance within a marriage. Despite both Jane and Eliza’s reputation and low-income, both were able to marry prominent men based on their true love for one another in each relationship. The idea behind a marriage needing to be meaningful is still relevant today and the novel provides a great insight into the values and lifestyles of a past culture. With the foils between Jane and Eliza, Mr. Bingley and Darcy, the characters balance each other out while supporting the values of being just the right amount of prideful and prejudiced.
First Impressions: First impressions were first heavily implemented when Mrs. Bennett commented on the character of Mr. Darcy as she said he had an air that he was better than the others at the party. She immediately does not like him based on his pride for his money and not dancing with the others at the party, especially Elizabeth. The ladies at the parties have to be engaged in their appearance, manners, and dress so as to impress the men there and be considered an eligible wife. Elizabeth upon entering the Bingley household was also heavily criticized for her rough appearance though Darcy commented that she appeared lovely. They take her as coming from too lowly of a family to be married off to their kind. Jane, however was taken as a kind and lovely girl by Bingley and his sisters at the first party making her at first impression an eligible partner. It is interesting that Elizabeth was not considered good enough by Darcy at first but then he cannot see flaws in her. Austen’s quote describing Mr. Wickham’s first impression states, “Mr Wickham was the happy man towards whom almost every female eye was turned, and Elizabeth was the happy woman by whom he finally seated himself; and the agreeable manner in which he immediately fell into conversation, though it was only on its being a wet night, and on the probability of a rainy season, made her feel that the commonest, dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker.” This applies to the theme of first impressions as Lizzy takes Wickham as a very great individual upon first meeting him in the street. He is a man of great respect and joy to Lizzy as his looks and good manners made a good impression on her. This differs from Darcy who made such a poor first impression that even in his good manners Lizzy could not accept him.
Class Conflict: The class conflict of Darcy and Elizabeth is displayed as Darcy likes Lizzy but she is out of his rank. Wickham and Lizzy would however be able to marry being in the same rank which adds to the tension already on he and Darcy’s relationship. Darcy although longing of Lizzy struggles to be with her because his rank makes Elizabeth believes he his proud and too good for her. Similarly Darcy does note that Elizabeth is out of his social ranking. Austen also shows class conflict with Lady Catherine. She tells Eliza, “You give your opinion very decidedly for so young a person.” (Ch. 29 p. 113) This heavily develops Lady Catherine’s character as she requires distinctions in several different areas. She is stating here that Eliza distinguishes herself as being opinionated in her youth, but this correlates with the idea that Eliza is also distinguished even though she is in a lower class. Lady Catherine accentuates the class and skill differences of all who come to her house while Elizabeth stands outside of these distinctions as she is not concerned with her class.
Family: With five sisters and two dramatic parents there is a lot that revolves around family in the novel. It is noted by Darcy and his crew that Elizabeth is nice and all, but her family is embarrassing and disorderly. Recalling the events at Mr. Bingley’s party, Mary plays the piano and sings much longer than she should and then Mr. Bennett publicly calls her out for it. Lydia also gives her entire family poor light by running away with Wickham. This also relates back to how important marriage was because the family needed her to marry in order to save their name. The sisters like Mary and Jane also help to explain the different feelings and emotions going on for Elizabeth such as how Mary comments on pride. Jane is also available for Eliza and vise versa so they can reveal their inner thoughts and feelings.