Prejudice and Pride in Pride and PrejudiceIn any literary work, the title and introduction make at least one allusion to the important events in the novel. With Pride and Prejudice, Austen takes this convention to the extreme, designing the entire first and part of the second half of the novel after the title and first sentence. The concepts of pride, prejudice, and “universally recognized truth” (51), as well as the interpretation of these concepts, are central to the novel. They dictate the actions of almost all of the main characters (not just Darcy and Elizabeth) and foreshadow all of the major events in the novel, particularly in the early chapters, involving the first ball at Netherfield. While Darcy comes to represent Elizabeth's pride and prejudice, all of the characters in Pride and Prejudice are touched by both pride and prejudice, and their contempt for the novel's two central characters only becomes hypocritical . While everyone (at first) despises Darcy's character. excessive pride, this same pride in oneself and one's family affects the actions of many characters. The pride of her daughters gives Mrs. Bennet the certainty that they will soon be married. “It is very likely,” she tells her husband, “that [Bingley] will fall in love with one of them” (52). Pride makes the first Darcy cold and disrespectful, and Miss Bingley haughty, jealous and mean. "[The Bingley sisters] were in fact very beautiful ladies... but proud and vain. They were quite beautiful, had been educated at one of the first private seminaries in the city, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds. .. and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves and to think unkindly of others” (63) Pride drives Mr. Col... middle of paper ... Donald Gray New York: Norton. and Co., 1993. Butler, Marilyn. Jane Austen and the War of Ideas. Oxford Claredon Press, DW “Regulated Hatred: An Aspect of Jane Austen’s Work.” Ed. Donald Gray. New York: Norton and Co., 1993. pp. 291-295. “Jane Austen,” Discovering Author Modules, http://galenet.gale.com/a/acp/netacgi/nphrs? d=DAMA&s1=bio&s2=Austen,+Jane&1=50&pg1=DT&pg2=NM&p=17Johnson, Claudia L. “Pride and Prejudice and the Pursuit of Happiness.” By Jane Austen. Co., 1993. pp. 367-376. Mudrick, Marvin. “Irony as a discovery in pride and prejudice. » Pride and prejudice. By Jane Austen. Ed. Donald Gray. New York: Norton and Co., 1993. pp. 295-303. Sherry, Norman. Jane Austen. London. Montegue House, 1966