First Impressions In Pride And Prejudice

“Pride and Prejudice” is a novel of Jane Austen, a female novelist of the Romantic period, that was first published in 1813. The main story of the book is how the novel’s protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, and Mr. Darcy have both a wrong image for each other, being influenced by their mutual first impressions. Their wrong judgments, though, were not an obstacle that could prevent them from getting married. Consequently, Jane Austen didn’t choose the first title of the book “First Impressions” by chance. But was this a wise choice that the novel’s author made?

According to Eliot R. Smith and Diane M. Mackie (2007), a first impression is the event when one person first encounters another person and forms a mental image of that person. Impression accuracy varies depending on the observer and the target (person, object, scene, etc.) being observed. In “Pride and Prejudice” the characters are largely affected by the first impressions, and they often tend to make hasty judgments.

More specifically, in the case of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, they both have unpleasant first impressions of each other at the ball and they size up each

Darcy are not the only characters that are victims of misjudges. For instance, Mr. Wickham is presented as a handsome, elegant, cultured and cultivated man and Elizabeth’s first impression of him is so positive that makes her fall for him. But, as the story evolves, his true personality gets revealed. In particular, it gets disclosed that he is a gambler with debt, who tries to take advantage of innocent girls, such as Elizabeth’s sister, Lydia. Nonetheless, in the whole story of “Pride and Prejudice”, not all the first impressions are wrong. There are, also, those first impressions that reveal a person’s true personality. For example, those that Jane Bennet had for Mr. Bingley result in them falling in love and getting married. Mr. Bingley is really the person that he seems to be, a handsome, friendly and wealthy