By the end of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth decides to marry Darcy because she has come to realize what a genuinely caring, selfless, goodhearted man Darcy truly is and that she had severely, prejudicedly misjudged him.Elizabeth first begins to realize how severely she had misjudged Darcyafter reading his letter to her. In his letter, he justifies his opinion that the Bennet family is beneath him by reminding her of all...
By the end of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth decides to marry Darcy because she has come to realize what a genuinely caring, selfless, goodhearted man Darcy truly is and that she had severely, prejudicedly misjudged him.
Elizabeth first begins to realize how severely she had misjudged Darcy after reading his letter to her. In his letter, he justifies his opinion that the Bennet family is beneath him by reminding her of all the ways the Bennet family members have acted with impropriety, especially Elizabeth's flirtatious younger sisters, her gossiping mother, and her father for failing to control his own family. More importantly, he corrects her judgement of him by giving his own account of why relations between himself and Wickham have grown cold. His own account is that Wickham refused to take the living the late Mr. Darcy left him, asked Darcy for £300 with the professed purpose of studying law instead, lived recklessly, and attempted to elope with Darcy's 15-year-old sister to try and gain her fortune. The information in Darcy's letter rocks Elizabeth to her core. She feels "absolutely ashamed of herself" for having so severely misjudged both Darcy and Wickham (Ch. 36). She is shocked to realize that, after having taken pride in her own "discernment," she could have been so "blind, partial, prejudiced, and absurd" (Ch. 36).
Elizabeth further realizes just how much she had severely misjudged Darcy when she visits the Pemberley estate while traveling with her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner. While being given a tour of the manor by the housekeeper, Elizabeth is amazed to hear Darcy being so highly praised by his servants. Yet, the most influential moment is when she learns from Lydia's gossip, as well as from her Aunt Gardiner's letter, that Darcy had bribed Wickham into marrying Lydia, thereby saving Lydia's reputation, as well as the reputation of the entire Bennet family. Elizabeth felt that Darcy's only motive for having done so was because he felt personally responsible for Lydia's situation since he could have publicly exposed the nature of Wickham's character but had failed to do so out of pride. Darcy's behavior was enough to tell her what a genuinely goodhearted person he truly is. Hence, by the time Elizabeth's father protests against Elizabeth accepting Darcy's proposal in Chapter 59, Elizabeth is able to reply, "I love him. Indeed he has no improper pride. He is perfectly amiable. You do not know what he really is," showing us just how greately her opinion of Darcy had changed throughout the novel (Ch. 59).
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