Mr. Pride

Pride, as used in Pride and Prejudice, means the self judgment of one self. The way a person thinks about himself is pride. Pride has also many levels. There are levels where the pride from a person can be tolerated but pride can reach some extents where it becomes annoying. When a person thinks that he surpasses all the rest and that others don't matter, he has reached that level of pride.

Mr. Darcy exemplifies this level of pride. His pride is too great to even talk with people of lower wealth. According to Austen: "Can such abominable pride as his have ever done him good" (pg.61)? Mr. Darcy has a pride so great that he doesn't care who he hurts and thinks himself as superior to the rest. People that have these characteristics are not normally the kindest people. They will constantly be reminding you of their superiority as well as their abundant precious possessions. Even though these kinds of people are annoying, they do posses a characteristic that many people lack. No matter what other people say or think about them, they will never change. The standards set by society will not hurt these individuals in any way because they consider themselves superior to any opinion from others.

Everyone in the book avoids being criticized. They always look to evade criticism done to them but are quick in criticizing others. It is also used as a punishment. According to Elizabeth: "This is quite shocking!- He deserves to be publicly disgraced" (pg. 60). Prejudice is how others think about you and everyone in the book is constantly avoiding bad prejudice. Elizabeth in this case thinks that Mr. Darcy should be criticized for his bad actions, but I don't think this would work. Negative criticism will only affect a person that cares about what others think about them. Elizabeth wants to criticize Mr. Darcy but Mr. Darcy has a pride so big that the criticism will not affect him in any way.