Pride OR Prejudice: A Character Study of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy

“Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”  – Mary (ch 5). 

A college professor once asked my class which character in Pride and Prejudice showed more pride, and which showed more prejudice: Elizabeth Bennet or Fitzwilliam Darcy. I couldn’t answer the question with confidence at the time, but upon my third time reading the novel, I think I’m ready to give my opinion.

Each of them have their fair share of both pride and prejudice, but ultimately, I believe that Darcy has inherent prejudice that then causes him to act with pride, and Elizabeth has inherent pride that causes her to act with prejudice. 

Our beloved Mr. Darcy is rich, used to high society, and brought up to believe himself superior to lower classes: 

my parents […] allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing, to care for none beyond my own family circle, to think meanly of all the rest of the world, to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. (ch. 16)

He was taught prejudice towards the lower classes, and that translated into thinking himself superior. However, pride isn’t an inherent fault of his. Over and over, Darcy realizes his own faults, and simultaneously sees the subsequent attributes in others. His failure isn’t pride in his person, but in his status, which was a result of his learned prejudice. 

Elizabeth, on the other hand, is comparatively poor and has low connections. Her social class doesn’t grant her the privilege of thinking others inferior, and she doesn’t prove to have preconceived expectations from anyone solely based on social status. She is plenty judgmental about who they are as a person, but she doesn’t have a lot of inherent or learned prejudice. But she does have pride about her intelligence, her wit, and her ability to read other people. Only after Elizabeth has overcome her folly and judgment, and exclaimed “Till this moment, I never knew myself,” does she realize her own pride:

Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd. “How despicably have I acted!” she cried.— “I, who have prided myself on my discernment! […] Vanity, not love, has been my folly.” (ch. 13)

Her self-respect led her to make prejudiced decisions and act blindly towards Darcy and Wickham. Elizabeth acknowledges her pride early on in the novel: “and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine” (ch. 5), but she does not seem to be aware how this fault has influenced her judgment.

I need to address the fact that there are quite a few allusions to Mr. Darcy’s pride throughout the novel that are meant to deceive the audience—all mentioned by the town, by Elizabeth, and by Mr. Wickham. The unreliability of all of these characters is established very early on through the structure and the narrowing perspective of the novel (you can read my essay on the subject if you want to know more about where I’m coming from, although keep in mind I disagree with a few of my previous judgments on Elizabeth’s prejudice). All references to Mr. Darcy’s pride are made by unreliable sources when it is clear everyone is misjudging Darcy. These unreliable sources suggest that Darcy has no natural tendency towards pride, and when delving deep into his true character like Elizabeth is able to do, his pride only stems from prejudice that he has to grow out of.