Elizabeth is clearly a very bright and opinionated woman at the outset of the novel. Though she knows she must marry in order to provide a future for herself, she does not want to accept just any husband, and she rejects the pitiful Mr. Collins as beneath her. She has an independent streak that is rare for a woman in Regency England and that catches Mr. Darcy's eye.
However, Elizabeth also has a way of...
Elizabeth is clearly a very bright and opinionated woman at the outset of the novel. Though she knows she must marry in order to provide a future for herself, she does not want to accept just any husband, and she rejects the pitiful Mr. Collins as beneath her. She has an independent streak that is rare for a woman in Regency England and that catches Mr. Darcy's eye.
However, Elizabeth also has a way of being quick to make decisions that is, as the title suggests, somewhat prejudicial. She judges Darcy as unworthy because he is occasionally impolite and uncouth, while she believes the charming and courtly Wickham deserves pity for the way Darcy has treated him. Only later, after Wickham runs off with her younger sister Lydia without being married (something only a cad would do in those times), does Elizabeth realize that she has been too quick to judge Wickham as worthy. While visiting Darcy's fine estate at Pemberley, Elizabeth realizes that Darcy is actually a man of good taste and admirable discretion (further proven when he forces Wickham to marry Lydia and save her—and the family's—good name). Elizabeth tempers her predilection to make snap judgments and becomes more subtle in her decision-making by the end of the novel. She sees the complexity in Darcy and accepts his hand in marriage.
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