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Michael Rossi
December 6, 2009
Advanced Placement English language and Composition/Mr. George
Prompt One: Compose an essay between 4 and 7 pages.
Don’t Judge a Crook by His Cover

First impressions are at the heart of anyone’s beliefs about others. While Pride and Prejudice are significant driving forces behind motives of the characters, they are mere tributaries to the first impressions. First Impressions often wash away objectivity and cloud one’s logic. The title of Pride and Prejudice ought to have been First Impressions.
Humans are always afraid of what they do not know. Humans have radically tried to define what lurks in dark, ignorant corridors. During the witch trials in Salem, tension, disease, and fear led humanity to use (often innocent) members of society as scapegoats instead of treating diseases and restructuring society. In the same light, an individual who first interacts with another person tries to define them, forcing a first impression. Judgments in themselves are not flawed. In Elizabeth’s case, she begins to hang witches when is unwilling to alter his initial judgments about Darcy. Elizabeth formed her obstinate opinion when she overheard Mr. Darcy say, “ ‘She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men’ ” (Austen 7-8). Darcy did not actually believe this, he was simply acting cool in front of his friend Mr. Bingley. This faux pas soiled Elizabeth’s objectivity and left her cursed to contort any new information into ammunition against Mr. Darcy.

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After a first impression, does anyone truly understand who someone really is? In a first impression, one sees outward conduct, dress style, and other inconclusive physical attributes. Why then, is so much stalk placed in a first impression? Austen uses the character’s first impressions to ridicule the emphasis they put in it. A way in which this critique can be recognized is through the author’s contrast between Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy. Through Mr. Wickham’s reputation and charm, he is easily able to win the good favor of the crowd and the heart of Elizabeth: “His appearance was greatly in his favour; he had all the best part of beauty, a fine countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing address. The introduction was followed upon his side by a happy readiness of conversation” (Austen 54). Elizabeth was whisked off her feet within a few minutes of meeting the man. In the end, it is discovered that he is a rouge debtor who only looked out for his selfish gain. Mr. Darcy’s cold and proud exterior is contrasted to his warm and humble heart. Elizabeth strongly resembles a modern day woman in the sense that she is independent, and intelligent. The fact that Austen chose Elizabeth to be deceived by first impressions, and that those impressions should be contradicted later in the text demonstrates that anyone could be betrayed by their first impressions of others.
The manner in which Elizabeth was fooled by Wickham shows her inability to analyze the interior and exterior and exterior of someone. In a similar respect, Elizabeth has demonstrated how her negative impressions of others can also render her blind to the truth. Caroline attempted to warn Elizabeth that Wickham was not to be trusted; however, Elizabeth was not in the mood to take advice from a woman who would badmouth her
with celerity. Elizabeth was forced to learn the hard way, that she should not judge a book by its cover.
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Mr. Darcy gazed at the world through clean, objective eyes even though Elizabeth kicked dirt into his face on more than one occasion. Is Mr. Darcy outside the influence of first
impressions? The answer is no. Mr. Darcy simply fell victim to a different edge of that double edged sword. Rather than having his mind bound by her wickedness, Mr. Darcy could not bring himself to think negatively of Elizabeth after he realized his love for her: “Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; […] he had made it clear to himself and to his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes” (Austen 16). Mr. Darcy remained spellbound by Elizabeth even after he suffered through the most heart wrenching rejection. Elizabeth told Mr. Darcy, “I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry’ “(Austen 148). When Elizabeth rejected Mr. Darcy’s hand she did so because of her attachment to her first impression of him.
Mr. Darcy’s objectivism actually did work against him when he wedged himself in between Bingley and Jane. Jane was being cordial and was showing genuine affection to Bingley when Mr. Darcy falsely perceived Jane’s indifference to Bingley. Little did Darcy know, Jane was showing the peak of her affection. Through Elizabeth, Darcy learned to appreciate the fact that not everyone is as perfect as Darcy believes they should be. His flawed first impression of Jane was put in check by Elizabeth, who could easily know more about her own sister than Darcy’s brief judgment allowed him to learn.
First impressions play a pivotal role within the text. The fastidious reader would question why? The answer is simple, in a first impression people adhere to idealized concepts they form

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in their mind, in the attempts to classify someone or something. To put this conception into perspective, imagine a young two-year old boy sitting on his porch with his mother gazing out into the street. A young jogger passes in front of the house with a golden Sheppard on her leash. The boy, lacking life experience, asks the mother what creature is with the woman. Naturally, the mother tells her child that it is a dog. By the end of the day, the child and mother witness more passers by who have dogs of different breeds. When the child keeps receiving dogs as the response to his question, the child begins to understand what it means to be a dog. When other animals pass by, either in front of his porch or in the pages of his books, the child will be able to distinguish any dog from a different member of the animal kingdom. In the same way, Elizabeth had relied upon her juvenile conception to classify Mr. Darcy. Her first impression of Mr. Darcy branded him as disagreeable. A child who had limited encounters with a dog may label the next thing he or she sees with a tail and bushy ears as a dog. In actuality the fur and tail could belong to that of a rabbit. In the same way, Elizabeth had not met anyone before her encounter with Mr. Darcy as disagreeable as Mr. Darcy seemed to be. Elizabeth made a hasty generalization as she assumed that Mr. Darcy’s reserve and outward pomp was indicative of his worthlessness as a person. Elizabeth’s first impression led to her prejudice, which she could not bring herself to relinquish because of her pride.
The title of the book ought to have been First Impressions. The entire plot development is centered around Darcy and Elizabeth’s ability to rise above the ominous clouds of her first impression. Mr. Darcy’s unwavering love he had for Elizabeth allowed him to turn the other cheek when he ever she struck him. Mr. Darcy showed Elizabeth how to love by loving. Elizabeth was trapped underneath her hellish view of Mr. Darcy. Once she was able to admit that
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her first impression of Mr. Darcy was erroneous, she released him from his personal hell, and gave him a little slice of heaven, herself.





















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Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride And Prejudice. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.