Flipping through John Thomson’s Street life in London, the photo that popped out to me the most was “Public Disinfectors”. Each of the photos in the album Thomson created has a light Sepia film due to the time period and how the photo film came out in 1876-77. However, this captures the overall melancholy mood that the men are emanating. At first glance, a viewer notices the two men on the right side of the photograph. These men are in bright white and are the focal point of the photograph. Although they are positioned to the right, they are more towards the center of the photograph than any other point in the photo. The man furthest to the right has a long beard and is looking off into the distance. His stance makes me feel as though he doesn’t want to be there. Typically, when someone is looking off into the distance they have a longing for something. Thomson captured this in this man. The man in white on the right has his hand on his hip and giving off the look of displeasure. In both men, you get a sense that the job that they are working for is something that they do every day. As a viewer, I get a sense of monotony. From the title, the viewer can infer that two men in the white are the “Public Disinfectors”. The mini description that is given underneath the picture says: “[The Public Disinfectors] constantly face death to save us from peril”. This statement Is very ironic since the speaker is saying that the men are putting their lives at risk so no one else has to or they must face death so that no one else has to face death. The speaker makes it sound as though peril is of more danger than death itself. However, when put into context (VictorianLondon Street Life Historic Photographs written by John Thomson) explains that the workers put themselves in danger so that the rest of the city can stay safe. These type of men are very heroic when thought about in this way. However, the men are standing on both sides of a cart—I’m guessing to house their disinfectant supplies. The men are situated on both sides of the cart, similar to mules or donkeys carrying supplies. The way the men are situated around the cart looks humiliating in a way, nowhere near heroic or noble. It is also interesting that the two men’s uniforms are all white. Usually when someone works with death or is celebrating the life of someone (ex. funeral) the person wears black. The men are constantly facing death, yet they are wearing white. This makes me think of ghosts walking through London. At the same time, the men wearing white could give them a sense of hope, since they are saving lives by putting their lives in danger; instead of ghosts, they could be seen as the angles that are saving London. The only other aspect of the picture is the other man wearing an all-black suit and tall black hat. He is facing the two men in white directly and has his fist clenched. He seems to be the disinfectors superior. The one that is sending them into their death, which is why it feels right that he is wearing the color black. He creates lots of tension and the picture and makes the other two men awkward and inferior in relation to the man in all black.

External Sources

Thomson, John. Victorian London Street Life in Historic Photographs. Compiled by Adolphe Smith, New York, Dover Publ., 2000. Google Books, books.google.com/books?id=pA7CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=public+disinfectors+definition&source=bl&ots=g9B5unBDk8&sig=HjjMG1qE8Hei6eERiY_WPE3Uak8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj28KWw_YzbAhVhoFkKHZEVBGEQ6AEIWDAF#v=onepage&q=public%20disinfectors%20definition&f=false.

It’s hard to look at history and think that there was a time when people married solely for money and status; completely separating love from the equation. Pride and Prejudice examines both marriage and love together, even though many of this time thought it was unobtainable. Jane Austen is known to be a satirical writer. The most obvious point she makes is about marriage primarily for social status. I find it interesting that Jane Austen herself never married in her life. I’ve come to the conclusion that she didn’t marry due to the social norms of her time period. Austen sets up the Bennet family close to what she lived through growing up in the Austen household.  Austen grew up with seven siblings, her sister and herself being the only females. However, just like the Bennet household, her father had no dowry to give to Jane for whenever she was ready to marry. The Austen family was facing financial difficulties. People suppose that this could be a reason why Jane Austen and her young flame Thomas Lefroy didn’t work out: For Thomas would not have to marry down if he truly wanted to be with Jane Austen. Later in Jane Austen’s life, Harris Bigg-Wither proposed to her and after accepting she ended up breaking the engagement. There was much speculation as to why Jane Austen would have ended the marriage, and especially at her age. During the Georgian Era, it was nearly impossible for any woman over the age of 30 to marry. Jane Austen was certainly getting “older” for the Georgian marriage standards, but I believe Jane Austen felt the marriage was forced. Jane Austen society expected her to marry whoever was willing to propose to her, whoever did would know that they wouldn’t get much financially in return. Jane Austen wanted to marry for love and this is why I believe she never married anyone in her life. In Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte and Elizabeth share a scene where they talk about the possibility for Mr. Bingley and Jane to be married. Charlotte first gives her opinion:

“But though Bingley and Jane meet tolerably often, it is never for many hours together; and as they always see each other in large mixed parties, it is impossible that every moment should be employed in conversing together. Jane should therefore make the most of every half hour in which she can command his attention. When she is secure of him there will be leisure for falling in love as much as she chuses.” (Austen, 23).

Austen gives the voice of society. Austen’s society believes that one must first claim a man’s attention, and then once he is “secure” or once he is most likely to propose, then they have time to fall in love later. Austen’s society is built on strict social manners and customs that no one would dare to go against (except maybe Austen herself). For example, as seen with Mr. Collins and Elizabeth, it was common for a lady to turn down a proposal and for a man to continue to propose before a lady fully accept the offer. Mr. Collins described this in Chapter 19:

“that it is usual with young ladies to reject the address of the man whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their favour; and that sometimes refusal is repeated a second or even third time.” (Austen, 105).

In response to Charlotte, Elizabeth tells her: “But these are not Jane’s feelings; she is not acting by design” (Austen, 23). Austen is trying to show her audience that there are people who fall in love first before they marry.  Austen wants her society to see that marriage does not have to just be about the cash flow of families or a specific structure to get someone to marry you. Instead, Austen is using Jane and Mr. Bingley’s love to show her audience that people can fall in love with someone for love, and perhaps why this is so significant to Pride and Prejudice overall. For Jane, it worked out that she fell in love with someone who will help her financially in the future, but was not the main reason for why she wanted to marry Bingley.

Blog Post 3: Close Reading Images

The two images that I had decided to delve into for my close readings are Covent Garden Flower Women by John Thomson, which is part of his Street Life in London series published from 1876-7, and The Stalls, Covent Garden Opera by Gustave Dore which is part of his London Illustrations series. The two images are very different but they have one similar theme: women and Covent Garden.

The women in Covent Garden Flower Women are standing outside of the huge opera hall waiting for the theater goes to come out. They would then “set up shop” as it were on the side walk and sell their wares, hoping that the ladies would hang off of their gentlemen’s arms and ask for a flower bundle or two. A scene very similar to this is the beginning of “My Fair Lady”, a favorite musical of mine. In this picture however, there is no sign of Eliza Doolittle speaking horrible English and starting her rags to riches story. Instead there are three women wrapping their flowers getting ready for the next rush of customers. Their clothes are a little shabby and their skin a little grimy but this is a picture that reflects simplicity and honesty. The coloring of the picture does make the depicted seem a little gloomy with its washed-out browns and greys, which helps bring a hint of melancholy to the picture. These women are few, poorer than most and stand outside most of their days selling flowers to the rich.

Meanwhile the inside of Covent Garden is bustling with the sound of society and culture. The Stalls, Covent Garden Opera depicts what happens on the other side of the big doors of the opera house. Inside there are many, many wealthy men and women who are waiting to be entertained by the show they’re attending. In this illustration there are many women sitting and standing about in their lavish clothing. Even in a simple drawing as this you can still see all the intricacies in their dresses, hats, gloves, shoes and even in their hair and jewelry. These women wear complexity while the women outside wear honesty and simplicity. These two pictures show the two sides of Covent Gardens, as well as the two sides of women in society at the time that these two images were created. This was the start of the middle class and poorer women were allowed to work as long as it was respectable (and sometimes even if it wasn’t). Women were objects of complexity and could dazzle in high society and yet most of them still worked off the street corners selling their wares as best they could.

Images:

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/london-illustrations-by-gustave-dor

https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:yic445cir

Reading Night Walks you can sense how night life is a completely different in London. Reading this it seams like I’m reading what London is hiding through the day. Dicken’s kind of  goes into detail about the people who are homeless trying to find shelter anywhere they can and what they do at night. But reading this I think it goes into Dickens relationship with the city at night and just looking at his surroundings.

You can sense the loneliness of the night when he mentions, “We lost a great deal of companionship when the late public-houses turned their lamps out”. When the lights of the city die down the loneliness can start to creep in because everyone is at home sleeping. It could also mean that they are forgotten. In the daytime the streets are busy with people, you forget the surroundings around you.  “London would sink to rest. And then the yearning of the houseless mind would be for any sign of company, any lighted place, and movement”.

Throughout the whole essay he mentions a lot of places in London.  In this essay, you can really put a picture in your head of him walking through the streets of London at night and what he was seeing and feeling. “Between the bridge and the two great theatres, there was but the distance of a few hundred paces, so the theatres came next, Grim and black within, at night, those great dry Wells, and lonesome to imagine with the rows faded out, the lights extinguished”, you can really put a picture in your mind at what he is looking at and feeling. I think of London as this dark lonely night.

He describes these people as “houselessness”, instead of calling them homeless or poor.  I also observed in the beginning that he talks like he is houselessness, but in the beginning of the essay he talks about only being an “amateur of houselessness”. I wonder why he picks the word houslessness instead of homeless, poor, etc. Also, he describes himself as houselessness. Maybe it is just someone who isn’t at home?

Dicken’s mentions Convent-Garden Market where, “men and boys lying asleep under them”. The people who don’t have homes find a way to get by sleeping under wagons. Also, he mentions “children who prowl about this place; who sleep in the baskets, fight for offal, dart at any object they think they can lay their thieving hands on”. London is a big city which has poverty. Every city has it pros but it also has its cons. Children are in poverty trying to do everything they can to stay alive is a sad sight to see.

He really creates a detailed story of what he is seeing through the streets of London.

This illustration by Gustave Doré depicts a group of people, mainly children, huddled together on the side of a street in the night time. The mood of this illustration is overwhelmingly dreary. Overall it is a very dark image—the brightest point being the street lamp in the upper left-hand corner. The faces of the people are not only dark but are rather miserable as well. They are huddled together, sharing blankets, as if the only source of warmth they have is each other. The objects laying in front of the two main adults in the image look as though they could be all the belongings of this family, from vases to a violin. Such a dark, depressing image is clearly meant to evoke similar emotions in its viewer, as one cannot help but feel sorry for the people in the illustration. The image definitely appears to be a commentary on the living conditions that affected particularly women and children in London in the mid to late 19^thcentury. It is heartbreaking to see people living in conditions such as this—in the cold on the side of the street—but it is especially so to see children, or what could possibly be a family, suffering in this manner.

This illustration is reminiscent of William Blake’s poem “London” which details the tragedy that is the society of common men, women, and children in London. Within the first stanza, Blake says he marks “in every face I meet/ marks of weakness, marks of woe.” In this image, every individual has a face marked by woe. Both this illustration and Blake’s poem mark a dreadful time in London’s history and depict the miserable conditions of the every-day people.

I found the tones reflected in the poems “London” by William Blake and “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” by William Wordsworth to both express an awareness of similar conditions in London. What I mean by awareness is that in Blake’s poem, he mentions the the despair and harsh conditions that were present in London during this time period throughout the poem. Wordsworth, in contrast, chose to reflect on a time when everything seemed to be at peace, but I think he maintained the awareness that the day was yet to happen and that it would be filled with the hardship that Blake describes in his poem. 

Blake’s poem dives deep into the struggles of the people in London. In the first stanza he describes the faces of the people he encounters in London with “Marks of weakness, marks of woe.” Furthermore, he mentions the cries and sorrows of several groups of people in London, including the soldiers who he portrayed as suffering at the hands of the Nobility in the lines “…the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down the palace walls(.)” The final image Blake provides the reader with is of the Harlot, a “prostitute or promiscuous woman” according to dictionary.com, cursing the (assuringly her own) infant in the middle of the night. These images explicitly describe the life that Blake is observing in his experiences throughout London and I think he chose to focus on these negative examples in order to strengthen his critique on London. 

What drew a strong connection to the industrial and urban setting Wordsworth hints towards in his poem was the second quatrain:

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, 

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie 

Open unto the fields, and to the sky; 

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.  

This seems to be the only section where I felt Wordsworth remotely suggested the crowdedness and population of London, especially in the second line which is a list of industrial marvels. What is different from Blake’s poem would be the context Wordsworth places these items in; the beautiful nature that surrounds and infiltrates London. I found Wordsworth setting this poem in the morning just as the sun is rising to be significant in pointing out that the air was only smokeless because work in the factories had not begun yet. This extends to all of the quietness that Wordsworth describes, as nothing in the day had begun in the London scene he was describing. 

I found the first image of Gustave Dore’s series to be a very revealing cover page as it relates to the themes that appear through out the series of illustrations. “London” is written in a creepy font which in combination with the gloomy, cloudy sky in the background contribute to the ominous tones that come from this image. The man is carrying what appears to be an embellished oar. He is resting on a small boat and is dressed in rags which I thought represented a significant contrast to the thoughtful design of the decorated oar. 

The facial expressions of the man and lion are key to the message I found in this image. The man’s facial expression emits defeat, a falling from power, some anguish, and sorrow. The lion appears to be giving a stern look of disappointment and anger towards the man. I found the lion to have a scornful expression that accounts for the sorrow that appears to be coming from the man’s facial expression. These significances lead up to what I think is one of the most significant aspects of this image which is the setting. The man and the lion are resting under a bridge, assumingely having been cast out of society and what ever position they held in it previously. The lion is a regal icon, and its presence under a bridge represents a long fall from power. Furthermore, the lion appears to be filthy. The metaphor that the lion is the “king of the jungle” seems to be playing an important role in this image as the man has fallen from what ever noble position he previously held and his undignified demeanor resembles that of the dirty lion. 

I think this is a great cover image for the series as the theme of poverty is seen throughout the series. I think Dore was trying to express the troubling social and financial conditions that existed in London during the 19th century, and this image has many things going on to express that.

Lines Composed Upon Westminster Abbey is a classic appraisal of the beauty of London by Wordsworth, but after reading Blake and interpreting Doré’s engravings, it is hard to read this poem separating Wordsworth’s perception from the others.

Wordsworth writes of the beauty, the captivating, the glittering, calming, effects that London has on those who pass by. Wordsworth’s beauty is in the silence of the streets, the sleeping homes, the glittering of the city from the sunlight, the cleanliness free from pollution, and the emptiness in the lack of people. Wordsworth sees the beauty of London as the beauty of the city itself. His imagery gives life to the city, to the sky, to the famous river, but all without referencing the people. Wordsworth claims that the city is what is beautiful and those who have a lively soul can appreciate it for what it is, but the way he does so takes away from those who live in it. Many believe that the people makes a city what it is, make it great, and are the heart of place, but Wordsworth seems to believe the opposite. He chooses to describe London’s beauty from afar, without the interaction of others.

When reading Lines Composed…, he first person narrative places the reader into the narrator’s shoes. The “I” becomes “me” to the reader and the perceptions and emotions of Wordsworth transfer onto the reader. He keeps the pleasant and raising tone within his upbeat iambic pentameter meter and his strict rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA DEDEDE (I believe that at the time this was written majest-ee was pronounced magist-i,  which would make it rhyme with by, lie, etc., but I may be wrong). This meter and rhyme scheme are important in keeping the reader focused in on the praising tone rather than perceiving it as more mocking or sarcastic. In order to keep this strict meter, Wordsworth even goes as far as to contract never as “Ne’er” once to keep the syllable count from going above 5, where never is left alone in several other lines throughout.

I notice in the poem that every line starts with a capital letter and the line breaks mark both the end of the line structurally and sentence-like. There is no enjambment found in Wordsworth’s work. I see this as a way to appeal to a greater variety of readers. Enjambment for me is one of the most confusing poems to read even in modern times where I have had schooling and been exposed to it. I feel as if the tone, meter, and simple structure make for an easier and understandable read to the lower class. It is a means of setting the education level needed to understand this poem to a more basic level to unite the social classes. This is also done by his emotion writing rather than perfectly replicating an image. By this I mean Wordsworth was known for writing about the emotions, feelings, and individual experiences with a scene, rather than describing with such immense detail that one creates a universal image that is applicable across all readers. By Wordsworth praising the city, the home, of all of these social classes while also inspiring emotions such as love and appreciation, he unites all social classes through their love for a common place, leaving a lot of the imagery open to interpretation for each reader.

Through his use of imagery, Wordsworth seems to be presenting an image of London that appeals to tourists, to travelers, locals, and promotes London as the place to be. The poem draws attention towards the city and inspires the reader to seek that same breathtaking beauty and appreciation for London the way Wordsworth does. The reader can picture beauty in the city and picture the morning sun glittering off of ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples, but these specific sites and details are left open to the reader. Not everyone has the same ideals and definitions of beauty. Different classes, countries, cultures, and languages perceive beauty in contrasting ways. By listing beauty in kinds of places, he describes what is there, but lets the reader’s imagination fill in the blanks and the details of what that building should look like in its most beautiful form. This to me creates a more universal story that can appeal to a larger audience. The imagery of the river flowing unrushed, at its own pace is also used as a means of slowing down the reading of the poem. The emptiness, the calmness, the still hearts, and sleeping all have very calming effects as to set a slower, more appreciative pace for taking in both the poem and London.

I can’t help but picture my own experiences and appreciation for the beauty of London while standing on Tower Bridge and Westminster Bridge. It is a stunning city, not in the business and technology like New York, but in the cleanliness, beauty, and classy buildings. After seeing Doré’s sketches I can’t help but imagine what lies in the streets behind what Wordsworth and I have both seen (At vastly different times in London’s history of course). I have always viewed London from the same perspective Wordsworth has. I have walked through the markets, looked at the items without making eye contact with the sellers, I have looked at the city from a distance, from up above in the London Eye, and all that time what reality have I been ignorant to? Was Wordsworth also ignorant to the poverty stricken truth to life in those alleys or did he also see it and choose to ignore it? Wordsworth wrote this poem from the perspective of someone taking a step back to view the city. I believe it very well have been to remind himself of the beauty of London after constant reminders of poverty and homelessness overwhelmed him.

Each of these authors’ stories must be taken with a grain of salt. Each author is motivated to express different realities, different lesson, and different ideals that lead to exaggerations intended to manipulate the reader to see their perspectives. In the case of Lines Composed Upon Westminster Abbey by Wordsworth, his actions are intended to inspire love and admiration for London, England in his readers and he does so by writing a poem that can be equally appreciated and understood by all.

Gustave Doré sketched with beautiful technique, very dramatic depictions of Victorian life in London in his image Houndsditch. His extreme detail, shading, and his unique use of line direction, shade, thickness, and spacing add a lot of depth and realism to the works. This realism adds to the dramatic differences in the classes that are depicted within each image. When I look at this sketch, I see a man of a wealthier class who is walking down an alley looking at what this woman and her children have to sell. He is dressed in a long coat and a top hat while they are all dressed in wrinkled rags and huddled together as if it is cold. The house behind them is falling apart and has cracks in the windows.

The image appears at first glance to be a local market, but when you look closer you see the ignorance of the man towards the women and her kids. He is oblivious to their state, to the possible importance of the things that lie on the table. There is a watering can, a guitar, a large knife, pots and pans, vases, and it appears to be everything that family has. He is looking down at their table as an outsider looking in, but their faces and defeated forms give a lot away. When I look into the mother’s eyes they are fallen, lost, and sad. The girls in the back are huddled together while the girl in the middle looks angry and frustrated.

The composition is focused right in the middle with the center drawing your eye and when it begins to wander from the family, the background reinforces the conclusions drawn from the image pictured. The moos seems to be solemn, devastating, and ignorant depending on which character the viewer tends to focus on. I focus on the mother’s response to the wealthier man near her table. The focus of this image seems to be the ignorance of a man who has never walked in the shoes of another. A devastating truth can be laid out right in front of us, but we will never see the reality as long as we remain naïve and ignorant.

This image reminds me of a mission trip I went on to the Dominican Republic. Along the airports and the shores are tropical beaches and 5-star resorts, but if you go less than a few miles farther into the island, there are devastated, poverty stricken neighborhoods. The ones who work their whole lives to cater to the rich who travel their on vacation, go home at night to a house that can hardly be considered a house at all. These people could never support their families and are forced to sell anything they can get their hands on to these rich foreigners who remain ignorant to the lives these locals live. In the case of the story within this image, they all live in the same country, the same city, the same neighborhoods, and yet they remain ignorant to the reality around them.

William Blake wrote a poem titled “London” and it depicts what a man who walks through London in this era sees, but in his case he chooses to highlight and focus on these aspects of impoverished to remove the veil that lies over reality. Blake writes of weakness, plagues, mentally ill, crying of men, and fear. If the same man in Blake’s poem had been the rich man in Doré’s illustration then the image would have captured sympathy, recognition, and understanding rather than ignorance and pride. The image and poem both highlight the problems in society, the failings, the ignorance, but both take on the task in different ways. While Blake chooses to highlight the reality of the impoverished lives, Doré highlights the reality in the extreme dynamics of the relationship between the upper and lower classes in Victorian England.

The first time I read Pride and Prejudice,by Jane Austen was for this class. I had never even seen the movie with Kiera Knightley before. While reading through the first 30 or so pages some of the story and the names seemed familiar. I have seen Bridgit Jones Diary and from what I can remember, it seems like a more modern time rendition of Jane Austen’s original story. I noticed that Austen uses several themes and repeated concepts that carry on throughout the story, but the themes I noticed most prevalently were ones that related to the title itself: the varying definitions of the word pride and the inability to properly asses another upon the first encounter.

The word pride is used quite often within the novel and very early on too, which is uncommon considering that it is also the title of the book. We are introduced to this theme primarily between the two main characters in the novel. In the first 5 chapters of the story, we meet the Bennetts, more importantly Elizabeth Bennett as well as Mr. Darcy. After their first interaction she perceives him as clever, rude, disagreeable, and proud. She quickly jumps to conclusions about him and speaks with her family and their friends about the disagreeableness, overwhelming pride, and rudeness he showed towards her. In the same chapter, Miss Lucas pointed out that Darcy has every right to be prideful in his social status and wealth. While Elizabeth agreed, she claimed she would have no issue with it had he not embarrassed her and wounded her pride.

There is then an extensive paragraph defining pride and separating its definition from vanity as if to clear up for the readers not only the margins of the meaning of the word, but also to clarify the theme that Austen will carry through the story. We are told that pride is a common failing that everyone experiences and it is one’s own way of seeing themselves In the case of Elizabeth and Darcy it is the way Darcy sees himself that is the problem. Later in chapter 11, vanity and pride are referenced again clarifying that pride is good in certain levels whereas vanity is a weakness. Darcy is prideful, while maybe too much, it is a strong-suit of his. At this point in the story we are influenced to despise Darcy, being influenced by the Bennetts’ feelings as well as the rest of the town. These lines spent defining and clarifying the two words seem to be Austen’s way of speaking directly to the reader through the dialogue of her characters. These lines struggle to fit into conversation through the voices of the characters and read as more of the authoritative voice of the author coming through. It seems to be Austen’s ways of justifying a goodness in Darcy and leaving messages that he isn’t just rude and disagreeable, a means of hinting towards the resolution of the story.

In chapter 34 we get more references to pride in the argument between Darcy and Elizabeth after he proposes. He claims the reason she says no is because he damaged her pride. Darcy believes the real person in the room who is too prideful to listen to reason is Elizabeth. In chapter 41 we hear of a secondary character, Whickham also referencing Darcy’s pride as the one thing that has kept Darcy in the status he is in. Up until this point we have been introduced to pride as a means of making Darcy disagreeable, something that he has taken beyond the levels of what is socially acceptable, and something that he manipulated to maintain the high social status that he has to this day. The scene where we see pride discussed by Darcy himself, he turns the word back against Elizabeth. This scene is important as it gives us a new insight into Elizabeth and raises questions as to the bias and unreliableness of the third person-limited narrator. To this point we have believed that Darcy is the one who has been over prideful, but could it very well be Elizabeth?

We later hear from Darcy’s maid who has been working for him all of her life in chapter 43. She tells a far different story of Mr. Darcy: someone who is falsely accused of being too proud. She claims he is really misunderstood because he behaves differently than the other men in social settings because his personality is more introverted. This comes as quite a shock to the reader, but is reassuring. There is a reason that Darcy is such an intriguing character who is quite liked, even though the characters in the story present him as disagreeable. Also within this chapter, we see the first instance of Darcy overcoming this pride and lack of communication with others. Elizabeth presents a shocking interaction where he approached the Gardiners and was quite agreeable and gave off a good impression. The Gardiners even went on to say that they did not see his foolish pride that everyone has talked so much about and they quite like him, another moment where the characters judged someone off of the first interaction and meet.

This chapter is Austen’s turning point in our perceptions of Darcy. Without this point it would have been too hard to jump to his good natured attempts at resolving the bad reputation of Lydia, reuniting of Jane and Bingley, and his love for Elizabeth. As well as Austen’s turning point, I believe it to also have been Elizabeth’s. This was the start of her acceptance of Darcy’s side of the story, the goodness in him, and the point where she chooses to let down her injured pride that lets her find that she too loves him.

In the final chapters of the novel, the Bennetts as a whole begin to change their opinions and perceptions of Darcy, steering away from that of proud. In chapter 59, Elizabeth herself admits to her father that she was wrong in her estimations of Darcy’s character from the start and that there is no improper pride about him. After hearing Elizabeth’s profession of reasoning, Mr. Bennett turns around. Jane was hurt for a long time over the insult to Elizabeth’s pride that occurred, but upon Elizabeth’s request she moved to accepting Darcy as well. The Gardiners, the Miss Bennetts, and even Mr. Bennett who favors and loves Elizabeth the most, come around to the truth of Darcy’s pride in the end. (Ironically since they were the ones in the beginning who spread the rumors and the gossip of Darcy’s prideful demeanor in the first place.)

The title of the novel Pride and Prejudiceis used by Austen to show the changing dynamics of Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship and speaks to the themes of pride and not judging one based off of first appearances without knowing them. In the start of the novel, Elizabeth perceives Darcy as overly proud and her perceptions move towards a man who has been misunderstood and too harshly judged upon their first meet. Elizabeth herself is wounded in her pride at the start and becomes very prejudice towards Darcy. She is too quick to jump to judgements based off of the first encounter and stories she heard by words of mouth. She later realizes that she shouldn’t have judged a book by its cover, let’s go of her own pride that she didn’t realize that she had, and opens herself up to Darcy. She begins to perceive his pride in a new light and finds justification in her love for him.

Jane Austen has developed a pattern of pride throughout her novel in the theme of being too quick to judge. Yet, there is irony and contradictions in Jane Austen’s message, you may not be able to judge a book (a person) by its cover (the first interaction), yet her own novel Pride and Prejudiceclearly states the primary theme and topic not only as a pattern throughout the novel, but very straightforward right on the cover. In the case of the novel Pride and Prejudicethe reader can accurately judge the book by its cover, but Elizabeth as well as the rest of the characters in the novel have been proven to do so quite inadequately.