P+P #9

The way Elizabeth interprets information about Mr. Darcy depends upon who is telling the information and her particular attitude toward Mr. Darcy at the time. Elizabeth's first impression on Mr. Darcy is that he is a haughty and insolent man. What she fails to realize is that Mr. Darcy is just taciturn; she interprets his social awkwardness as arrogance. Because her initial view of Mr. Darcy is that he is an awful person and that she wants to hate him, when Mr. Wickham talks poorly if Mr. Darcy Elizabeth immediately accepts it as fact without questioning the story's validity, fitting of classic confirmation bias. However, once Elizabeth receives and reads Mr. Darcy's letter explaining his motives, she begins to understand him better, although she still does not like him very much. While at Pemberly the housekeeper tells Elizabeth that she had "'never had cross word from him in [her] life" (Austen 242). Elizabeth thinks this description of Mr. Darcy is "most opposite to her ideas. That he was not a good-tempered man had been her firmest opinion. Her keenest attention was awakened: she longed to hear more" (242). Elizabeth does not immediately dismiss this pleasant description of Darcy although it is contrary to her opinion if him, instead, because she has read the letter and realizes there is more to Mr. Darcy than first meets the eye, she realizes that there may be validity to this view of Mr. Darcy and wants to learn more.