Topic > Pride and Prejudice: First Impressions, Relationships, and Marriage

First impressions can be misleading. As we know, Jane initially called the novel “First Impressions”, then changed the title. The reason he called this book "First Impressions" is that everyone in the book had first impressions of other people and most likely their first impression was wrong. For example, at the beginning of the book, the author said: “His character was strong. He was the proudest and most unpleasant man in the world, and everyone hoped he would never return.” From this quote you can see how quickly people could pass judgment on a stranger and this was a timeless behavior, applicable to modern relationships as well. According to Todorov, a psychologist, people can form a first impression from a person's face in just 30-40 milliseconds, which means that it is human nature to judge others based on just one look, such as their appearance, manner to talk. or gestures. However, once the first impression was formed, it would take a long time for people to change it, for example Elizabeth deepened the misunderstanding about Darcy only because of the words of Wickham and Darcy's cousin, and eventually realized account of his misunderstanding until he read the letter. Similarly, “if people form an opinion about the other person early in the relationship, and then use every opportunity to exclude information that goes against that opinion, then they have a coherent worldview, but perhaps a partner's unreliability. , which – regardless of whether it improves or not – is trapped in prejudice,” according to Tim Lott. Therefore, Jane Austen effectively conveyed that self-justification can be misleading by describing conversations between Elizabeth and Darcy and writing detailed descriptions of their ways. Since first impressions also happened and affected the relationship in the modern world, Pride and Prejudice was said to be a timeless love story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Secondly, mutual respect is important for a healthy and happy marriage. The best example to illustrate this suggestion was the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mr. Bennet treated his wife as a fool and an instrument of entertainment, according to the quote “This is not the kind of happiness which a man in general would wish to owe to his wife; but where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will benefit from those which are given him. He didn't respect his wife at all; Elizabeth also realized that her father's behavior as a husband was "improper". Additionally, readers could not see the mutual respect in Lydia and Wickham's marriage, since their relationship relied on external stimuli for fun and neither loved each other because of personality. As a result, readers were inclined to suspect that their love would last a long time since mutual respect, the foundation of love that Austen had recognized long before the psychological explanation, did not exist in their relationship. Likewise, mutual respect was essential in modern relationships. According to some psychological surveys, when couples are able to respect the similarities and differences between each other, they are more likely to form a long-term relationship. This has been proven by psychology that “in healthy relationships, people talk to each other in ways that do not demean, invalidate, or belittle. They value the time and opinions of others as they value their own." Therefore, the essential rule of modern relationship had already been revealed in Jane Austen's novel already.