First impressions are very important. In the Victorian age, people based their
whole opinion of someone on first impressions. Most times the first impression
of someone is not the way they truly are. Sometimes a first impression can cause
you to think negative of someone but later you find out that they are very nice
and a very positive person. One example is when Mr. Darcy meets Elizabeth in the
book ,Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth thinks Mr.darcy is a cruel and arrogant
person, but she later finds out that he is not. Also in, Pride and Prejudice
when Elizabeth meets Mr. Wickham she gets the impression that he is very nice
and gentlemen like, but she finds different with him too. In the story "
The Importance of being Ernest" Lady Bracknell does not like Jack because
he does not have any money and does not live up to her standards, but little
does she know. In "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, Elizabeth
thinks Mr. Darcy is a very rude and self centered person based on what she saw
the first time they met or actually the first time they saw each other.
Elizabeth over heard Mr. Darcy talking to Mr. Bingley at a ball and didn't
really like what she heard. "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to
tempt me." ( Austen 12) Mr. Darcy thinks he is much to good for some people
and has very high expectations. at one point n Beck 2 the story Mr. Darcy starts
to fall in love with Elizabeth. Elizabeth knows he has changed but relizes he is
beginning to act like Mr. Bingley. " In vain have I struggled. It will not
do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how
ardently I admire and love you." (Austen 161) Elizabeth does not have the
same feelings for him, and why should she he was very rude and arrogant towards
her. "In such cases as this, it is , I believe, the established mode to
express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed, however unequally they
may be returned. It is natural that obligation should be felt , and if I could
feel gratitude, I would now thank you. But I cannot- I have never desired your
good opinion, and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly. I am sorry to
have occasioned pain to anyone." (Austen 162) Later Elizabeth sees how she
could have been a part of Mr. Darcy's mansion she could have been his mistress.
While she is there she learns of the real Mr. Darcy, and the part of him she
never knew. When Elizabeth meets Mr. Wickham in "Pride and Prejudice",
she sees that he is a very nice and sweet person. But little did she know! At
first Elizabeth is interested in him, and she thinks he is interested in her too
and would like to keep seeing him. Mr. Darcy explains to Elizabeth about what
jerk he is and how self centered he is. Elizabeth is still kind of interested in
him, after all her first impression of him was a very positive one. She starts
to compare between Mr. Darcy and MR. Wickham because she still thinks Mr.
Wickham is interested in her. " One has got all the goodness and the other
all the appearance of it." (Austen 190) Elizabeth finds out what a jerk Mr.
Wickham is when he does not show up at the ball. Then ends Beck 3 up running off
with Lydia, Elizabeth feels that she could have stopped it from happening. When
Lady Bracknell first meets Jack in the story " The Importance of being
Earnest she thinks he's a failure and has no parents. Lady Bracknell refuses to
the marriage. She thinks that Jack is very poor and knows that he was found in a
hand bag at the cloak room at the Victorian Railroad station.. " I confess
I fell somewhat bewildered by what you just told me. To be born or at any rate
bred in a handbag, weather it had handles on it or not, seems to me to display a
contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst
excesses of the French Revolution. As for the particular locality in which the
handbag was found, a cloak room at a railway station might serve to conceal a
social indiscretion." Lady Bracknell is a very greedy person, later in the
story she finds out that Jack really does have parents and has a lot of money.
She now excepts Jack but only because of the money and the fact that he has
parents. First impression were more important back in the Victorian age. As you
can see in both of these stories everybody judges by their first impressions.
Most of them are wrong, first impressions should always be reexamined.
Bibliography
1. Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice New York, The New American Library, Inc.
2. Wilde, Oscar "The Importance of Being Earnest." Adventures in
English Literature. Harcourt Brace Jovanich, Inc. 1980-85