The Last Impression

“There was certainly at this moment, in Elizabeth’s mind, a more gentle sensation towards the original, than she had ever felt in the height of their acquaintance. The commendation bestowed on him by Mrs Reynolds was of no trifling nature. What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people’s happiness were in his guardianship!” (pg. 233)

Throughout the book Elizabeth Bennet has stuck to her first “impression” of Mr. Darcy. Even after his proposal and declaration of love she still did not attempt to review his character. Elizabeth finally began to see Darcy for who he really was after he gave her a letter detailing all the faults she had accused him of; such as the separation of her sister and Bingley and the ill treatment of Mr. Wickham. She learns to accept him after this letter, but does not see him for many months. Later on in the book her aunt and uncle and Elizabeth visit Pemberley, which is the estate owned by Mr. Darcy himself. And it is here we see the final change in Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy. His servant, Mrs Reynolds who has been helping the family for many generations has nothing but praise for Darcy. This allows Elizabeth to see that Darcy is caring and thoughtful, although his first impression may cast him as proud and bitter. This is an important passage in the novel because Elizabeth now has overcome her prejudice and first impression of Darcy.

First Impressions

“Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticize. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying.” (pg. 20)

This quote shows the slow progression of Darcy’s feelings for Elizabeth, although Elizabeth is blissfully unaware of his attraction towards her. When the two characters first met at the Meryton assembly he had scarcely allowed her to be pretty, “’she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me;” (pg. 9). As Darcy’s friend, Mr. Bingley becomes more acquainted with Jane, Elizabeth’s sister; Darcy and Elizabeth meet on many different occasions. He realizes through these interactions he is becoming attracted to her. Though is still able to find many faults in her character. This quote marks a turning point on how Mr. Darcy views Elizabeth. This quote embodies many of the books main themes, love and class and social standings, shown through pride. Darcy’s pride caused him to cast his first impression of Elizabeth’s character merely because of the way her family acted, and where they stood in society. And love as he overcomes his pride and learns who Elizabeth actually is.

First Impressions

“Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticize. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying.” (pg. 20)

This quote shows the slow progression of Darcy’s feelings for Elizabeth, although Elizabeth is blissfully unaware of his attraction towards her. When the two characters first met at the Meryton assembly he had scarcely allowed her to be pretty, “’she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me;” (pg. 9). As Darcy’s friend, Mr. Bingley becomes more acquainted with Jane, Elizabeth’s sister; Darcy and Elizabeth meet on many different occasions. He realizes through these interactions he is becoming attracted to her. Though is still able to find many faults in her character. This quote marks a turning point on how Mr. Darcy views Elizabeth. This quote embodies many of the books main themes, love and class and social standings, shown through pride. Darcy’s pride caused him to cast his first impression of Elizabeth’s character merely because of the way her family acted, and where they stood in society. And love as he overcomes his pride and learns who Elizabeth actually is.

The Absolute Truth

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” (pg.1)

This is the opening line of Austen’s book, Pride and Prejudice. It represents the way of thinking in the 18th century regarding young men and marriage. During this time period, men were often sought after because of their social environment rather than individual traits. This quote in the beginning of the novel, introduces the arrival of Mr. Bingley. This quote also embodies Mrs. Bennet, the main characters mother’s, “life goal.” She is obsessed with attempting to get her daughters married and does not seem to care about her daughter’s happiness as long as they are married to a man with a substantial property and large sum of money. There are many occasions in the novel where Mrs. Bennet’s goal overshadows an issue of greater importance. Such as, Jane, her eldest daughter, becomes ill after her mother forced her to ride horseback to Mr. Bingley’s house in the pouring rain. And later on in the novel, Mrs. Bennet was overjoyed when she heard that Lydia had been married. And she was oblivious to see the pain that this marriage caused her family, and was not able to understand the amount of work and effort by her sister’s husband, that went into the marriage of Wickham and Lydia.

The Thought of Leaving

“I stared at the plans. “Dad,” I said, you’ll never build the Glass Castle.”
“Are you saying you don’t have faith in your old man?”
“Even if you do, I’ll be gone. In less than three months, I’m leaving for New York City.”
“What I was thinking was you don’t have to go right away,” Dad said. I could stay and graduate from Welch High and go to Bluefield State, as Miss. Katona had suggested, then get a job at The Welch Daily News. He’d help me with the articles, like he’d helped me with my piece on Check Yeager. “And I’ll build the Glass Castle, I swear it. We’ll all live in it together. It’ll be a hell of a lot better than any apartment you’ll ever find in New York City, I can guaran-goddamn-tee that.” (pg. 238)

Jeannette, like her sister has made the decision to leave Welch and pursue her dream of living in New York City. At this point in her life she has realized that her father does not keep the promises he makes. She knows that even if he promised that he will build the Glass Castle it most likely will not happen. I think Jeannette’s father, Rex, realizes that if Jeannette leaves then his main supporter will be gone. Because of this realization Rex tries everything he can to persuade Jeannette to stay in Welch. He tries to show her that she will be happy finishing school at Welch High, and can go to the neighbouring state university. Now that she was leaving he felt abandoned, and most likely realized that he let his family down. We can understand why Jeannette wants to leave, she spent many of her years in school rifling through trash cans looking for food, doing the “skedaddle” in the middle of the night from hospitals in order to avoid paying the bill, or waiting for Dad to come home after another night at the bar. Rex Walls was an alcoholic who felt that a simple life was too ordinary for him, but whose big dreams he promised for his family never seemed to come to life. The title of the book refers to a great glass house that he was going to build once he made his fortune from finding gold and becoming rich. Yet despite his many flaws, Jeannette never speaks badly of the person he was. Rather seeing him as a father she loved and admired, while being profoundly disappointed by him. As the children grew older, Rex seems to be away from home more often, draining the family’s resources that his young adolescent son and daughters worked for. When the children confront him about his disloyalty to the family, he becomes offended because he used to pride himself on being able to provide and protect them. Despite the many attempts to become and stay sober, Rex always returned to alcohol.

Isn't it ironic.

In Frye's second lecture of the "The Educated Imagination." He makes some very striking remarks. One comment that caught my eye was "The tone literature takes toward this world is not a moralizing tone, but the tone we call ironic. The effect of irony is to enable us to see over the head of a situation- we have irony in a play, for example, when we know more about what’s going on than the characters do- and so to detach us, at least in imagination, from the world we’d prefer not to be involved with." (pg.31) I thought this was intriguing because he states that literature does not reflect the positive outlook on the world. He states that literature uses sarcasm, to perhaps convey a lighter mood. He proclaims that in order to see through a situation you need to sometimes look on the lighter side of things. What I don’t understand is why he says “to detach us, at least in imagination, from the world we’d prefer not to be involved with.” Does he mean that through the ironic tone in literature, we use our imagination to create a world where there is no wrong?

Physically Whole but Emotionally Incomplete

In Frye’s first lecture of the series “The Educated Imagination”, he states “One person by himself is not a complete human being…” (p.6) The simple fact to the statement is that we need other people to thrive not only in society but the world in general. This is because we would be no one without friends and family around us. These people are who help us create our identities and mold us into who we are today and who we will become. In the lecture Frye adds another shipwrecked refugee of the opposite sex; this with two human beings creates a human society. If a problem were to arise in a certain situation and only that one person was present, then you would only have one solution to that problem. With other human beings around you are able to come up with the best solution to any problem. When I think of the term “a complete human being” I consider one person by himself to be physically whole but when looking at the philosophically, emotionally and spiritually side of the person, the one person cannot possibly be “complete.” If one man was to be isolated from the human population, the human would not be complete. This is because you need others around you to grow. There would be no communication, and no experiences. That person would not know right from wrong, because there are no opinions or thoughts to take into consideration. I think you need others to learn from, to interact with and make connections. This quote related directly to McCullough’s speech “The Love of Learning.” The most useful point that can be taken from this speech is that learning is an extremely important. Without learning you just know a bunch of facts, and cannot function in “Information Age.” In relation to this quote to learn you need to value what you learn and take the most out of life experiences. Experiences come from the interaction of others, where you learn and grow as a human. Therefore the speech is in complete agreement with the quote. Without others one person cannot possibly be a complete human being.