I think, in a nutshell, what Elizabeth learns is that her judgement, of others, and of herself, is often wrong. Often the men she dislikes turn out to be the ones who are most worthwhile, while the ones she does initially like turn out bad.
Elizabeth thinks Darcyis quite rude at first. She does overhear him describe her as only "tolerable" at the ball at the beginning of the book. She learns that...
I think, in a nutshell, what Elizabeth learns is that her judgement, of others, and of herself, is often wrong. Often the men she dislikes turn out to be the ones who are most worthwhile, while the ones she does initially like turn out bad.
Elizabeth thinks Darcy is quite rude at first. She does overhear him describe her as only "tolerable" at the ball at the beginning of the book. She learns that she is wrong about him when she learns about the role he plays in resolving the elopement with Lydia and Wickham. Darcy is proud, but she changes her mind about him when she sees that he actually has listened to her, understood her mortification about Lydia, and has done something about it.
Elizabeth is at first quite taken with Wickham, who on the face of it is the opposite of Mr Darcy: where Darcy seems cold and aloof, Wickham is charming and confiding. In fact, Elizabeth, who has already decided that Darcy is too proud, is being fooled by Wickham, who does not tell her the truth about his relationship with Darcy; Elizabeth is all too eager to believe what he says. Her blindness to him contributes in part to Lydia's eventual elopement.
Bingley is another character Elizabeth is wrong about. It is true, Darcy tells her, that he worked to separate Bingley from Jane. But Bingley is not fickle in his attachment, as Elizabeth suspects, and does return to Jane in the end.
More than changing her view of men, I think that these three relationships also have a profound effect on Elizabeth's understanding of herself. She learns not make snap judgements about people, and she learns that what really counts in relationships is what people do, not what they say.
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