Key Quote
“"My good opinion once lost is lost for ever"”
Mr Darcy · Volume 1, Chapter 11
Focus: “for ever”
Darcy presents inflexibility as a virtue — but the novel will systematically disprove this statement, making it one of the most ironic lines in the text.
Technique 1 — EPIGRAM WITH ABSOLUTIST DICTION
An epigrammatic (concise, witty) statement using absolutist diction (language allowing no exceptions): 'once' and 'for ever' frame his character as rigid and unforgiving. Darcy presents inflexibility as a virtue — he conflates (confuses/merges) stubbornness with moral integrity.
The declarative (stated as fact) tone mirrors his social authority: he speaks as though his judgments are natural law, not personal opinion. This linguistic certainty reflects the certainty of his class position — both will be shaken.
Key Words
RAD — STAGNATE
Darcy at his most stagnant: he cannot yet see that rigid judgment is a flaw, not a strength. This statement will be tested and disproved by the novel itself — he WILL revise his opinion of Elizabeth's family.
Key Words
Technique 2 — DRAMATIC IRONY / PROLEPTIC REVERSAL
Dramatic irony: the reader will watch Darcy systematically change every opinion he claims is permanent. This is a proleptic reversal (foreshadowing that hints at its own contradiction) — Darcy's character arc is the process of learning to revise, compromise, and grow.
Elizabeth identifies this as a flaw ('implacable (unforgiving) resentment IS a shade in a character') — she sees what he cannot. The irony deepens when we realise Elizabeth is equally guilty of fixed opinions, making both characters mirrors of each other.
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Context (AO3)
ARISTOCRATIC PRIDE
The landed gentry cultivated an image of unchanging moral authority. Darcy's rigidity reflects his class's resistance to social change and the emerging meritocratic (based on ability, not birth) values of the Regency period.
PREJUDICE AS SYSTEM
Austen shows that prejudice is not merely individual bias but systemic — it is reinforced by wealth, education, and social position until it feels like natural judgment. Darcy's certainty is a product of privilege, not insight.
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WOW — HEGELIAN DIALECTIC
Hegel's dialectic describes a process where thesis (an idea) meets antithesis (its opposite) to produce synthesis (a new understanding). Darcy's certainty (pride) is the thesis; Elizabeth's challenge (prejudice) is the antithesis. Neither is complete without the other. Austen structures the entire novel as a dialectical process: both protagonists must abandon their fixed positions to reach genuine understanding. This makes Pride and Prejudice not merely a romance but a philosophical argument about the necessity of intellectual humility for moral growth.
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