# Pride and Prejudice — Concepts

> Key concepts in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

- [First impressions](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/pride_and_prejudice_se/concepts/first-impressions.md): How early judgments — Darcy’s coldness, Wickham’s charm — lock the plot into pride and prejudice before anyone has enough evidence.
- [Marriage as economy](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/pride_and_prejudice_se/concepts/marriage-as-economy.md): Why courtship in Austen is inseparable from entailment, settlements, and women’s limited paths to security — not just romance.
- [Self-knowledge](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/pride_and_prejudice_se/concepts/self-knowledge.md): Elizabeth and Darcy’s real plot: each must recognize how pride and prejudice have shaped what they thought they “knew.”
- [Reputation and performance](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/pride_and_prejudice_se/concepts/reputation-and-performance.md): Charm, coldness, and gossip as public performances — and why Wickham’s manners are more dangerous than Darcy’s silence.
- [Individual desire vs social expectation](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/pride_and_prejudice_se/concepts/individual-vs-society.md): Where Austen draws the line between rightful independence (Elizabeth) and reckless disregard (Lydia) inside the same marriage market.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/pride_and_prejudice_se/concepts