Jane Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice, like the present chapter, is all about the process by which people mentally model characters. The protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, spends much of the novel forming and reforming a conception of the eligible bachelor Mr. Darcy. Her initial meeting with the gentleman—who is described as having a “fine, tall person, handsome features, [and] noble mien” in addition to his “ten thousand pounds a year” (6)—leaves her with a negative impression after she overhears him call her “tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me” (7). Despite numerous instances of witty banter and romantic chemistry between the two, Elizabeth’s dislike for Mr. Darcy only increases when she is told that he has engineered the disinheritance of a certain Mr. Wickham and had convinced his friend, Mr. Bingley, to reject her sister Jane’s advances. When Mr. Darcy suddenly proposes (and seemingly expects her consent despite all of these actions), the shocked Elizabeth considers him to be arrogant, conceited, and selfishly disdainful of the feelings of others (131). After curtly telling him so, she begins to discover there is more to the story: Darcy only separated Bingley and Jane because he thought Jane cared little for his best friend, and Wickham turns out to be a scoundrel who absconds with Elizabeth’s younger sister Lydia. It is only after finding out that Darcy secretly forced Wickham to marry Lydia and thus saved her family from scandal that Elizabeth’s understanding of Darcy changes: Mr. Darcy is not an aloof, selfish man who denies others of their happiness, but a noble one who is capable of great deeds provided he can overcome his pride.