Editing Pride and Prejudice (section)

===Self-knowledge===
Through their interactions and their critiques of each other, Darcy and Elizabeth come to recognise their faults and work to correct them. Elizabeth meditates on her own mistakes thoroughly in chapter 36:

{{blockquote|"How despicably have I acted!" she cried; "I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable distrust. How humiliating is this discovery! yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself."<ref>{{cite book |title=Pride and Prejudice |last=Austen |first=Jane |chapter=36 |chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1342/1342-h/1342-h.htm#link2HCH0036}}</ref>}}

Other characters rarely exhibit this depth of understanding or at least are not given the space within the novel for this sort of development.

Tanner writes that Mrs. Bennet in particular, "has a very limited view of the requirements of that performance; lacking any introspective tendencies she is incapable of appreciating the feelings of others and is only aware of material objects".<ref>{{cite book |title=Knowledge and Opinion: Pride and Prejudice |last=Tanner |first=Tony |publisher=Macmillan Education Ltd.|year=1986 |isbn=978-0333323175 |page=124 }}</ref> Mrs Bennet's behaviour reflects the society in which she lives, as she knows that her daughters will not succeed if they do not get married. "The business of her life was to get her daughters married: its solace was visiting and news."<ref>{{cite book |title=Pride and Prejudice |last=Austen |first=Jane |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company Inc. |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-393-26488-3 |page=7}}</ref> This shows that Mrs. Bennet is only aware of "material objects" and not of her feelings and emotions.<ref>{{cite book |title=Knowledge and Opinion: Pride and Prejudice |last=Tanner |first=Tony |publisher=Macmillan Education Ltd. |year=1986 |isbn=978-0333323175 |page=124 }}</ref>

A notable exception is Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth Bennet's close friend and confidant. She accepts Mr. Collins's proposal of marriage once Lizzie rejects him, not out of sentiment but acute awareness of her circumstances as "one of a large family". Charlotte's decision is reflective of her prudent nature and awareness.