Does mr darcy have the right to be proud?

Answer 1

Certainly, according to Charlotte Lucas, Mr. Darcy has a right to be proud.

Jane Austen clearly understands a difference between the good and bad aspects of pride, and has her characters speak of it. Familial pride that causes a person to value the reputation of his family and do things so as to be in accord with the good his family has done is regarded as good, by at least some characters. But like many other things, pride can be excessive, and excessive pride is a fault.

Mr. Darcy has a right to be proud of his father's generosity and continue being generous in his own life.

Mr. Darcy has no right to be excessively proud.

Answer 2

Darcy might have been slightly vain, but not especially vain. Certainly, Elizabeth asks Darcy very pointedly about vanity while they are talking about personal defects at Netherfield.

Interestingly, Elizabeth decides that she, herself, is the one guilty of vanity, in her supposing her own judgment about other people to be correct. In Chapter 36, she says, "But vanity, not love, has been my folly."

Darcy is often described as prideful. Personally, I think the idea that Darcy represents pride and Elizabeth prejudice is a good deal too simplistic. He is compared with his sister, Georgiana. Elizabeth expects to find Georgiana proud, based on her experience of Darcy and what she has heard of Georgiana, but finds instead that she is only very shy. Perhaps, though the question is never explicitly raised in the book, Mr Darcy suffers from the same, misunderstood shyness that Elizabeth sees in his sister.