The first line of Pride and Prejudice alludes to the townspeople’s gossip about wealthy men, and Mrs. Bennet’s informing Mr. Bennet of Bingley’s arrival at Netherfield demonstrates the quickness with which news travels. Soon, the family knows about the size of Bingley’s entourage and who will attend the Meryton ball; after the ball, the Bennets and the Lucases gather to discuss the event. These little incidents establish the prevalence of gossip, setting the stage for Wickham’s false accusations against Darcy to circulate.

At the Meryton ball, Darcy is decided to be “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world” (12); later, when the Bingley party leaves Netherfield and Wickham spreads the accusations widely, “every body [is] pleased to think how much they had always disliked Mr. Darcy before they had known anything of the matter” (134). Like Elizabeth, they make these judgments without truly knowing the man, who by his own account does not have “the talent […] of conversing easily” with strangers, for he “cannot catch their tone of conversation” (167).

When Wickham runs away with Lydia and people discover his debts, people “[seem] striving to blacken the man who, but three months before, had been almost an angel of light,” claiming “that they had always distrusted the appearance of his goodness” (272).