Public Relations Ethics and Practice

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1.0 Acknowledgments

The author would like to take this opportunity to thank the manager of communication at the Sutherlandshire Council, Mrs. Sonya Zadel, for her valuable contribution with her insights and time towards finalising of this report.

.0 Executive Summary

The main objective of this report was to seek and understand the nature of current issues that are affecting Public Relations practice. The report discusses three major issues in present day practice, globalisation, ethical consideration, gender issues. The report is also aimed at contrasting this practice against theoretical teachings in the normal curriculum of public relations.

The main methods of research were through the primary source of a face-to-face interview and secondary data gathering, which included reviewing publications and academic literature.

In the course of the research, it was found that although the public relations industry has dramatically changed over the past decade it has also evolved to a more socially centered responsible practice. However inconsistencies do exist with regard to ethical practice, as found through the discourse with the interviewee and other current reference sources.

The findings from the report also call for a review of such practices in the field, pertaining to unethical and gender related issues. Whereas globalisation is concerned it was found that well-structured educational programs as the answer to the lack of understanding and awareness.

It is the conclusion that public relations have close ties between theoretical concepts and modern day practices. With a growing number of managers seeing public relations as value creator within the organisation. Thereby placing greater importance on the decision making process that is critical and valuable to the organisation's long term benefit.

.0 Introduction

Originally public relations was conceived in the 80's as "Doing good and telling people about it" (Simon, 180). This need to be rigorously analysed due to the fact that public relations has evolved to more complex field. The report takes into consideration that public relations in its core, represents the function of the organisation communicating to the publics that it is involved with.

Globalisation although a newcomer to the industry has not been disregarded as an issue. Globalisation has the capacity to provide significant prospects as well as the overwhelming possibility for disastrous setbacks. Professionals feel that a systematic and culturally sensitive approach is the best way to address globalisation issues and would open new gateways for future success. Nevertheless, the burden lies in the lack of awareness the practitioner holds against such diversified entities. It is important to examine the current trend towards globalisation and the most effective way of addressing it.

Ethics on the other hand has never been definable as black or white; rather it has always lied in a gray zone. This ambiguity calls for professional bodies such as the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) to make decisions within an ethical framework and drive members into making ethically sound judgments. The underlying tasks of such institutions being driving its members towards making ethically sound judgments.

Gender is also an issue that has been on the debated list for many decades. The profession of public relations tends to create certain psychological boundaries in to which male and female practitioners are classed. As a result numerous complications have risen, such as gender stereotyping, differences in communication symmetries.

Sonya Zadel holds 16 years of experience in the public relations industry as both filling in the technical and management role. She currently resides as the Manager-Communications at the Sutherlandshire Council and having experience in the field of News media as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, Ms. Zadel had also been recruited into the New South Wales Police Service as a junior cadet. Her current role as a communications manager incorporates issues pertaining to media and advertising, publications, organisation of civic events, hosting delegations with sister cities- the United States and Japan and the formulation of speeches for the Mayor and councilors. The interviewee, through her vast experience in the field gave insight into the issues of globalisation, social and environmental responsibility and gender stereotyping.

4.1 The Globalisation Issue

Globalisation is a phenomenon that has taken the world by storm, integrating capital technologies and information across national borders, linking people closer together. Globalisation is a reality and it is necessary for professionals to undertake a closer examination of the influences that these changes might have on public relations.

This was the critical issue under debate at the Arthur W. Page Society's 00 spring forum held on "Globalisation Stop or Go?". It was cited that more than 0 percent of the respondents to the survey believed that cultural obstacles and lack of understanding towards overseas markets are the most critical issues that should be addressed if public relations professionals are to overcome the pressures of global trading.

The main emphasis was placed on the lack of education in the particular area. Better education and awareness will considerably improve and ennoble a practitioner in helping understand and appreciate the vast differences encountered in the daily affairs of public relations activities. The Pacific region would be an ideal situational example of an international market in which practitioners would have to address a diversified group of communities and individuals with different cultural backgrounds that leads differences in perceptions, attitudes and belief systems. The emphasis is on knowing your customer and segmenting your audience appropriately. The commission carried out by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), identifies 'multicultural and global issues' among other areas as a necessity which should be included in the curriculum (The 1 Commission on Public Relations Education).

Gonring (001) elaborates on globalisation and other significant improvements in technology as to creating a competitive marketplace where expectations are grand and second chances are scarce. This was reflected in the recent crisis where the large multinational corporation NIKE came under the scrutiny of the public eye, after its association with exploiting human labour in less-developed countries such as Cambodia (Naglazas 001).

4. Ethics and Social Responsibility

Ethics cannot be summed up as being "what is right and what is wrong", however the fundamental question remains distinguishing from what is right and what is wrong. Since its launch in 14 the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) has worked towards clarifying this ambiguity. The institute also renders assistance to its members in achieving excellence both and communication and ethics (PRIA web site).

Gone are the times, where organisations had obligation in serving shareholders and creditors alone, in this socially responsible era, concerns are high as to how businesses and professionals conduct themselves. Ethics in businesses are broken down into two main criteria, being social and environmental. In his article Verschoor (001) identifies that Best practices help attain a superior overall corporate reputation, which leads to easier recruiting, improved employee productivity, lower turnover, and higher customer loyalty". These are merely a few of the possible advantages that a corporation could achieve being more socially and environmentally conscious.

Social responsibility is not a fad that might pass away in a few years, as Jeffrey Garten, dean at the Yale School of Management believes "corporate America is being required to engage in triple-bottom-line (Financial, environmental and social) reporting in the very near future" (PR News, 00). As retaliation against past mistakes NIKE has introduced a corporate social responsibility report, which includes the organisations social responsibilities, environmental practices, labour practices and community affairs among others (www.nikebiz.com). This action follows the international consumer backlash on NIKE after reports of labour exploitation in Asian based factories (Naglazas 001).

However there still remains scepticism as to the true nature of function. The interview conducted, identified that ethics are often not taken seriously enough; however it is was conveyed that each individual situation calls for a different approach. "Situational ethics" as it would sound more appropriate seems to run hand in hand with most decision making. According to Sonya Zadel "ethics is given priority in the decision making process of public relations", however it was also passed that ethics is not always adhered to by the majority of current practitioners.

4. Gender Issues

Men are more towards the competitive side of the relationship whereas women tend to be more concerned with the relationship itself and equity (Gilligan, 18). This worldview of separating men and women into two stereotypical roles has led the way to gender discrimination in most parts of the public relations industry.

In the recent past the imbalances between the two genders have moved from a male dominated environment to one of female domination. A considerable number academics and professional leaders have voiced there concern on the majority of women as being a road block on salaries and loss of status of the public relations as a profession. (Toth, 188).

The interviewee's idea on the suggested topic has significant correlation to the discussion, it was in her view that the profession in the past was a male dominated industry with most men in the management ranks while women were filling in the technical role of public relations. The move towards a female orientation is supported by the argument that the female view of public relations is valuable because of a "commitment to anti authoritarian, anti elitist, participatory and emancipatory values" (L. Grunig, 188).

The values and ideology and truths that are associated with the feminine role suggest that their role would bring a more symmetrical dimension to public relations and men would be one of a more asymmetrical nature. Psychologists have shown that both men and women can have a feminine view or a mixture of masculine and feminine views. This tends to show that both genders could work for the excellence of public relations communication (Wetherell, 18).

These observations lead to the conclusion that the gender issue seems to be disappearing and making way to a more equally balanced profession, where both genders contribute their own values towards the excellence in public relations. Nevertheless according to Seital's observations " Uni PR sequences report female students outnumbering males by as much as 80%" (18)

5.0 Conclusion

Weighing all the information, it can be summarised that public relations theory does to some extent coincide with modern-day practice. It is also the conclusion that most practitioners are aware of the major issues such as gloabalisation, ethics and social responsibility and gender stereotyping and discrimination.

Globalisation is a reality; the influences are intensive and far reaching. The current trend establishes a move from the lack of awareness and understanding towards other cultures to the need for education as a means to an end. It is through the tireless endeavour that practitioners could achieve a better operating environment. It should be also noted that the need for educational support in this realm is critical and all efforts should be made in including globalisation into the curriculum.

Public relations related ethics is one of the main issues discussed. The fact that it is close to impossible to differentiate from what's right and what's wrong creates infinite complexities. There isn't a golden rule which practitioners are to follow, each should take it upon themselves to decide whether or not the actions are consistent with their espoused values and principles.

The shortcoming of conventional wisdom has been the driving force behind gender related discrimination within the profession. Recently, however the importance of the feminine role has brought about a shift in the tide, with the cry for a more fostering and relationship focused managerial perspective. However if the current trend persists the shift is likely to be headed towards female dominance in the future.

There still remain inconsistencies with theory to practice. The issues discussed can nevertheless be overcome by social orientated planning, better understanding and sensitivity to surrounding issues.

7.0 Appendix - Interview Manuscript

Name of Interviewee Sonya Zadel

Job Title Manager-Communications, Sutherlandshire Council

Contact Number 71004

The Interview consisted of three phases. The first focused on the interviewee's personal background and experience and later was followed by an in-depth study of the interviewee's own system of thoughts on public relations issues and concepts. The following is the script notes of the more specific questions asked during the interview.

What made you choose public relations as a profession?.

I started out a journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald and after that worked as a cadet at the NSW Police Service, before I joined the Sutherland shire Council.

How long have you been in the public relations industry?.

16 years

What position do you hold within the organisation?.

Communications, I coordinate all media, advertising and publications that are related with the Sutherland council. I also coordinate delegations between the two sister cities that the council hosts (Japan and the United States). I also formulate the speeches that the Mayor and other Councilors make to the public.

What would be the most important task that you've undertaken as a practitioner?.

Conveying accurate information to the media and manipulating it in certain ways to get the information as it is truly intended.

How do you measure success at work?.

We do try to have statistical methods in measuring public relations activities. We have a a figure of 75% customers of which we anticipate the message will reach. We haven't been able to carry out surveys as it is very costly. We also measure success by the increase sales. And in some cases, for example we asked the public to reduce the pollutants that was added to the waterways in the council area. Afterwards we were able to measure the success of the campaign by measuring the water quality and the improvement are recorded.

So, you would say that in most cases you would get the audience's attention.

Yes. Thought most campaigns address urgent issues that need quick action.

How close does ethics come into play in play and how much of an importance is weighed?.

Well in my opinion I make it a priority in the business never to lie and keep bearing on the truth. We operate for the council's behalf, I personally don't see that publishing misleading information would of any service to either the organisation or its publics.

Is there a written code of ethics or similar at your work place?.

The council has a set of commitments towards the society as a whole. But in my experience I have noticed that most ethical guidelines that companies follow are influenced mostly by money

What values do you incorporate with regards to the business?.

I promote the council and therefore I put the council's objectives and values before mine, so I guess its not my own objectives but the councils.

What would you think as the most appropriate penalty for a breech in the ethical consideration?.

I think that the backlash that follows after unethical behaviour of organisations and individuals are self regulatory, the press council and the media penalty enforces a lot of activities to be more ethical in a sense, showing that crossing the line would be bad news for the person(s) involved. This would then be negative publicity and bad reputation. I think this is a penalty in itself. The media has the power to make or break.

What would you consider as the most influential group or person that helped you in gaining an ethical framework?.

I think it was mostly my family and afterwards I was mostly influenced by the environment that I worked. I also think that the environment your brought up in has a major influence on the set of ethical standards one would live by.

Do you know of the Public Relations Institute of Australia? Are you a member of the institute? How close do you follow it guidelines?.

Yes I do know of PRIA, and I used to be a member of the institute, I do think mostly

in day to day affairs the strict ethical standards are followed. The code I believe is on transparency of practitioners.

Do you think PRIA has been successful in its efforts?.

To an extent, but I know of practitioners who get away with a lot of unethical behaviour. I really don't think anything would actually totally put an end to unethical behaviour in the industry. But nevertheless the standards seem to be met by more practitioners everyday.

Scale Questions ( 1 strongly agree, 5 strongly disagree, neutral)

Most modern day practitioners are honest and trustworthy

Most women are more ethical than most men

Sometimes it is necessary to break the rules to go ahead

How close does business follow the industrial standards of

Today

Do you think that globalisaiton and technology is a barrier that should be overcomed in public relations.

For sure, communication break throughs and the Internet are providing great opportunities in reaching almost everyone. For instance I'm involved in the coordination of most aspects regarding the association and programs involved with our two sister cities in Japan and the United States. We have a multitude of relations extending from cultural relations to student exchange programs. However their should be an emphasis on how practitioners use these systems to achieve their ends.

In your opinion is cross- cultural communication an obstacle or a challenge.

I would consider on most part as a challenge, however in this area in which Im serving there isn't much diversity. In a recent campaign to prevent waste water from seeping into the bay, we carried out research trying to identify the groups that reside in the shire. There was an 80% population who were from an English speaking background and 0% from a non-English speaking background. The results also showed that there was very few mult-liguists in the area. To get the message through we published the program in 5 major languages to accommodate each and everyone.

What is the male to female ratio at the current place, do you think this is different from other.

Where I work it is a 5050, however if I recall correctly when I was working at the Sydney Morning Herald it was 010 and the same goes with the Police Service. However now its more balanced than it used to be.

Do you think that public relations has evolved from its original conception of 'maintaing the organisation's relations with its publics'

I think that the idea has definitely broadened and expanded into a more strategic function than before, where the role was more technical. I think that public relations have also become to most practitioners a science.

6.0 Reference List

Gilligan, C. (18). In a different voice, Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press

Grunig, L.A. (188). A research agenda for women in public relations. Public Relations Review, 14(), p.5

Seital F.P. (18). The Practice of Public Relations (7th ed.). New Jersey. Prentice Hall.

Simon R. (180). Public Relations concepts and practices (nd ed.) Columbus, Ohio, Grid Publishing, p.6.

Toth, E.L. (188). Making peace with gender issues in public relations. Public Relations Review, 14(), p.6-47.

Verschoor (001)

Wetherell, B.J. (18). The effect of gender, masculinity and femininity on the practice and preference for the models of public relations. University of Marylands, College Park.

Journals and other media

Naglazas M. 001, "Saga Of The Sweatshops", The West Australian, June, p.5.

(PR News 15 Apr. 00. 58(15), p.1.)

The NIKE corporate website. http//www.nikebiz.com/social/index.shtml

Gonring M. (001). "Global Megatrends Push IMC Concepts to Forefront of Strategic Business Thinking", Journal of integrated Communication. For more information, please visit www.jiconline.com.

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Grendel

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Grendel, the first antagonist in the epic poem Beowulf, is most definitely a monster. To even compare him to a "rambunctious youth?is irrational. The narrator emphasizes his monster-like qualities and even refers to him as a monster. The diction deliberately portrays him as evil, as do Grendel's own actions.

The beginning line of the passage is , "A powerful monster ?. In line 16-17, the narrator goes further by saying, ? the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend, Grendel, ?. The narrator plainly states that he is a monster in several other lines, also. But, even before all of these occurrences of the word, the introduction summarizes the first passage saying that a fierce and powerful monster invades the mead hall. Even by this, the reader has a preconception that Grendel is a monster.

Grendel is always in contrast to "the Almighty?and Christianity. It is explained that he is descendant of the biblical figure Cain. Anyone familiar with the bible knows that Cain murdered his brother, Abel, and is considered an embodiment of evil by most Christian religions. So Grendel was born banished by God and lead his life accordingly. He is described as being the shadow of death and having hell-forged hands. The narrator would not have to continue to convince anyone that Grendel is a monster.

Grendel behaves like a monster and has many qualities pertaining to being one. He lusts for evil (lines 5-5) and relished his savage war (line 67). He was not on a conquest of love, fortune, or fame; he slaughtered men for sport, certainly not the pass time of the average rambunctious youth. His victims were all unknowing and asleep. He only came with darkness, also associated with evil. He lurked, stirred, and haunted. All these words have evil connotations, as do all words describing the monster and his actions. After the night's rampage, he returned to his "lair? suggesting that Grendel is a wild animal. Since the word is usually associated with lions, it's connotation further illustrates his claws and fangs in the reader's mind.

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Only one event almost relates a human aspect to Grendel ?his mother's revenge. Suggesting that he has a mother and that she cares about him may convey a child-like image to the reader, but that doesn't mean he's not a monster. We all have mothers and most everyone's mother cares about them. Grendel's mother doesn't change the fact that he ruthlessly killed innocent men, all of whom had mothers.

Grendel is clearly a monster. The narrator even states it several times. His monster-like qualities and actions only add to the constant association with evil and evil things. By simply placing Grendel in a human relationship with his mother, a human association is not successful. The author goes to much greater lengths then would be necessary for the era in which he was writing. Then, someone could be considered a monster for opposing Christianity and nothing else. Through over-emphasis and repeated association, the narrator successfully illustrates that the only correct way to view Grendel is as a monster.

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Male-Female Relationships in The Rover

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Aphra Behn presents several views of different male-female relationships and makes certain statements regarding these different types and the different ways in which the males and females relate to one another. Three different types of male-female bond are examined. These three are those dominated by love and lust, those controlled by money, and those in which the male is the dominant force. These three bonds will be examined individually, which will be followed by an analysis of the three marriages at the end of the play in relation to these three types.

The action of the first act opens with a discussion between Florinda and Hellena on the topic of love. Hellena, attempting to discern which man has stolen Florinda's heart, mentions Vincentio, saying "Or perhaps the rich old don Vincentio, whom my father designs you for a husband?" (I.i.18-) To this, Florinda immediately clarifies that she holds no affection for don Vincentio, saying that she will not follow this order, and that she knows better than to "obey those unjust commands." (I.i.4-5) The type of relationship her father wishes for her is the male-dominated relationship. She is being asked by one male to marry another, both of which presume to know her best interests, with no indication of any love. This is also seen in Pedro's urging that she marry Antonio. Florinda states, in regards to arranged marriage, "I would not have a man so dear to me as my brother follow the ill customs of our country and make a slave of his sister." (I.i.66-8) This proposed marriage is simply the result of a society in which the male-dominated bond prevails overwhelmingly over bonds in which love or other emotion plays a role. This bond is one in which emotion has no place, and the female is largely disregarded. While this type of bond is one of the first mentioned in the play, Aphra Behn does not develop this beyond what we hear people say about it. Vincentio is not presented as a realistic competitor for Florinda's hand during the action of the play. Perhaps this is because his intentions are cut and dry, and including him further would not add much to the play. The action of the play is driven by emotion, and Vincentio would not bring this to the play because there is no emotional bond between he and Florinda. By largely ignoring this type of marriage, Behn is dismissing it as less important and less interesting than the other two. The problem with this type of relationship is identified early on by Florinda's refusal to consider arranged marriage, and is eliminated from the action of the play.

The second model of a male-female relationship is that which is dominated by lust, love, and emotion. This is the type of relationship that is seen between Florinda and Belville, Willmore and Hellena, and at one point, Willmore and Angellica. These relationships account for the bulk of what happens in the play, since love and emotion drive the characters to act in entertaining ways. There can be no mistaking that the love between Belville and Florinda is real. Belville is clear that this love is pure, declaring the power her persona has over him by saying "I have int'rest enough in that lovely virgin's heart to make me proud and vain…" (I.ii.1-) Florinda makes her love apparent through her actions, taking risks to give Belville letters and to rendezvous with him in the garden. Belville exhibits his interest in Florinda through his elation upon receiving her letter, and through becoming irate with Willmore for his attempted rape in the garden. The connection between Belville and Florinda does not waver or weaken through the action of the play, and when the two are finally united in marriage, their love is complete. Willmore's relations with women are motivated less by true love and more by lust. He makes his intentions clear upon his arrival, proclaiming "Love and mirth are my business in Naples, and if I mistake not the place, here's an excellent market for chapmen of my humor." (I.ii.76-8) Willmore has come ashore to enjoy himself, and at first seems like his goal is fornication. While he later develops emotions which he calls love, the nature of this may be doubted because he tells two women that he loves them, lying to each about the other. He claims to care greatly for both, but this must not be taken for true love. While it is possible to lust for many women simultaneously, it is not possible to love more than one. While Willmore ultimately dedicates himself to Hellena, it is still possible that his love is simply extended lust. Willmore's relations with women fall into this category of emotion-dominated bonds as well, because he is driven by lust and emotion. This type of relationship is the most natural; the relationships between Florinda and Belville and Willmore and Hellena are more likely to succeed than would the proposed marriages mentioned in the first act. Behn clearly feels that emotion-dominated bonds are the most important and deserve the most attention.

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Collective Intelligence - Based on the ant's system

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Nature has always inspired scientists since time immemorial let it be machines that left the ground and took to the skies a century or so ago or small robots that mimic insect behavior. This is mainly because nature has improved on its design over millions of years and has reached a level of perfection that any humanly devised machine or plan could only dream about.

Take for example the research done on social insects in the last fifty years that has shown the reasons behind an ant choosing the shortest path between its colony and the food source. Another example for such intelligence is in the case of termites building huge termite mounds with hardly any communication. The termite seems to follow a set of simple rules like, they, at first, search at random for a elevated spot, then drop some chewed dirt and keep dropping dirt on the any spot with any saliva on it. The termite does not need global knowledge or any more memory than is necessary to complete the sub-task in hand, it just needs to invoke a simple behavior dependent on the state of its immediate environment.

Such a kind of Multi-agent distributed artificial intelligence is called collective intelligence or swarm intelligence or emergent behavior. Instead of applying complex algorithms to static datasets, through studying social insects we can see that simple algorithms can often do just as well when allowed to make systematic changes to the data in question.

Other lessons that may help us make better algorithms as engineers is the idea of self organization. A self organizing (SO) system is any dynamic system from which order emerges entirely as a result of the properties of individual elements in the system, and not from external pressures. For example, a trail of ants exploiting a food source, as soon as the food depletes the number of ants on the trail decrease and thereby the indirect communication they have through chemicals (pheromones) also decreases and the ants finally abandon that path.

A valid question that may raise in our minds is how AI different from what has been just given about COllective Intelligence (COIN). AI tries to embody natural intelligence of the human mind into a machine but COIN tries to mimic a more primitive insect brain. AI requires either complex algorithms or a lot of time for machine learning, to become intelligent. Collective intelligence has features more like that of a Distributed system

ɨ Scalability

ɨ Fail-safe & Graceful degradation

ɨ Local autonomy (no centralized authority)

ɨ Redundancy (by having more than one on the same work)

ANTS COLONY AND MULTI-AGENTS

Individual ants are simple insects with limited memory and capable of performing simple actions. However, an ant colony expresses a complex collective behavior providing intelligent solutions to problems such as carrying large items, forming bridges and finding the shortest routes from the nest to a food source.

A single ant has no global knowledge about the task it is performing. The ants actions are based on local decisions and are usually unpredictable. The intelligent behavior naturally emerges as a consequence of the self-organization and indirect communication between the ants. This is what is usually called Emergent Behavior or Emergent Intelligence.

The fascinating behavior of ants has been inspiring researches to create new approaches based on some of the abilities of the ants colonies. Some of the existing applications include the Traveling Salesman Problem, graph coloring, logistics and a lot more.

The practical example covered in this essay involves finding a path linking two nodes in a graph. In order to solve this problem, two characteristics of ants colonies will be particularly useful

ɨ their ability to find the shortest route between the nest and a food source, which will be used to find and optimize a path in the graph;

ɨ the simplicity of each individual ant, which will make it easy for us to model the ant colony as a Multi-Agent System;

The foraging behavior of the ants that is our main concern is very simple to understand. Ants use a signaling communication system based on the deposition of pheromone over the path it follows, marking a trail. Pheromone is a hormone produced by ants that establishes a sort of indirect communication among them. Basically, an isolated ant moves at random, but when it finds a pheromone trail there is a high probability that this ant will decide to follow the trail.

An ant foraging for food lay down pheromone over its route. When this ant finds a food source, it returns to the nest reinforcing its trail. Other ants in the proximities are attracted by this substance and have greater probability to start following this trail and thereby laying more pheromone on it. This process works as a positive feedback loop system because the higher the intensity of the pheromone over a trail, the higher the probability of an ant start traveling through it.

In order to understand how this process leads the colony to optimize a route, lets take a look at the following example

Suppose some ants were randomly searching for food when they found two different routes between the nest and the source. Since the route B is shorter, the ants on this path will complete the travel more times and thereby lay more pheromone over it.

As the process continues, the pheromone concentration on trail B will increase at a higher rate than on A. And soon, even those ants on the route A will choose to follow the trail B.

Since most ants are no longer traveling through route A and also due to the volatile characteristic of the pheromone, the trail A will start evaporating and soon just the shortest route will remain

The Travelling Salesman Problem

The Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) is a popular 'toy problem' in the AI community since it is at once simple to understand and very difficult (NP-hard) to solve. A salesman needs to complete a tour of a certain number of cities using the most efficient path possible. The salesman can travel from any city to any other city, but must visit each city once and only once. It doesn't sound like a difficult problem until you consider the sheer number of possible solutions, even for a small fifteen city problem. Researchers realized that ants' inherent ability to discover shortest paths could be put to use on the TSP and, it turned out, with some success.

The first TSP solution they developed was called Ant System and works like this ants first make a number of random tours starting from a random city, depositing pheromone as they go. At each city an ant picks its next destination using a combination of probability and the amount of pheromone present on that route to inform its decision. Every ant must visit every city once, as per the criteria of the TSP. After a tour is completed, an ant deposits a certain amount of pheromone on each edge of the graph, depending on how far the ant travelled during its tour shorter tours lead to more pheromone being deposited. A certain amount of pheromone will also decay, causing older solutions to fade away and be replaced by new ones.

After this process has run for some time, the pheromone present on the edges of the graph will tend to influence any ant traversing the graph towards an optimal solution. Ant System and subsequent versions of the algorithm such as Ant Colony Optimization do not always find optimal solutions, but are effective in finding good solutions in a reasonable number of iterations.

Modeling of the ant colonies as multi-agent system

The main idea of the system proposed is simply to put ants walking on a graph and observe the intensity of pheromone on its edges in time.

Think of graphs nodes as different places where ants could stop during a traversal and lets call them cities. The edges of the graph will, of course, represent the routes connecting cities. This virtual environment will be populated by Agents representing individual ants.

In the AI domain, an Agent might be considered as an autonomous entity that interacts within an environment. Agents have only a dynamic partial representation of its environment that can be changed by their sensing abilities. They can also perform actions based on local perceptions and on their internal representation of the environment. These actions can affect the environment, the agent itself or even other agents.

Implementation

An easy way to develop a multi-agent simulation environment is using a turn-based system. Think of it as a game where at each turn all players make one single move. This is exactly how the simulation will work. Each agent will perform just one of the actions described above at each turn.

All the elements of the environment were modeled using C++ classes. The Ant class represents the agents, the Route represents the edges of the graph, the City represents the nodes and the Civilization represents the environment.

Since these elements are simple, the implementation becomes simple. Many properties and methods of the classes are specific for the interface or just auxiliaries. To keep things simple, just the essential aspects will be covered here.

The City is the simplest entity. It basically knows its (X, Y) position in the environment. This will be necessary to calculate the distance between two cities.

The Route needs two pointers to City objects in order to identify the cities it is connecting. Another property is the length of the route. The longer the route, the more turns an agent will need to cross it. The pheromone intensity over a route is also represented in this class.

Another important thing that must be simulated is the volatile characteristic of the pheromone. The route will also need a method to simulate its evaporation.

class Route

{

private

float Length; // Length of the road

int Pheromone; // Pheromone intensity over the road

City FirstCity; // Cities connected by this road

City SecondCity;

public

void EvaporatePheromone(); // Simulate the evaporation of the pheromone

…

};

The most important characteristic of an ant in this context is related to its individual and unpredictable tendency to choose a certain route among the many available. Each instance of the class Ant must represent an individual agent with singular characteristics. This can be implemented by using a mathematical function. As described above the pheromone level over a route is measured by an integer number. The agent will use a method that evaluates its tendency of choosing a route based on the pheromone intensity. A good variability of the behavior of the agents can be expressed as a sinusoidal function with at least three coefficients alpha, beta and gamma.

The input PL is the pheromone level over a route. Alpha, Beta and Gamma will be properties of the Ant class initialized as random float numbers within an interval. These properties will make possible to have different individuals in the population. They are also needed by the Genetic Algorithms that will be covered in optimization.

class Ant

{

private

float alpha; // Indicates the Ants pheromone sensibility

float beta;

float gamma;

bool HaveFood; // Indicates if the Ant is carrying food

public

float GetTendency(int PheroLevel);// tendency of choosing a route

void PickFood(); // Pick food when in the food source

void LeaveFood(); // Leave food when in the nest

void PutPheromone(); // Increase pheromone level of route

void Walk(); // Walk one more step

…

};

The Civilization is the class that will control the whole environment and the simulation process. It will be also responsible for the evolution process. A graph can be created by the user through the interface of the proposed simulation program. Two nodes of the graph must be specified as the nest and the food source. When the simulation begins, a random number of agents are created in the nest. At each turn the agents will perform actions depending on their current position as explained before. As the simulation runs the most used routes will have their pheromone level increased and after some time a solution will emerge from the collective behavior of these virtual ants.

class Civilization

{

private

City FoodSourceCity; // The Civilizations Food Source City

City Nest; // The Civilizations Nest

TList Routes; // All Routes in the Environment

TList Cities; // All Cities in the Environment

TList Ants; // All Ants in the Environment

int NaturalSelection; // Turns remaining before the next natual selection

public

void NextTurn(); // Perform one turn of the simulation

…

};

Although this system can provide good results, a random number of agents with random characteristics may not always solve a given problem. Also, a population of agents that is able to find the shortest path in a graph may not be able to find a solution in a complete different environment. For these reasons an optimization of the ant farm can be built using Genetic Algorithms.

OPTIMIZING THE ANT COLONIES AN OVERVIEW

As already said genetic algorithms are used to reach satisfactorily optimized ant colony. It gives the answers to questions like

ɨ How to find out the best agents for a given problem?

ɨ How many agents are necessary to perform a search in graphs with different complexities?

ɨ How to balance agents with different characteristics to compose a good population?

Genetic algorithms are based on Darwins theory of evolution, driven by the survival of the fittest. An entire population of individuals is created, and each evaluated at a given task and assigned a fitness value based on that. The genetic algorithm can then create new individuals based on the current population it generally selects fitter individuals, and breeds them together. This can sometimes provide a big improvement of the solution, but generally its just a small adjustment. Performance increases greatly as generation after generation of individuals are created.

The foundations of Genetic Algorithms such as selection, crossover and mutation can be better understood looking at the practical example that has been discussed.

SELECTION

COMPETITION Successful individuals in this environment are those that can either collect a large amount of food (workers) or find alternative routes to the food source (explorers). By collecting food, an agent is increasing the pheromone level over a good route and thereby influencing other agents. By exploring the environment, an agent can find different and maybe shorter routes to the food source. Natural selection will allow these individuals to produce offspring and thereby propagate their characteristics. Similarly to the natural process, the evolution occurs because the new generation of individuals will sometimes be better then the parents.

EXTINCTION Agents that get lost within the environment can not help at all. For example an agent that keeps traveling between two nodes using just one edge is useless to the colony. Also if it keeps walking in circles. These individuals will be eliminated from the population.

OFFSPRING

CROSSOVER New offspring are created based on the characteristics of the successful individuals. Since there are two types of individuals that are necessary to the colony, two new individuals will be created at each evolutive cycle. One of them will be descendant of the two most successful workers and the other one will be descendant of the best two explorers. Genes representing the characteristics of the parents will be combined to compose a new chromosome which will originate a new individual. This combination is inspired by the biological process known as crossing over. Each characteristic of the new individual will come from one of the parents at random. The following figure shows two possible examples of descendants created with crossover combinations

MUTATION After the crossover there is a low probability that a mutation occurs. This will change one of the characteristics of the individual at random. Mutation can maintain diversity within the population.

MIGRATION

Migration will introduce a completely random new individual to the population. The effect is similar to the mutation because it will increase the diversity within the environment.

ANTS, PHONES AND PHEROMONES

The foraging metaphor has been put to work successfully in solving the problem of telecommunications routing. Ruud Schoonderwoerd of Hewlett-Packard labs collaborated with a group of scientists to create the worlds first ant-based routing system. As anyone who has used the Internet will know, communications networks are characteristically unpredictable. Sudden interest in a particular web site or a local crisis will lead to surges of network activity which must somehow be routed efficiently, minimizing both delays and congestion. The network must therefore dynamically route calls/requests through quieter sections of the network.

Congestion in a particular section of the network can be seen as analogous to depletion of a food source near an ant colony, causing the ants to search for new routes, dynamically updating the virtual pheromone trail between nodes. In the system developed by Schoonderwoerd et al., antlike agents are sent randomly between nodes from time to time, updating each nodes routing table as they go with information regarding how long the journey from their origin took, and which nodes they have used on the way. The routing table contains a list of the nodes immediate neighbors, and probabilities associated with using that neighbor as the next step on the journey to each target node on the network. The fastest ants will have a positive effect on the probability scores of the nodes they have used, while slow ants will have a negative effect.

A more recent algorithm for Internet routing designed by researchers (based on antlike agents) has, in simulation, outperformed all other routing methods, including the current standard routing protocol of the Internet, Open Shortest Path First.

SWARM ROBOTICS

Although the multi-agent approach to robotics is not a new idea, social insect studies have demonstrated how to make such an approach worthwhile. The advantages to roboticists are many

ɨ Rather than develop big, expensive and complicated robots, many cheap and simple ones can be used to achieve the same goal.

ɨ Many robot environments are precarious. If one robot is incapacitated in the traditional approach, youve lost your robot and cant go on. One individual in a swarm, however, is relatively expendable.

ɨ If your robot is faced with too big a task (e.g. an object too heavy to lift), ordinarily it would be back to the drawing board, but where a swarm is involved solutions are often inherently scalable.

CONCLUSION

In an age of booming complexity, where governments, economies and societies alike have become impossible for any individual to comprehend, where software engineers wrestle with intractable computer systems and, as weve seen, computer systems wrestle with intractable problems, the study of social insects can do more than just pave the way to more powerful algorithms and robotics.

The promises and successes of collective intelligence and the swarm paradigm are a powerful demonstration of complex and useful systems arising from easily comprehended rules and habits. The units of computation are as dumb as ever, but the overall result we unhesitatingly term intelligence.

Collective intelligence in Social insects by David Gordon

www.ai-depot.com/collectiveintelligence/socialinsects.html

A Swarm-robotics project

www.swarm-bots.org

Collective intelligence by Dr. David Wolpert and Dr. Kagan Tumer http//ic.arc.nasa.gov

Emergent Intelligence by Danilo Benzatti

www.ai-depot.com/collectiveintelligence/ant.html

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Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

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Victorian Novel Research Paper

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, England, in 1775, where she lived for the first twenty-five years of her life. Her father, George Austen, was the rector of the local parish and taught her mostly at home. She began to write as a teenager and completed the original manuscript of Pride and Prejudice, titled First Impressions, between 176 and 177. A publisher rejected the manuscript, and it was not until 180 that Austen began the revisions that would bring it to its final form. Pride and Prejudice was published in January 181, two years after Sense and Sensibility, her first novel, and it achieved a popularity that has remained to this day. (Butler, 6) During Austens life, only her immediate family knew of her authorship of these novels. At one point, she wrote behind a door that creaked when visitors approached; this warning permitted her to hide manuscripts before anyone could enter the room. Though publishing anonymously prevented her from gaining reputation as a writer, it also allowed her to maintain her privacy at a time when English society associated a females entrance into the public with a blameworthy loss of femininity. Additionally, Austen may have wanted to remain anonymous because of the more general atmosphere of repression spread through her era. As the Napoleonic Wars threatened the safety of monarchies throughout Europe, government censorship of literature grew. (Honan, 8)

Pride and Prejudice is set primarily in the town of Hertfordshire, about 50 miles outside of London. The novel opens at with a conversation at Longbourn, the Bennets estate, about the arrival of Mr. Bingley, a single man of large fortune, to Netherfield Park, a nearby estate. Mrs. Bennet, whose obsession is to find husbands for her daughters, sees Mr. Bingley as a potential suitor. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have five children Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia.

Write a research paper on Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

When Jane is invited for dinner at Netherfield, Mrs. Bennet refuses to provide her with a carriage, hoping that because it is supposed to rain Jane will be forced to spend the night. However, because Jane gets caught in the rain, she falls ill and is forced to stay at Netherfield until she recovers. Upon hearing that Jane is ill, Elizabeth walks to Netherfield in order to go nurse her sister. Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst (Bingleys sisters) are scandalized that Elizabeth walked so far alone in the mud. Seeing that Jane would like Elizabeth to stay with her, Bingleys sisters invite Elizabeth to remain at Netherfield until Jane recovers. During her stay at Netherfield, Elizabeth increasingly gains the admiration of Mr. Darcy. She is blind to his partiality, however, and continues to think him a most proud and haughty man because of the judgment she made of him when he snubbed her at the ball. Miss Bingley, who is obviously trying to gain the admiration of Mr. Darcy, is extremely jealous of Elizabeth and tries to prevent Mr. Darcy from admiring her by making rude references to the poor manners of Elizabeths mother and younger sisters and to her lower class relatives. When Mrs. Bennet and her younger daughters come to visit Jane, Elizabeth is mortified by their foolishness and complete lack of manners. Bingleys admiration for Jane continues unabated and is evident in his genuine solicitude for her recovery. After Jane recovers, she returns home with Elizabeth. Mr. Collins, a cousin of Mr. Bennet who is in line to inherit Longbourn because the estate has been entailed away from the female line, writes a letter stating his intention to visit. When he arrives, he makes it clear that he hopes to find a suitable wife among the Miss Bennets. Mr. Collins is a clergyman, and his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh (who is also Darcys aunt), has suggested that he find a wife, and he hopes to lessen the hardship of the entailment by marrying one of Mr. Bennets daughters. Mr. Collins is a silly man who speaks in long, pompous speeches and always has an air of solemn formality. When the Miss Bennets and Mr. Collins go for a walk to Meryton, they are introduced to an officer in the regiment named Mr. Wickham. They also run into Mr. Darcy, and when Darcy and Wickham meet both seem to be extremely uncomfortable. Mr. Wickham immediately shows a partiality for Elizabeth and they speak at length. Wickham tells Elizabeth that the reason for the mutual embarrassment when he and Darcy met is that Darcys father had promised that Wickham, his godson, should be given a good living after his death, but that Darcy had failed to fulfill his fathers dying wishes and had left Wickham to support himself. Elizabeth, already predisposed to think badly of Darcy, does not question Wickhams account. When Elizabeth tells Jane Wickhams story Jane refuses think badly of either Wickham or Darcy and assumes there must be some misunderstanding. The next day Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth. She refuses him, and after a while Mr. Collins comes to understand that her refusal is sincere, not just a trick of female coquetry. Mrs. Bennet is extremely angry at Elizabeth for not accepting, but Mr. Bennet is glad. Mr. Collins shifts his attentions to Elizabeths friend Charlotte Lucas. He proposes to Charlotte and she accepts. Elizabeth is disappointed in her friend for agreeing to marry such a silly man simply to obtain financial security. In the meantime Darcy has gone on a short business trip to London. While he is gone Lady Catherine comes to Longbourn and asks to speak with Elizabeth. Lady Catherine tells Elizabeth that she has heard Darcy is going to propose to her and attempts to forbid Elizabeth to accept the proposal. Elizabeth refuses to make any promises. Lady Catherine leaves in a huff. Darcy returns from his business trip. While he and Elizabeth are walking he tells her that his affection for her is the same as when he last proposed, and asks her if her disposition toward him has changed. She says that it has, and that she would be happy to accept his proposal. They speak about how they have been changed since the last proposal. Darcy realized he had been wrong to act so proudly and place so much emphasis on class differences. Elizabeth realized that she had been wrong to judge Darcy prematurely and to allow her judgment to be affected by her vanity. Both couples marry. Elizabeth and Darcy go to live in Pemberley. Jane and Bingley, after living in Netherfield for a year, decide to move to an estate near Pemberley. Kitty begins to spend most of her time with her two sisters, and her education and character begin to improve. Mary remains at home keeping her mother company. Mr. Bennet is very happy that his two oldest daughters have married so happily. Mrs. Bennet is glad that her daughters have married so prosperously. (Gubar, IV) The social environment of Austens Regency England was mostly stratified, and class divisions were embedded in family connections and wealth. In her work, Austen is often critical of the assumptions and prejudices of upper class England. She distinguishes between goodness of person and rank and possessions. Though she frequently mocks snobs, she also makes fun of the poor breeding and misbehavior of those lower on the social scale. Yet, Austen was in many ways a realist, and the England she portrays is one where social mobility is restricted and class-consciousness is strong. Socially disciplined ideas of suitable behavior for each gender played a part in Austens work as well. While social development for young men lay in the military, church, or law, the main method of self-improvement for women was the acquirement of wealth. Women could only accomplish this goal through successful marriage, which explains matrimony as a goal in Austens writing. Though young women during this time had more freedom to choose their husbands than in the early eighteenth century, realistic thoughts continued to limit their options. Even so, critics often accuse Austen of describing a limited world. As a clergymans daughter, Austen would have done parish work and was certainly aware of the poor around her. However, she wrote about her own world, not theirs. The assessments she makes of class structure appear to include only the middle class and upper class; the lower classes, if they appear at all, are generally servants who act content with their social positions and jobs. This lack of interest in the lives of the poor may be a failure on Austens part, but it should be understood as a failure shared by almost all of English society at the time. The novel is a strong piece of social interpretation, vividly cutting apart the class-based prejudices of its characters, from the too-proud Mr. Darcy to the snotty Miss Bingley and the oddly conceited Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The theme of class is related to reputation, in that both reflect the strictly controlled nature of life for middle and upper classes in Regency England. (Honan, 10)

Considerations of class are omnipresent in the novel. The novel does not put forth a democratic ideology or call for the leveling of all social classes, yet it does criticize an over-emphasis on class. Darcys excessive pride is based on his extreme class-consciousness. Yet eventually he sees that factors other than wealth determine who truly belongs in the upper classes. While those such as Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst, who are born into the aristocracy, are idle, mean-spirited and annoying, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner are not members of the nobility in terms of wealth or birth but are natural aristocrats by virtue of their intelligence and good-breeding. The comic formality of Mr. Collins and his submissive relationship with Lady Catherine serve as a satire class consciousness and social formalities. In the end, the verdict on class differences is moderate. As critic Samuel Kliger notes, It the conclusion of the novel makes it clear that Elizabeth accepts class relationships as valid, it becomes equally clear that Darcy, through Elizabeths genius for treating all people with respect for their natural dignity, is reminded that institutions are not an end in themselves but are intended to serve the end of human happiness. (Grey, 06) The novel represents a society in which a womans reputation is of the most importance. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways. Stepping outside the social standard makes her exposed to isolation. This theme appears in the novel, when Elizabeth walks to Netherfield and arrives with muddy skirts, to the shock of the reputation-conscious Miss Bingley and her friends. The happy ending of Pride and Prejudice is satisfying, but in many ways it leaves the theme of reputation, and the importance placed on reputation, unknown. (Gilbert, 58)

Austen is critical of the gender injustices present in 1th century English society. The novel demonstrates how money such as Charlotte need to marry men they are not in love with simply in order to gain financial security. The entailment of the Longbourn estate is an extreme hardship on the Bennet family, and is quite obviously undeserved. The entailment of Mr. Bennets estate leaves his daughters in a poor financial situation which both requires them to marry and makes it more difficult to marry well. Clearly, Austen believes that women are at least as intelligent and capable as men, and considers their inferior status in society to be unjust. She herself went against convention by remaining single and earning a living through her novels. In her personal letters Austen advises friends only to marry for love. Through the plot of the novel it is clear that Austen wants to show how Elizabeth is able to be happy by refusing to marry for financial purposes and only marrying a man whom she truly loves and esteems.

"Elizabeth was much too embarrassed to say a word. After a short

pause, her companion added, 'You are too generous to trifle with

me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so

at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from

you will silence me on this subject forever.?Elizabeth feeling all the

more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now

forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently,

gave him to understand, that her sentiments had undergone so material

a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive

with gratitude and pleasure, his present assurances.?

This proposal and Elizabeth's acceptance mark the climax of the novel, occurring in chapter 58. Austen notably prefers not to stage successful proposals in full, and the reader might be disappointed in the anticlimactic way that the narrator conveys Elizabeth's acceptance. The clunky language in which the narrator summarizes Elizabeth's acceptance serves a specific purpose; it captures the one moment of joyful incoherence for Elizabeth. She accepts Darcy's proposal "immediately,?the narrator shares, but "not very fluently.? As Elizabeth allows herself to admit that her love has replaced her prejudice, her control of language breaks down. The reader is left to imagine the always witty Elizabeth fumbling for words to express her uncontainable happiness.

The novel portrays a world in which society takes an interest in the private virtue of its members. When Lydia elopes with Wickham, therefore, it is scandal to the whole society and an injury to entire Bennet family. Darcy considers his failure to expose the wickedness of Wickhams character to be a violation of his social duty because if Wickhams true character had been known others would not have been so easily deceived by him. While Austen is critical of societys ability to judge properly, as demonstrated especially in their judgments of Wickham and Darcy, she does believe that society has a crucial role in promoting virtue. Austen has a profound sense that individuals are social beings and that their happiness is found through relationships with others. According to critic Richard Simpson, Austen has a thorough consciousness that man is a social being, and that apart from society there is not even the individual. As said in the words of Mary at the beginning of the novel, human nature is particularly prone to [pride].? In the novel, pride prevents the characters from seeing the truth of a situation and from achieving happiness in life. Pride is one of the main barriers that create an obstacle to Elizabeth and Darcys marriage. Darcys pride in his position in society leads him initially to scorn anyone outside of his own social circle. Elizabeths vanity clouds her judgment, making her prone to think ill of Darcy and to think well of Wickham. In the end, Elizabeths rebukes of Darcy help him to realize his fault and to change accordingly, as demonstrated in his genuinely friendly treatment of the Gardiners, whom he previously would have scorned because of their low social class. Darcys letter shows Elizabeth that her judgments were wrong and she realizes that they were based on vanity, not on reason. (Butler, )

Pride and prejudice are intimately related in the novel. As critic A. Walton Litz comments, in Pride and Prejudice one cannot equate Darcy with Pride, or Elizabeth with Prejudice; Darcys pride of place is founded on social prejudice, while Elizabeths initial prejudice against him is rooted in pride of her own quick perceptions. Darcy, having been brought up in such a way that he began to scorn all those outside his own social circle, must overcome his prejudice in order to see that Elizabeth would be a good wife for him and to win Elizabeths heart. The overcoming of his prejudice is demonstrated when he treats the Gardiners with great civility. The Gardiners are a much lower class than Darcy, because Mr. Darcy is a lawyer and must practice a trade to earn a living, rather than living off of the interest of an estate as gentlemen do. From the beginning of the novel Elizabeth prides herself on her ardent ability for perception. Yet this supposed ability is often lacking, as in Elizabeths judgments of Darcy and Wickham.

Austen portrays the family as primarily responsible for the intellectual and moral education of children. Mr. and Mrs. Bennets failure to provide this education for their daughters leads to the shamelessness, foolishness, frivolity, and immorality of Lydia. Elizabeth and Jane have managed to develop virtue and strong characters in spite of the negligence of their parents, perhaps through the help of their studies and the good influence of Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, who are the only relatives in the novel that take a serious concern in the girls well-being and provide proper guidance. Elizabeth and Jane are constantly forced to put up with the foolishness and incorrect judgment of their mother and the sarcastic indifference of their father. Even when Elizabeth advises her father not to allow Lydia to go to Brighton, he ignores the advice because he thinks it would be too difficult to deal with Lydias complaining. The result is the scandal of Lydias elopement with Wickham. (Grey, 14)

Austen sees human life as purposeful and believes that human beings must guide their appetites and desires through their use of reason. Elizabeths foolishness in her misjudgments of Darcy and Wickham has prevented her from reasoning objectively. Lydia seems almost completely devoid of virtue because she has never trained herself to discipline her passions or formed her judgment such that she is capable of making sound moral decisions. Human happiness is found by living a life in accordance with human dignity, which is a life in accordance with virtue. Self-knowledge has a central place in the acquisition of virtue, as it is a prerequisite for moral improvement. Darcy and Elizabeth are only freed of their pride and prejudice when their dealings with one another help them to see their faults and spur them to improve conceptions of virtue. (Butler, 77)

Both Darcy and Elizabeth come to recognize their pride as a flaw in their respective characters. Darcy realizes that he must check his pride in order to be seen in a good light by others. Elizabeth, the object of his affections, is so turned off by his prideful ways that a touch of vanity enables him to change himself for her. Elizabeth, while observing the transformations of Darcy, realizes that she, too, has been guilty of too much pride. She sees that she was indeed prejudiced and that she must come to terms with the failings of her family. Darcy and Elizabeth are able to overcome their pride which enables them to live happily ever after. (Majd, 70)

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