If we accept the notion that a story is a self‐contained whole, then the opening of the story should suggest many of the elements that will be featured throughout. Discuss with reference to Pride and Prejudice or with any two short stories from the course.

The opening lines of a story often hint at the events that will take place later in the text or the themes that will reoccur throughout the story. The opening lines of Pride and Prejudice establish its themes and conflicts right away.
Pride and Prejudice begins with the following famous lines:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters (Austen Chapter 1).

From the outset, the reader can tell that this is going to be a book about finding a suitable marriage. The two young men that most of the action of the book centers around are in fact wealthy, eligible young men. The plot itself revolves around the conflicts that these two men and the Bennet family encounter in love.
The next few lines introduce what will be the conflict for most of the book. When the text says "however little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering the neighbourhood," this speaks to the fact that Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley are indeed new to the neighborhood, and there is a lot of confusion through the majority of the text about exactly what their feelings are. Misinterpretations of their feelings create most of the problems throughout the text. After flirting with Mr. Bingley and then having him suddenly disappear, Jane assumes that Bingley does not actually care for her. Meanwhile, Elizabeth despises Mr. Darcy for most of the novel because she assumes that he is proud, aloof, and unfeeling.
The final part of the quote says that regardless of the designs that the man himself might hold, "this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters". This last sentiment is also a major problem in the text. Mrs. Bennet assumes that these wealthy men should, by right, belong to her daughters, and her loud discussion of marriage prospects embarrasses her family and prejudices Mr. Darcy against them.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1342/1342-h/1342-h.htm