Elizabeth Bennet Quotes

I take no leave of you, Miss. Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. These are Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s rude parting words to Elizabeth, after her surprise appearance at Longbourn. She is unhappy at how Elizabeth stood up to her bullying and threats, especially Elizabeth refusing to promise never to be engaged to Mr. Darcy. So as punishment Lady Catherine refuses to make the usual polite farewells.

It was a rational scheme, to be sure! but from what the report of their engagement could originate, Elizabeth was at a loss to imagine; till she recollected that his being the intimate friend of Bingley, and her being the sister of Jane, was enough, at a time when the expectation of one wedding made everybody eager for another, to supply the idea.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57. Elizabeth ponders why Lady Catherine took the trouble to journey from Rosings for the sole purpose of breaking off Elizabeth’s supposed engagement with Mr. Darcy. She wonders where the rumor of her engagement came from. She speculates that her sister Jane’s engagement to Mr. Bingley had prompted talk of a Darcy/Elizabeth wedding and that had reached Lady Catherine’s ears through the Collinses.

Mr. Darcy, you see, is the man! Now, Lizzy, I think I have surprised you. Could he or the Lucases have pitched on any man, within the circle of our acquaintance, whose name would have given the lie more effectually to what they related? Mr. Darcy, who never looks at any woman but to see a blemish, and who probably never looked at you in his life! It is admirable!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57. Mr. Bennet tells Elizabeth that he has received a letter from Mr. Collins which has astonished him, saying that his daughter Elizabeth will not long bear the name of Bennet. The chosen partner is "one of the most illustrious personages in this land" and that man is Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bennet reveals. The fact that Mr. Bennet thinks the idea of a match between his daughter and Mr. Darcy is ridiculous is an example of dramatic irony. For he is unaware of the growing chemistry and connection that the two share.

That is what makes it amusing. Had they fixed on any other man it would have been nothing; but his perfect indifference, and your pointed dislike, make it so delightfully absurd!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57. There is dramatic irony here when Mr. Bennet tries to make light of a letter from Mr. Collins referring to a rumor about a possible engagement between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Her father thinks that this is hilarious, in view of what he says are Darcy’s indifference to Elizabeth and her complete dislike of him. Little does he know! His daughter’s feelings towards Darcy are quite the opposite. Elizabeth has strong romantic feelings for him and now regrets refusing his marriage proposal.

Elizabeth had never been more at a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not. It was necessary to laugh, when she would rather have cried. Her father had most cruelly mortified her, by what he said of Mr. Darcy’s indifference.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57. Mr. Bennet doesn’t take seriously Mr. Collins’s letter suggesting a marriage between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. He speaks insensitively about Darcy’s indifference to his daughter and Elizabeth’s dislike of Darcy. He jokes whether Lady Catherine has called to refuse her consent. Elizabeth goes along with the joke and replies with a laugh, but she feels like crying. The irony here is that Mr. Bennet is completely unaware of his daughter’s true feelings for Darcy.

She went boldly on with him alone. Now was the moment for her resolution to be executed, and, while her courage was high, she immediately said:
"Mr. Darcy, I am a very selfish creature; and, for the sake of giving relief to my own feelings, care not how much I may be wounding yours. I can no longer help thanking you for your unexampled kindness to my poor sister."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. During a walk in the country Elizabeth finds herself alone with Mr. Darcy. She gathers up her courage to thank him for helping her sister Lydia during their family crisis.

"If you will thank me," he replied, "let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. When Elizabeth thanks Mr. Darcy for helping her sister Lydia after she ran away with Wickham, Darcy declares his affection for Elizabeth. He did it all for her, he reveals.

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.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. If at first your don’t succeed…the climax of Austen’s classic story of love and misunderstanding arrives with Mr. Darcy’s famous second proposal and Elizabeth’s acceptance of it. Moments before Elizabeth learned that Darcy intervened to save Lydia because of his affection for Elizabeth. She is speechless with embarrassment, and Darcy uses the opportunity to propose again. Elizabeth clearly wasn’t ready to receive Darcy’s first proposal and his declaration of "how ardently I admire and love you." That proposal was also clumsily presented by Darcy, who spoke of how he struggled to repress his feelings and referred to Elizabeth’s inferior social position and family obstacles. But what an insulted Elizabeth didn’t understand then was that Darcy was trying to explain how he loved her in spite of her position and family connections. The second time round when Darcy proposes and Elizabeth accepts, it is more a conversation of equals instead of one or the other thinking that they are superior. Class is not a barrier. Also Darcy’s less prideful second proposal suggests no expectation on his part that Elizabeth will automatically accept him, as clearly was the expectation first time round. Elizabeth sees Darcy in a different light now as well, her stubbornness and prejudice against him having given way to a deeper understanding of his true character: honest and noble and a person of integrity. She has matured and grown to this point where she is ready to accept him.

They walked on, without knowing in what direction. There was too much to be thought, and felt, and said, for attention to any other objects.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. After a relationship dogged by pridefulness, prejudice and misunderstandings, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy finally have their perfect story-tale happy ending. The barriers that they put up against each other have been taken down, and Elizabeth has accepted his marriage proposal. They walk on, their attention on nothing but each other, alone to express their true feelings to each other and plan a life together. It is the moment that they and every reader of the novel has been waiting for. Sadly Jane Austen’s own story with her real-life Mr. Darcy didn’t have the same happy ending. Darcy is believed to be partly based on Irish judge and politician Thomas Lefroy. The Limerick born Lefroy and Austen were said to have a flirtation and spent some time together. In a letter to her sister Cassandra Austen in 1796 she wrote: "At length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea." Both Jane and Cassandra never married but Lefroy married Mary Paul from Wexford, Ireland, in 1799. Just three years before this Jane told Cassandra in a letter: "At length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea."

What did you say of me that I did not deserve? For, though your accusations were ill-founded, formed on mistaken premises, my behaviour to you at the time had merited the severest reproof. It was unpardonable. I cannot think of it without abhorrence…I cannot be so easily reconciled to myself. The recollection of what I then said, of my conduct, my manners, my expressions during the whole of it, is now, and has been many months, inexpressibly painful to me. Your reproof, so well applied, I shall never forget: "Had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner." Those were your words. You know not, you can scarcely conceive, how they have tortured me; – though it was some time, I confess, before I was reasonable enough to allow their justice.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. Darcy reveals to Elizabeth that her refusal of his first proposal helped to open his eyes. He accepts that he behaved in an ungentlemanly fashion and his unpardonable behavior deserved her strongest reproof. His character has changed and developed as a result of Elizabeth’s rebuke of his manners and conduct. He has learned a great deal about himself and is brave enough to admit his fault.

You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. Elizabeth explains her philosophy to Darcy. In moving forward to a happy future together, she is proposing that they leave negative memories behind and forgive each other’s past errors. In the fuller quote, she suggests that they were both at fault in their misconceptions of each other, they had acquired the self-knowledge to admit their faults and change, now they should move on and forget the unpleasant past: "But think no more of the letter. The feelings of the person who wrote, and the person who received it, are now so widely different from what they were then, that every unpleasant circumstance attending it ought to be forgotten. You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. Mr. Darcy’s journey to self-discovery has brought him to this important moment of clarity and humility. Darcy has just proposed to Elizabeth and she has accepted. In this speech to Elizabeth he acknowledges his selfishness and pride and vanity all his life, having being spoiled by both parents. His father taught him to be overbearing, to care for none outside his family circle, and also to think meanly of the worth of others compared to his own. He acknowledges the debt that he owes to Elizabeth for changing all that: humbling him and ridding him of his pretensions. His deep love for Elizabeth comes through when he tenderly refers to her as "a woman worthy of being pleased."

She remembered that he had yet to learn to be laughed at, and it was rather too early to begin.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. After learning that Darcy effectively gave "permission" to Charles Bingley to propose to Jane, Elizabeth longs to tease Darcy about his easily persuadable "friend". But she stops herself because she doesn’t want to hurt her future husband’s feelings. Darcy is not ready to be laughed at yet, she decides. Darcy admits twice interfering in Bingley’s relationship with Jane, once to separate them because he thought she didn’t love Bingley, then to bring them back together. The quick-witted Elizabeth finds irony in the fact that Bingley is such a good friend of Darcy’s and yet a good friend is so easily influenced. However, she decides to keep her ironic wit under control on this occasion. Here is the expanded quote: "Elizabeth longed to observe that Mr. Bingley had been a most delightful friend; so easily guided that his worth was invaluable; but she checked herself. She remembered that he had yet to learn to be laughed at, and it was rather too early to begin. In anticipating the happiness of Bingly, which of course was to be inferior only to his own, he continued the conversation till they reached the house."

"You are joking, Lizzy. This cannot be! – engaged to Mr. Darcy! – No, no, you shall not deceive me. I know it to be impossible."
"This is a wretched beginning indeed! My sole dependence was on you; and I am sure nobody else will believe me, if you do not. Yet, indeed, I am in earnest. I speak nothing but the truth. He still loves me, and we are engaged."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59. When Elizabeth opens her heart to Jane and tells her of her engagement to Darcy, her sister is flabbergasted. She thinks that Elizabeth who hates Darcy must be deceiving her. But Elizabeth assures her that Darcy still loves her and the engagement is real.

"Will you tell me how long you have loved him?"
"It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59. Jane is delighted for her sister Elizabeth over her engagement to Darcy and is dying to know how long she has loved him. Elizabeth admits that it wasn’t love at first sight, but her feelings changed and grew into love over time. But she recalls her visit to Pemberley as the turning point – while she was there she greatly admired the estate and fantasized about being mistress of it.

"Lizzy," said he, "what are you doing? Are you out of your senses, to be accepting this man? Have not you always hated him?"
"I do, I do like him," she replied, with tears in her eyes; "I love him. Indeed he has no improper pride. He is perfectly amiable. You do not know what he really is; then pray do not pain me by speaking of him in such terms."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59. An incredulous Mr. Bennet walks around the room of his house looking grave and anxious, and wonders why his daughter wants to marry a man that she has always hated. But Elizabeth blurts out that she loves Mr. Darcy and that he has no improper pride. She tells him that it pains her to hear him speak badly of Darcy, that her father doesn’t know Mr. Darcy’s real character.

I have given him my consent. He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never dare refuse anything, which he condescended to ask. I now give it to you, if you are resolved on having him. But let me advise you to think better of it. I know your disposition, Lizzy. I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him as a superior. Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage. You could scarcely escape discredit and misery. My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59. Mr. Bennet tells Elizabeth that he has gives his consent for Mr. Darcy to marry her. But he also warns his favorite daughter that she should think hard before going into wedlock. He emphasizes the importance of a marriage of equals who have respect for one another and he doesn’t want Elizabeth to settle for anything less. Mr. Bennet himself is in a loveless marriage between unequal minds and he has no respect for his wife. He doesn’t want the same for Elizabeth.

Good gracious! Lord bless me! only think! dear me! Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it? And is it really true? Oh! my sweetest Lizzy! how rich and great you will be! What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! Jane’s is nothing to it – nothing at all. I am so pleased – so happy. Such a charming man! – so handsome! so tall! Oh, my dear Lizzy! Pray apologize for my having disliked him so much before. I hope he will overlook it. Dear, dear Lizzy. A house in town! Everything that is charming!…Ten thousand a year, and very likely more! ‘Tis as good as a Lord!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59. A giddy Mrs. Bennet rhapsodizes over Elizabeth’s engagement to Mr. Darcy, hardly able to believe her ears when her daughter announces the good news. She is ecstatic that Elizabeth is going to be rich, even richer than Jane. Her previous dislike of Mr. Darcy all of a sudden vanishes. The person she once described as "a most disagreeable, horrid man" is now "charming" and "handsome." Of course Darcy’s considerable wealth buys a lot of credit with Mrs. Bennet, it is his ten thousand a year income that she finds most attractive in him – "as good as a Lord!" For Mrs. Bennet, pin-money, jewels and carriages are what make Darcy and her daughter a good match. At the beginning of the novel we learned that the business of Mrs. Bennet’s life was to see her daughters married. Now with three of them finding husbands, one of the novel’s most mocked characters has achieved much of what she set out to do.

She wanted Mr. Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her. "How could you begin?" said she. "I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in the first place?"
"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60. Many of the novel’s readers would like to believe that it was love at first sight for Darcy. In this passage Elizabeth asks him to account for his falling in love with her. Darcy seems cagey with his answer, unable to pinpoint the moment or the place. But he does admit that it was long ago and he was in the throes of love before he knew it. Does that qualify for love at first sight? Or second sight perhaps?

The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60. The independent-minded, outspoken and spirited Elizabeth tells Mr. Darcy why he was attracted to her. She suggests that he was sick of deferential women who always pandered to his approval. She was different to those kind of upper class women he was used to. Elizabeth is right here, Darcy was aroused by her high degree of intelligence and lively personality, not by any learned accomplishments that women in his circle tended to educate themselves with. One of the main themes of the novel is the nature of a strong and happy marriage. For Elizabeth it is a mix of affection, character and mutual respect.

"What made you so shy of me, when you first called, and afterwards dined here? Why, especially, when you called, did you look as if you did not care about me?"
"Because you were grave and silent, and gave me no encouragement."
"But I was embarrassed."
"And so was I."
"You might have talked to me more when you came to dinner."
"A man who had felt less, might."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60. Elizabeth and Darcy have come a long way since the barbed and awkward conversations they once shared. In this passage the tone is less sparring and combative, and a lot more tender, as they arrive at a greater understanding of each other and themselves. When Elizabeth teases Darcy on why he was so quiet when he came to dinner, he reveals in the brilliant last line, that his shyness was not a sign of coldness but of the deep feelings he had for her.

I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world that he can spare from me. You are all to come to Pemberley at Christmas.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60. Announcing her engagement to Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth writes a letter to the Gardiners expressing her great joy with her typical Lizzy wit. Now that she is mistress of Pemberley, she invites them there for Christmas.

Miss Bingley was very deeply mortified by Darcy’s marriage; but as she thought it advisable to retain the right of visiting at Pemberley, she dropt all her resentment; was fonder than ever of Georgiana, almost as attentive to Darcy as heretofore, and paid off every arrear of civility to Elizabeth.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 61. Caroline Bingley, who had set her sights on Darcy, is upset at his marriage to Elizabeth. But she thinks the better of it as she wishes to be able to visit Pemberley in the future. So she continues to be deferential to Darcy, shows more fondness for Georgiana and treats Elizabeth with new-found civility and respect. Caroline is an upper class snob who likes to rub shoulders with people of high rank and status.

Georgiana had the highest opinion in the world of Elizabeth; though at first she often listened with an astonishment bordering on alarm at her lively, sportive, manner of talking to her brother. He, who had always inspired in herself a respect which almost overcame her affection, she now saw the object of open pleasantry. Her mind received knowledge which had never before fallen in her way. By Elizabeth’s instructions, she began to comprehend that a woman may take liberties with her husband, which a brother will not always allow in a sister more than ten years younger than himself.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 61. After their marriage Elizabeth doesn’t waste any time in educating Darcy in how to enjoy being laughed at. And she has a very willing pupil in Darcy’s younger sister Georgiana, who learns that a wife can take liberties with her husband that a younger sister cannot.
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