Prejudice Quotes: Pride and Prejudice

Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room - Pride and Prejudice

Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud; to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 3. This describes the reaction to Fitzwilliam Darcy and his friend Charles Bingley at the Meryton ball, attended by the Bennet sisters and their mother. Aside from Darcy’s handsome looks, what makes a big impression on the ballgoers is that he is wealthy and worth ten thousand pounds a year. But very quickly they make up their minds from Darcy’s manner that he is insufferably proud and behaves as if he is superior to those around him. From the start they develop a dislike of and a prejudice against him. He is "unworthy" to be compared to his friend Charles Bingley, they decide. Darcy is believed to be partly based on Irish politician and lawyer Thomas Lefroy, who had a flirtation and spent some time with Jane Austen during a break from studying law. Austen’s lack of wealth is believed to have played a part in the pair not ending up together. After Lefroy died in 1869 one of his nephews wrote to Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen Leigh to say: "My late venerable uncle…said in so many words that he was in love with her, although he qualified his confession by saying it was a boyish love."
A most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing - Pride and Prejudice

"But I can assure you," she added, "that Lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish you had been there, my dear, to have given him one of your set-downs. I quite detest the man."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 3. Mrs. Bennet hasn’t any good word to say to Mr. Bennet about Mr. Darcy after she and the Bennet girls return home from the Meryton ball. She detests Darcy for his attitude towards Elizabeth at the ball, and is particularly vexed at him for slighting her daughter by not asking her to dance. Mrs. Bennet is quick to judge Mr. Darcy and forms a strong prejudice against him, based purely on first impressions, labeling him as vain and conceited.

"Oh!" said she, "I heard you before, but I could not immediately determine what to say in reply. You wanted me, I know, to say ‘Yes,’ that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste; but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt. I have, therefore, made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to dance a reel at all – and now despise me if you dare."
"Indeed I do not dare."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 10. Mr. Darcy has just asked Elizabeth to dance a reel with him, and when she doesn’t answer, he repeats the request – because he obviously likes her. But her strange reaction here is to refuse him and suggest that he only asked her so that he can make fun of her. Is she trying to tease and punish him perhaps? It is more likely that the early prejudice she formed against Darcy is still very much at play here.

To Mr. Darcy it was welcome intelligence – Elizabeth had been at Netherfield long enough. She attracted him more than he liked – and Miss Bingley was uncivil to her, and more teasing than usual to himself. He wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admiration should now escape him, nothing that could elevate her with the hope of influencing his felicity; sensible that if such an idea had been suggested, his behavior during the last day must have material weight in confirming or crushing it. Steady to his purpose, he scarcely spoke ten words to her through the whole of Saturday, and though they were at one time left by themselves for half-an-hour, he adhered most conscientiously to his book, and would not even look at her.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 12. Poor Mr. Darcy, his heart has been drawing him towards Elizabeth during her stay at Netherfield, but his head is cautioning him that this is a bad idea. Darcy still hasn’t overcome his class prejudice against the low connections of the Bennets. So he is relieved when he hears that Elizabeth and Jane are soon to return home, he makes up his mind not to encourage Elizabeth for the remainder of her stay. He hardly speaks to her all day and when they are left alone briefly he buries himself in a book and ignores her. Darcy may be able to conceal but he cannot deny his strong attraction, for when Caroline Bingley is uncivil to Elizabeth his first instinct is to be protective of Elizabeth.

When Mr. Wickham walked into the room, Elizabeth felt that she had neither been seeing him before, nor thinking of him since, with the smallest degree of unreasonable admiration. The officers of the -shire were in general a very creditable, gentlemanlike set, and the best of them were of the present party; but Mr. Wickham was as far beyond them all in person, countenance, air, and walk.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 16. We see two of the novel’s major themes at play here, prejudice and first impressions, when Elizabeth finds herself with George Wickham at dinner. Based purely on his looks and appearance, she finds him the most admirable of all the officers in his militia regiment. Her hasty first impressions turn out to be completely wrong when she learns to her horror and shame that he is a sexual predator and scoundrel.

"Are you much acquainted with Mr. Darcy?"
"As much as I ever wish to be," cried Elizabeth very warmly. "I have spent four days in the same house with him, and I think him very disagreeable."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 16. Seated next to George Wickham at dinner at her aunt’s home in Meryton, Elizabeth strikes up a conversation with the handsome army officer who has charmed her. She reveals to Wickham that she is not at all well disposed towards Mr. Darcy and finds him most disagreeable – after knowing him for only four days! As well as displaying her blatent prejudice against Darcy, Elizabeth’s comments also turn out to be rather ironic – she falls in love with the "disagreeable" Darcy and they end up happily married!

A young man too, like you, whose very countenance may vouch for your being amiable.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 16. Elizabeth seems easily fooled by the charming and handsome George Wickham’s outward appearance, when he spins his lies about Mr. Darcy. He has told her a completely false story about Darcy cheating him. Elizabeth who prides herself on being a good judge of character is too mesmerized by Wickham to see him for the deceiver he is and how she is being cleverly and subtly manipulated. She is exhibiting a prejudice towards Wickham, just as she has developed one against Darcy.

It was not in her nature to question the veracity of a young man of such amiable appearance as Wickham.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 17. Elizabeth is prejudiced against Darcy. So she believes George Wickham’s story that Darcy acted cruelly to him and refused to honor the wish of Darcy’s father that finance be provided for Wickham to become a clergyman. By emphasizing Wickham’s "amiable appearance," the narrator is hinting that he is not quite the person that Elizabeth believes. This foreshadows Wickham being outed later as a scoundrel and deceiver.

I can much more easily believe Mr. Bingley’s being imposed on, than that Mr. Wickham should invent such a history of himself as he gave me last night; names, facts, everything mentioned without ceremony. If it be not so, let Mr. Darcy contradict it. Besides, there was truth in his looks.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 17. Elizabeth shows her naivety here when she finds Mr. Darcy guilty of treating George Wickham badly, solely on the word of Wickham and without hearing the other side of the story. She doesn’t consider that Wickham may be lying and deceiving her – which he is! She remains blind to her prejudice against Darcy.

"It is difficult indeed – it is distressing. One does not know what to think."
"I beg your pardon; one knows exactly what to think."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 17. Jane Bennet debates with Elizabeth the credibility of George Wickham’s allegation made to Elizabeth that Mr. Darcy cheated him out of an inheritance. The more steadfast Jane hesitates to condemn Mr. Darcy, but Elizabeth shows her prejudice towards Darcy by siding with Wickham, who has deceived her with a false story.

She had dressed with more than usual care, and prepared in the highest spirits for the conquest of all that remained unsubdued of his heart, trusting that it was not more than might be won in the course of the evening. But in an instant arose the dreadful suspicion of his being purposely omitted for Mr. Darcy’s pleasure in the Bingleys’ invitation to the officers; and though this was not exactly the case, the absolute fact of his absence was pronounced by his friend Denny, to whom Lydia eagerly applied, and who told them that Wickham had been obliged to go to town on business the day before, and was not yet returned; adding, with a significant smile, "I do not imagine his business would have called him away just now, if he had not wanted to avoid a certain gentleman here."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 18. Elizabeth’s romantic feelings for George Wickham suffer a setback at the Netherfield ball. Displaying her vanity by dressing "with more than usual care" to capture his heart, she is disappointed to discover that he isn’t there. Immediately her blatent prejudice against Mr. Darcy causes her to blame him for Wickham’s "omission" from the invitation list.

I have always seen a great similarity in the turn of our minds. We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the éclat of a proverb.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 18. While dancing with him, Elizabeth insults Darcy by saying that both of them are alike: they are unsocial and quiet unless what they have to say will amaze the room. Her prejudice against him is in full effect here.

"I remember hearing you once say, Mr. Darcy, that you hardly ever forgave, that your resentment once created was unappeasable. You are very cautious, I suppose, as to its being created."
"I am," said he, with a firm voice.
"And never allow yourself to be blinded by prejudice?"
"I hope not."
"It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 18. Elizabeth challenges Darcy on his being quick to judge and refusing to change his mind once he forms an impression about a person’s character. She questions if he is ever blinded by prejudice. She puts it him that those who never change their opinion have a responsibility to ensure that they form the correct judgment in the first place. She is referring to Wickham’s claim that he has been been mistreated by Darcy. But Elizabeth shows her prejudice by accepting Wickham’s word and making up her mind without hearing Darcy’s side. Her advice on hasty judgments is ironic, given that she is guilty of exactly that with Darcy. Her criticism of him shows her own lack of self-awareness, for she equally is quick to make up her mind about others and stubborn about changing it.

These offences might have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I, with greater policy, concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by reason, by reflection, by everything. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just. Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? – to congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. Darcy is speaking to Elizabeth here, thanking her for explaining fully to him his serious faults. This passage demonstrates why the novel is called Pride and Prejudice. Darcy accuses Elizabeth of injured pride over his honest admission about the scruples he had to overcome before proposing to her. He shows his own class prejudice when he speaks of the inferiority of Elizabeth’s connections and relations "whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own." Darcy is honest and there is no duplicity about him, he speaks his mind and informs Elizabeth that "disguise of every sort is my abhorrence."

With a strong prejudice against everything he might say, she began his account of what had happened at Netherfield. She read with an eagerness which hardly left her power of comprehension, and from impatience of knowing what the next sentence might bring, was incapable of attending to the sense of the one before her eyes.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. When Elizabeth begins to read the letter Darcy handed to her she at first is not interested in his explanations. Her strong prejudice against him kicks in. But after a number of readings these prejudices began to melt away as she gets to know Darcy more.

As to his real character, had information been in her power, she had never felt a wish of enquiring. His countenance, voice and manner had established him at once in the possession of every virtue.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. The realization that Elizabeth has been been wrong in her understanding of George Wickham hits home and hard. Because Wickham was charming and handsome, she decided from those first impressions that he must be a good person. So she failed to question the aspersions he cast on Darcy’s character and as a result was prejudiced against Darcy. But Darcy’s letter forces her to reconsider her opinion of Wickham, question her poor judgment of people and realize her lack of knowledge of herself.

"How despicably have I acted!" she cried; "I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust! How humiliating is this discovery! Yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind! But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. This is the pivotal moment of self-knowledge and self-rebuke for Elizabeth when she realizes how much her judgment has been clouded by her own pride and prejudice. She has read the long letter from Mr. Darcy explaining himself. For her it sheds a new and clear light on the noble qualities of Darcy’s character and the deceit and predatory nature of the handsome George Wickham, all of which she had been blind to. In a moment of epiphany for her, she recognizes that her belief in her good judgment of others was mere vanity, and that she never really knew herself until now. Using a metaphor, she compares her unwillingness to see the true characters of Darcy and Wickham to the blindness that a lover has for the flaws of their beloved.

Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however incapable of such coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other than her own breast had harboured and fancied liberal.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 39. Elizabeth listens to Lydia call Wickham’s former girl Mary King a "nasty little freckled thing" and say that he never cared three straws about her. Elizabeth is shocked and reproaches herself for having similar uncharitable feelings. She sees others acting with a coarseness that she has been guilty of in her own thoughts. It is a moment of self-awareness for her, as her understanding and knowledge of herself continues to grow.

There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 40. What Elizabeth says to sister Jane concerning Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham highlights the dangers of judging a book by its cover, something she has been guilty of. Reading Darcy’s letter shocked her into self-knowledge, so that she now realizes that Darcy is the one with the goodness, while Wickham had only the appearance of it. Before this her prejudices about the two men she has been romantically associated with clouded her judgment about them.

If I endeavor to undeceive people as to the rest of his conduct, who will believe me? The general prejudice against Mr. Darcy is so violent that it would be the death of half the good people in Meryton, to attempt to place him in an amiable light.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 40. Elizabeth decides that it is better not to reveal the true noble nature of Mr. Darcy’s dealings with Wickham. She accepts that she has done an injustice to Darcy with her misjudgment of him. But she does nothing to correct the false perception of him since the prejudice against him is so strong she believes that she cannot overcome it. So people will continue to deceive themselves about Darcy until they find out for themselves.

"And of this place," thought she, "I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own, and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt. But no," – recollecting herself – "that could never be; my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. As Elizabeth wanders around Pemberley room by room, she is struck by the realization that she could have been mistress of the estate. It is only on seeing Darcy’s country home, that she can imagine herself being Mrs. Darcy. But amid her day-dreaming, the reality hits that if she married Darcy she could not invite Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner over because of Darcy’s class prejudice.

They owed the restoration of Lydia, her character, every thing, to him. Oh! how heartily did she grieve over every ungracious sensation she had ever encouraged, every saucy speech she had ever directed towards him. For herself she was humbled; but she was proud of him. Proud that in a cause of compassion and honour, he had been able to get the better of himself.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 52. Elizabeth feels humbled after her aunt Mrs. Gardiner reveals in a letter that it was Darcy who found Lydia and Wickham when they ran off together. He tracked them down at their London love nest. He also paid Wickham the money to facilitate their marriage, but asked that Mr. Gardiner take the credit for it. Elizabeth is proud of Darcy and the "compassion and honour" he showed through his actions and generosity. She also repents her previous dislike of and prejudice that she displayed to him.

This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence, and the little value he put on his own good qualities. Elizabeth was pleased to find that he had not betrayed the interference of his friend; for, though Jane had the most generous and forgiving heart in the world, she knew it was a circumstance which must prejudice her against him.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 55. Jane is understanding of Mr. Bingley for initially abandoning her and taking off to London, and she praises his shyness and modesty. Elizabeth is relieved that her sister doesn’t know the role Darcy had in Bingley’s departure, otherwise the usually forgiving Jane would be prejudiced against him.

Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all. You will be censured, slighted, and despised, by everyone connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. Lady Catherine de Bourgh voices her strong disapproval to Elizabeth of any marriage engagement between her and Lady Catherine’s nephew Mr. Darcy. She threatens Elizabeth with all kinds of nasty consequences if she accepts a proposal from Darcy. They include disgrace, and being slighted and despised by everybody in Darcy’s high society. Lady Catherine is a caricature who represents the extremes of snobbish pride and prejudice.

I will not be interrupted. Hear me in silence. My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other. They are descended, on the maternal side, from the same noble line; and, on the father’s, from respectable, honourable, and ancient – though untitled – families. Their fortune on both sides is splendid. They are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their respective houses; and what is to divide them? The upstart pretensions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune. Is this to be endured! But it must not, shall not be.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. As class war breaks out between Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Elizabeth, the domineering and haughty de Bourgh spells out why an "upstart" like Elizabeth is an unsuitable match for her nephew Darcy. Pointing to her lack of money, connections and family position, she dismisses Elizabeth as simply a young women with pretensions above her station. In de Bourgh’s world, marriage doesn’t cross social and money boundaries. Lady Catherine is a quintessential rude snob with no self-awareness of how ill behaved she is. Austen uses satire here to ridicule the extreme class consciousness in English society at the time.

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.
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