Pride and Prejudice Class Quotes

When she saw him thus seeking the acquaintance and courting the good opinion of people with whom any intercourse a few months ago would have been a disgrace – when she saw him thus civil, not only to herself, but to the very relations whom he had openly disdained…the difference, the change was so great, and struck so forcibly on her mind, that she could hardly restrain her astonishment from being visible.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 44. Mr. Darcy has come to the inn to see Elizabeth and Jane and their aunt and uncle Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, bringing along his sister Georgiana. Elizabeth notices a great improvement in his behavior towards them and can hardly hide her astonishment. No longer is he the proud, stand-offish person that she found him in the past, but is civil and good mannered to her and Jane and the Gardiners, whom he previously looked down on as inferior.

You are grievously to be pitied; in which opinion I am not only joined by Mrs. Collins, but likewise by Lady Catherine and her daughter, to whom I have related the affair. They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family? And this consideration leads me moreover to reflect, with augmented satisfaction, on a certain event of last November; for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved in all your sorrow and disgrace.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 48. When Lydia runs off with Wickham, Mr. Collins effectively kicks the Bennet family when they are down. In an extremely rude letter of condolences to Mr. Bennet, he tells him that Lydia’s promiscuous behavior will harm the prospects of the rest of his daughters marrying well. He plays the class card and quotes his patroness Lady Catherine saying that nobody will want to have anything to do with such a family. Recalling Elizabeth’s rejection of his own marriage proposal, Mr. Collins counts his blessings that he didn’t marry into the family, as this would have involved him in their disgrace.

Though I know it must be a scandalous falsehood, though I would not injure him so much as to suppose the truth of it possible, I instantly resolved on setting off for this place, that I might make my sentiments known to you.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. Lady Catherine de Bourgh says this to Elizabeth on hearing the rumor that her nephew Mr. Darcy is to propose marriage to her. A member of the upper class, Lady Catherine represents the view that people from her class should not marry someone from an inferior social class such as Elizabeth, who is middle class. She believes she has the right to tell others what do do.

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.

In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. In the famous showdown scene between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine, Austen presents the two adversaries along with Mr. Darcy as equals. Even if Lady Catherine doesn’t see it that way, Elizabeth does. Here de Bourgh has just suggested to Elizabeth that if she is sensible she would not wish to quit the sphere in which she was brought up. Elizabeth retorts that in marrying de Bourgh’s nephew she would not be be quitting that sphere. Mr. Darcy is a gentleman and Elizabeth is the daughter of a gentleman, she defiantly tells Lady Catherine, who is upset at the idea of her nephew Darcy marrying someone "beneath" him like Elizabeth. Elizabeth is certainly Darcy’s equal in intelligence and wit. She can also stand her ground and hold her own with Lady Catherine and doesn’t view herself as inferior to the aristocratic lady. In Austen’s day class distinction was very much embedded in British society with the aristocracy owning a great deal of wealth and property and wielding a lot of power. While class barriers have been broken down somewhat today, there still is a wealthy and advantaged elite and an aristocracy of lords, ladies, sirs and dames.

Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. Lady Catherine de Bourgh admonishes Elizabeth over the idea of her marrying Mr. Darcy. Displaying her extreme snobbery and vanity, Lady Catherine travels all the way from her estate to the Bennets’ home to ensure that her pure family blood is not "polluted" by what she sees as an unthinkable alliance between her nephew and Bennets with their inferior blood. This is the fuller quote from the desperate lady: "Not so hasty, if you please. I have by no means done. To all the objections I have already urged, I have still another to add. I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister’s infamous elopement. I know it all: that the young man’s marrying her was a patched-up business, at the expence of your father and uncle. And is such a girl to be my nephew’s sister? Is her husband, is the son of his late father’s steward, to be his brother? Heaven and earth – of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"

You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends, and make him the contempt of the world.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. Obsessed with status, Lady Catherine warns Elizabeth that her marriage to Darcy would bring ruin and contempt upon him. Lady Catherine is a symbol of the class system and the social hierarchy in the England of Austen’s time. Austen is satirizing these here through Lady Catherine’s dismissal of Elizabeth as an inferior who would somehow pollute the upper-class gene pool if she were allowed marry Darcy.

After mentioning the likelihood of this marriage to her ladyship last night, she immediately, with her usual condescension, expressed what she felt on the occasion; when it became apparent that, on the score of some family objections on the part of my cousin, she would never give her consent to what she termed so disgraceful a match. I thought it my duty to give the speediest intelligence of this to my cousin, that she and her noble admirer may be aware of what they are about, and not run hastily into a marriage which has not been properly sanctioned.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57. Mr. Bennet continues reading Mr. Collins’s letter about a rumored marriage between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Mr. Collins warns that Lady Catherine would never approve of such a match and urges Elizabeth and her admirer not to rush into this unsanctioned marriage. In Lady Catherine’s eyes marriages between the upper and lower classes is strictly forbidden – by her! She is quite the interfering busybody, aided and abetted by Mr. Collins.

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.

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.

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.

By Elizabeth’s persuasion, he was prevailed on to overlook the offence, and seek a reconciliation; and, after a little farther resistance on the part of his aunt, her resentment gave way, either to her affection for him, or her curiosity to see how his wife conducted herself: and she condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that pollution which its woods had received, not merely from the presence of such a mistress, but the visits of her uncle and aunt from the city.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 61. After the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth, Lady Catherine is so angry that she sends her nephew Darcy a letter full of abuse, especially towards Elizabeth. But in the above passage we learn that Elizabeth plays the role of peacemaker and persuades Darcy to seek a reconciliation with his aunt. Lady Catherine "condescends" to visit them at Pemberley in spite of the "pollution" that the great lady had forecast would descend on the place if the lowly Elizabeth married into her family. In her final word on Lady Catherine, Austen mercilessly satirizes upper class snobbery in her deliciously sarcastic and ironic style – as only she can do.
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