Pride and Prejudice Satire Quotes

single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife - Jane Austen quote

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1. The opening sentence of Jane Austen’s comedy of manners is without question one of the most famous and best known first lines in literature. Its masterful ironic style and humorous tone are foreshadowing of the sparkling humor and irony to be found throughout the classic novel. It introduces us to four important themes: marriage, love, money and class. The satirical view Austin takes of her characters and of marriage in the Regency period is established. The memorable first line also signals the classic novel’s treatment of men as commodities and prized possessions for single women. It is a good example of verbal irony as women in the late 18th century were far more dependent on their husbands, than vice versa. In fact rich bachelors Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy are not at all searching for a wife, the situation is totally opposite, as we very quickly learn. Austen was only 21 years old when she wrote Pride and Prejudice. It is one of six major novels which earns her a deserved reputation as master ironist and supreme pioneer of comedy. First published anonymously in 1813 when it wasn’t deemed ladylike to pursue a career in writing, it remains one of the world’s most popular novels more than two hundred years later.

Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1. Austen satirizes love and a woman’s search for a husband here, as Mrs. Bennet hopes to manipulate their new neighbor Charles Bingley into falling in love with one of her daughters. Obsessed with finding husbands for her girls, she tries to force Mr. Bennet to call on Bingley to set the wheels in motion.
The business of her life was to get her daughters married - Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice

The business of her life was to get her daughters married.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1. Here Mrs. Bennet’s life is metaphorically compared to a business, one with a single purpose – to marry off each of her five daughters to wealthy husbands in order that they achieve financial stability. That is her single goal and primary occupation in life. To Mrs. Bennet marriage for a woman is less about following one’s heart and more about economic stability. Austen is satirizing this view of marriage through the character of Mrs. Bennet and her obsession with finding beaux for her daughters.

"If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Netherfield," said Mrs. Bennet to her husband, "and all the others equally well married, I shall have nothing to wish for."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 3. The comical and unrealistic ambitions of the obsessive Mrs. Bennet for her five daughters to marry well are superbly satirized by Austen. Mrs. Bennet targets wealthy neighbor Charles Bingley as potential husband for one of her not so well off daughters as soon as he moves into Netherfield.

Jane was therefore obliged to go on horseback, and her mother attended her to the door with many cheerful prognostics of a bad day. Her hopes were answered; Jane had not been gone long before it rained hard. Her sisters were uneasy for her, but her mother was delighted. The rain continued the whole evening without intermission; Jane certainly could not come back.
"This was a lucky idea of mine, indeed!" said Mrs. Bennet more than once, as if the credit of making it rain were all her own.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 7. Mrs. Bennet is obsessed with marrying off her daughters and has little regard for their happiness or welfare. Here she schemes for Jane to travel by horseback rather than carriage to Charles Bingley’s Netherfield home, so that she will have to stay overnight. Mrs. Bennet knows that rain is expected, and when Jane is caught our in it she falls quite ill. Parents are meant to look out for the welfare of their children, but Mrs. Bennet’s harmful parenting leaves a lot to be desired.

Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at his gallantry; but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody; and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 10. Although she does not know it yet, Elizabeth is showing the first signs of attraction to Darcy – "amazed at his gallantry." Darcy is also falling in love with Elizabeth but sees this as dangerous because he is a higher class than her. There is considerable irony going on in this scene, as Elizabeth has refused to dance with Darcy and expects him to be affronted. Instead he is gallant. He on the other hand is bewitched by her sweetness and archness, when she intended the very opposite – to cut him down to size. Darcy also thinks, were it not for her inferior connections, he might fall in love with her – which is exactly what is happening. Austen is satirizing the snobbery of the upper class and the class divide in the social awkwardness between Darcy and Elizabeth.

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 11. Miss Bingley is watching Darcy read, so she pretends to be absorbed in reading the second volume of his book in an effort to start up a conversation with him. But she soon gets bored, yawns and throws the book aside. Her comment about how much she loves books is therefore ironic, as it is only a device to get Darcy’s attention. The quote is a good example of the gentle satirical fun Austen likes to poke at the social elite.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice

I have been so fortunate as to be distinguished by the patronage of the Right Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh…whose bounty and beneficence has preferred me to the valuable rectory of this parish, where it shall be my earnest endeavour to demean myself with grateful respect towards her Ladyship.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 13. Newly ordained clergyman Mr. Collins begins his letter to Mr. Bennet in groveling terms about his patron Lady Catherine de Bourgh. In Collins we see Jane Austen’s genius for comic satire at its best. He is presented as a ridiculous churchman more interested in living well in his "valuable" new position and kowtowing to his aristocratic benefactor, than in devoting his life to spiritual matters.

"There is something very pompous in his style. – And what can he mean by apologising for being next in the entail? – We cannot suppose he would help it if he could. – Could he be a sensible man, sir?"
"No, my dear, I think not. I have great hopes of finding him quite the reverse. There is a mixture of servility and self-importance in his letter, which promises well. I am impatient to see him"

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 13. Elizabeth and her father are commenting on Mr. Collins and his letter to the Bennets, whose Longbourn estate he is to inherit and which he is about to visit. In the letter he expresses the hope that "the circumstance of my being next in the entail of Longbourn estate will be kindly overlooked on your side, and not lead you to reject the offered olive-branch." We gain a good glimpse of Mr. Collins’s character from the Bennets’ comments – pompous, servile to his patron Lady Catherine de Bourgh and for a clergyman unusually vain and full of his own self-importance.
Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice

Mr. Collins was eloquent in her praise. The subject elevated him to more than usual solemnity of manner, and with a most important aspect he protested that he had never in his life witnessed such behaviour in a person of rank – such affability and condescension, as he had himself experienced from Lady Catherine. She had been graciously pleased to approve of both of the discourses which he had already had the honour of preaching before her.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 14. Over dinner at the Bennets’ home, Mr. Collins spends much of his time describing the woman who helped him establish his career in the clergy, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The fawning obsequiousness and servility he displays towards his patroness, coupled with his pretentious manners and obsessive formality, help make Mr. Collins one of English literature’s unforgettable comic characters. Here Austen is satirizing the behavior of the noble class through Collins’s absurd admiration for Lady Catherine and her treatment of him. She is also being ironic – for nobody in their right mind admires being condescended to.

Mr. Bennet’s expectations were fully answered. His cousin was as absurd as he had hoped, and he listened to him with the keenest enjoyment, maintaining at the same time the most resolute composure of countenance, and except in an occasional glance at Elizabeth, requiring no partner in his pleasure.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 14. Austen’s descriptions of the pompous and conceited Mr. Collins, as she savagely satirizes the ridiculous clergyman, are almost mockeries. A good example is in this passage where Mr. Bennet derives much amusement from observing his absurd cousin’s manners and way of going on during a visit to Longbourn. And we laugh with him.

Having now a good house and a very sufficient income, he intended to marry…he meant to choose one of the daughters, if he found them as handsome and amiable as they were represented by common report. This was his plan of amends – of atonement – for inheriting their father’s estate; and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his own part.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 15. At a time when women’s legal access to property in England was limited, Mr. Collins is due to inherit Longbourn on the death of Mr. Bennet. Now that he has a good income and house, he decides that it is time to marry. Seeing himself as a fountain of generosity and kindness, he decides to choose one of the Bennet daughters to make amends to the family over the loss of their home. Austen is an expert at writing ironic statements and the tone throughout this passage is without doubt ironic, for Collins admires himself for sharing with one of the Bennet girls the wealth that he took from them in the first place. The description of the puffed-up clergyman celebrating his high-mindedness marks Austen out as the supreme satirist. Mr. Collins has no self-awareness of how ridiculous he is.

Mr. Collins had only to change from Jane to Elizabeth – and it was soon done – done while Mrs. Bennet was stirring the fire. Elizabeth, equally next to Jane in birth and beauty, succeeded her of course.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 15. After setting sights on Jane Bennet for his wife, Mr. Collins has no problem switching his attentions to Elizabeth, when Mrs. Bennet points out that Jane is soon to be engaged to someone else. In his search for a wife, the ridiculous Mr. Collins doesn’t really care who he marries.

My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish; secondly, that I am convinced that it will add very greatly to my happiness; and thirdly – which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness…she said, "Mr. Collins, you must marry. A clergyman like you must marry. Choose properly, choose a gentlewoman for my sake; and for your own, let her be an active, useful sort of person, not brought up high, but able to make a small income go a good way"…But the fact is, that being, as I am, to inherit this estate after the death of your honoured father (who, however, may live many years longer), I could not satisfy myself without resolving to choose a wife from among his daughters, that the loss to them might be as little as possible, when the melancholy event takes place – which, however, as I have already said, may not be for several years. This has been my motive, my fair cousin, and I flatter myself it will not sink me in your esteem. And now nothing remains for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 19. Mr. Collins’s lack of self-awareness is astonishing as he corners an obviously uninterested Elizabeth to propose. Setting out his reasons for wanting to marry her, there is not one mention of love and it is mostly about why it would be good for him. He believes that he should marry because it sets a good example for a clergyman, it will add to his happiness, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh has told him to marry a "useful sort of person…able to make a small income go a good way." For good measure he also mentions that since he is to inherit Mr. Bennet’s estate, he would like to minimize the family’s loss by marrying one of his daughters. Finally with great irony he laughably assures Elizabeth of his "violence of my affection" for her. Austen is mocking Mr. Collins here. She is using him as a satirical figure to comment on loveless marriages, where people wed for all kinds of ridiculous reasons other than love.

If she is really headstrong and foolish, I know not whether she would altogether be a very desirable wife to a man in my situation, who naturally looks for happiness in the marriage state.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 20. This is an interesting comment made by Mr. Collins, as Mrs. Bennet attempts to assure him that Elizabeth "shall be brought to reason" and persuaded to accept his marriage proposal. Collins obviously doesn’t want a woman with a mind of her own like Elizabeth, but one who serves her man and his happiness. Austen is satirizing the view that woman should be passive and remain simply props and tools to serve a husband’s needs with no regard for their own. Elizabeth’s strong and independent personality does not fit the latter.

Oh! Mr. Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar. You must come and make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins, for she vows she will not have him.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 20. The ridiculous Mrs. Bennet is satirized here as she reacts to Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr. Collins’s marriage offer. In her cry for help she appeals to the man of the house Mr. Bennet to use his fatherly authority and compel Elizabeth to marry Mr. Collins, despite her vowing she will not have him. Mrs. Bennet’s sole thought in life is to get her daughters married.

In as short a time as Mr. Collins’ long speeches would allow, everything was settled between them to the satisfaction of both; and as they entered the house he earnestly entreated her to name the day that was to make him the happiest of men; and though such a solicitation must be waived for the present, the lady felt no inclination to trifle with his happiness. The stupidity with which he was favoured by nature must guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance; and Miss Lucas, who accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment, cared not how soon that establishment were gained.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 22. Charlotte Lucas accepts Mr. Collins’s proposal in a passage that satirizes marriage and is dripping with sarcasm and irony. We are told Collins makes a "long speech" of it and the deal gets "settled." Because nature "favours" Collins with stupidity (irony), there is no charm to make a woman wish for a long courtship. So Charlotte accepts him from the "pure and disinterested" desire for marriage, and doesn’t care how soon that marriage is. She marries, not for love, but for a home and security.

Mr. Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband. Without thinking highly either of men or matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 22. Charlotte Lucas has a very business-like attitude to marriage. Here she reflects on her marriage of convenience to Mr. Collins. While Elizabeth turned Collins’s proposal down, Charlotte accepts when he proposes to her. She is aware that he is not husband of the year material, being annoying and disagreeable. But she had always wanted to marry, as it was the only way educated women of small income could be provided for. Marriages like this, born not out of love but from the benefits it bestowed on both partners, were commonplace in Jane Austen’s time. Austen is using Charlotte to satirize how marriage was a necessary career move for many women of small means at the time.

Mr. Collins’s triumph, in consequence of this invitation, was complete. The power of displaying the grandeur of his patroness to his wondering visitors, and of letting them see her civility towards himself and his wife, was exactly what he had wished for; and that an opportunity of doing it should be given so soon, was such an instance of Lady Catherine’s condescension, as he knew not how to admire enough.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 29. A puffed-up Mr. Collins glories in the invitation to him and his party to dine with Lady Catherine de Bourgh at her home at Rosings. He cannot wait for the opportunity to show off the "graudeur" of his aristocratic patroness and her friendliness towards him and his wife. Mr. Collins is the stuff of satire, a clergyman full of his own vanity and obsessed with social rank and showing a fawning obsequiousness towards the upper class.

Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your apparel. Lady Catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which becomes herself and daughter. I would advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the rest…she likes to have the distinction of rank preserved.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 29. Mr. Collins tells Elizabeth this when they are invited to dine with Lady Catherine de Bourgh at Rosings. The ridiculous snobbery, vanity and obsession with social rank of both Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine are beautifully satirized in this passage where Mr. Collins suggests Elizabeth doesn’t have an elegant dress.

Her air was not conciliating, nor was her manner of receiving them such as to make her visitors forget their inferior rank. She was not rendered formidable by silence; but whatever she said was spoken in so authoritative a tone, as marked her self-importance.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 29. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is one of Austen’s great comic creations. She is an insufferable snob, full of her own self-importance, boastful, speaks with authority, and ensures that her visitors don’t forget their inferior rank. This is how Elizabeth finds her when she visits the great lady at her home. Austen is using satire here to ridicule the extreme snobbishness and class-consciousness of the English grande dame.

I must have my share in the conversation if you are speaking of music. There are few people in England, I suppose, who have more true enjoyment of music than myself, or a better natural taste. If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 31. Lady Catherine de Bourgh admits that she cannot play a musical instrument, but claims to be an expert on music. She believes that she would have been a great musician, had she learned. Austen is poking fun here at the "great" lady and her arrogance.

I feel myself called upon, by our relationship, and my situation in life, to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now suffering under…No arguments shall be wanting on my part, that can alleviate so severe a misfortune – or that may comfort you, under a circumstance that must be, of all others, most afflicting to a parent’s mind. The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented, because there is reason to suppose, as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter, has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence, though, at the same time, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity, at so early an age…Let me advise you then, my dear Sir, to console yourself as much as possible, to throw off your unworthy child from your affection for ever, and leave her to reap the fruits of her own heinous offence.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 48. Clergymen console members of their flock who are in pain or difficulty in different ways. But Mr. Collins’s style is the most unique and strangest of all. On the matter of Lydia’s elopement and promiscuous behavior, he writes to Mr. Bennet to "condole" with him on his "grevious affliction." Then he suggests that the death of his daughter would have been a blessing in comparison with this. He goes on to insult the family, criticizing the parents for their bad parenting by indulging Lydia. Then he advises Mr. Bennet to disown his daughter. Austen is satirizing Collins here and being wickedly ironic. The irony is in the fact that it is supposed to be a consolation letter, but most of it is spent attacking the Bennet family.

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.

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.
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