Elizabeth Bennet Character Analysis

Darcy, Sir William Lucas, Elizabeth Bennet
Elizabeth is the protagonist of the novel and the second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. She is the most intelligent of the five Bennet sisters and her father’s favorite. “Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters,” according to Mr. Bennet.

Well-read and witty and strong-minded, Elizabeth is a strong, independent and modern woman who refuses to marry without love. She rejects Mr. Collins’s infamous proposal of marriage, even though it would be to her financial advantage – because she does not love him.

When it comes to marriage, Elizabeth is a liberal feminist who believes that a happy and strong marriage must be built on affection, friendship, mutual respect and equality.

Feisty and not afraid to speak her mind, Elizabeth has a sharp tongue. She doesn’t always think before she speaks. Her tendency to jump to hasty conclusions leads her to make prejudicial judgments about some people – like Mr. Darcy.

However, Elizabeth sheds these prejudices after her journey to self-knowledge and self-discovery. She realizes the essential goodness of Darcy and learns important lessons about herself. The hatred of the man she at first misjudges turns to love.

Key Elizabeth Bennet quotes with analysis that help us understand one of English literature’s best-known female characters:

“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”

Chapter 5. Charlotte Lucas and Elizabeth are discussing Mr. Darcy’s pride. Charlotte thinks that if you have everything going for you in life, including family and fortune, you have a right to be proud. However, Elizabeth accuses Darcy of mortifying her pride after overhearing him saying she was not “handsome enough.”

“Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to play you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart.”

Chapter 19. Elizabeth is trying to reinforce the message to Mr. Collins that she doesn’t wish to marry him, but he appears to be a little dense or hard of hearing. The dumbfounded Collins does not believe that her rejection of his marriage proposal is at all serious. He ludicrously views it as the ploy of elegant females to keep a man in suspense and increase his love. Elizabeth assures him that her refusal is sincere.

Few people I really love

“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”

Chapter 24. This isn’t the usual smart and witty Elizabeth, but a more pessimistic version of her. She sounds disillusioned with life and people’s lack of integrity. But perhaps her sentiments are understandable. They are expressed when Bingley allows himself to be influenced by others to move away from Jane to London, and also when her friend Charlotte chooses a loveless marriage to Mr. Collins. Elizabeth is a woman of honesty and virtue who doesn’t suffer those who are morally weak or bereft gladly.

“Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are young men to rocks and mountains?”

Chapter 27. Elizabeth says this to Mrs. Gardiner, when her aunt invites her to join her on a trip to the Lake District. Disappointed with men and frustrated with romance, Elizabeth jumps at the opportunity to get away from it all amid the beauty of nature. Rocks are mountains are more durable and dependable than young men, she believes.

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”

Chapter 31. Elizabeth proudly declares this to Mr. Darcy when he positions himself to have a full view of her performing on the piano at Rosings. She taunts him by saying that he means to frighten her, but she is the kind of person who will not be alarmed. Her outspoken and saucy comments draw this response from Darcy: “I shall not say that you are mistaken because you could not really believe me to entertain any design of alarming you; and I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to know that you find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which in fact are not your own.” Is Darcy right? Is Elizabeth who she says she is and really being herself in this exchange: spirited, courageous, self-confident? Or is her wit and outspokenness with Darcy a defense shield to protect herself and her ego against proud upper class men like him in a male-dominated society?

“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.”

Chapter 34. Elizabeth says this to Darcy after he accuses her of only refusing his hand in marriage because of her hurt pride over the way he proposed. Darcy may have the appearance of a gentleman, but here Elizabeth calls him out for not being gentlemanlike. This comment greatly troubles Darcy afterwards, causing him much self-reflection and to eventually re-evaluate his behavior.

“Till this moment I never knew myself.”

Chapter 36. Elizabeth has an important light bulb moment when she realizes that she has a huge error of judgment about Mr. Darcy. This is after she rejects Darcy’s marriage proposal and he then gives her a letter explaining the true facts about the duplicity and predatory nature of George Wickham.

“He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal.”

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 was 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.