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.