Pride and Prejudice

“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.”

A contrast is established between Elizabeth’s and Charlotte Lucas’s perceptions of marriage. Elizabeth, claiming Jane’s “design” is not to “get a rich husband, or any husband” (23) but rather to fall in love, thinks Jane should take her time getting to know Bingley. Charlotte, on the other hand, warns that if Jane wants to marry Bingley, she should lavish affection on him until she is “secure of him” (22), that not only does she not have time to learn of his character but that a woman is better off knowing “as little as possible of the defects of the person” (23) she marries. Charlotte’s belief that marital bliss should be viewed as a happy accident, as opposed to the primary goal, foreshadows her marriage to Mr. Collins, which she openly admits she embraces for mercenary reasons.

“I shall certainly let him know that I see what he is about. He has a very satirical eye.”

Elizabeth’s prejudice against Darcy prevents her from realizing that Darcy’s increased attention is the result of his romantic interest in her, rather than a desire to criticize her. In this quotation, she tells Charlotte that she intends to inform Darcy that she sees through his “attending to her conversation with others” (16). Later, at Netherfield, when Darcy asks her to dance a reel, she tells him he wants “the pleasure of despising my taste” (38) and that she enjoys “overthrowing those kinds of schemes” (38); when he replies that he does “not dare” despise her, she is surprised by his “gallantry” (38) but oblivious to the fact that he is “bewitched” (38) by her. Her prejudice results in her continuing to miss obvious signs of his affection—for example his deliberately encountering her on her walks in the park near Hunsford, even after she informs him that path is her favorite.

“I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”

Darcy believes Elizabeth’s face appears “uncommonly intelligent” due to “the beautiful expression of her dark eyes” (16). The above comment to Miss Bingley illustrates that his interest in Elizabeth is grounded in his respect for her intelligence. He demonstrates this appreciation during Elizabeth’s visit to Netherfield when he notes that truly accomplished women are not accomplished merely because they sing, draw, and know languages; they must “add something more substantial,” improving their minds “by extensive reading” (29). That this conversation takes place shortly after Miss Bingley has snidely commented that Elizabeth prefers nothing but reading not only reinforces that Darcy is specifically referring to Elizabeth but also suggests his distaste for Miss Bingley, who finds extensive reading fodder for jokes. His boredom with Miss Bingley is reiterated later in the scene when Darcy, clearly referring to Miss Bingley’s flattery, casts “the arts which ladies sometimes condescend to employ for captivation” as “despicable” (29). Miss Bingley’s attempts to disparage Elizabeth for her independence, intelligence, and refusal to flatter serve only to remind Darcy why he loves Elizabeth and not Miss Bingley.

“It seems to me to show an abominable sort of conceited independence.”

When Mrs. Bennet expresses concern that Elizabeth will “not be fit to be seen” upon arriving at Netherfield, Elizabeth replies that she “shall be very fit to see Jane—which is all I want,” showing that her sister’s health, in her mind, takes precedence over appearance (23). In this quotation, Miss Bingley criticizes Elizabeth for walking all the way to Netherfield “quite alone” and “above her ankles in dirt” (36).Though hoping to lower Elizabeth in Darcy’s estimation by reminding him she is not an appropriately docile woman, Miss Bingley in fact forces Darcy to admit that Elizabeth’s walk to Netherfield has “brightened” her eyes. His enjoyment of Elizabeth’s appearance reveals that her “independence” makes him love her even more. Elizabeth’s independence, her refusal to follow rules for rules’ sake, is a sign of her thoughtfulness and intelligence and precisely why Darcy, accustomed to “women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking” (291) to please him, falls in love with her.

“Besides, there was truth in his looks.”

Elizabeth tells Jane that she believes Wickham’s accusations against Darcy because he looks like someone who tells the truth. She also believes that Wickham’s “countenance may vouch” for his “being amiable” (61). Just as her prejudice against Darcy prevents her from noticing his interest in her, her attraction to Wickham prevents her from seeing that he is not, in Bingley’s words, “a respectable young man” (73). Bingley’s defense of Darcy, Wickham’s inappropriately candid conversations with her, and Mrs. Gardiner’s suspicions of Wickham’s interest in the heiress Miss King all fail to convince Elizabeth that Wickham is not who he says he is. After reading Darcy’s letter and realizing the gravity of her mistake, Elizabeth tells Jane that “[o]ne has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it” (172), thus demonstrating that she has learned not to judge people’s character by their appearance or manner.

“It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.”

At the Netherfield ball, Elizabeth questions Darcy about his character, reminding him that he’d once told her that his “resentment once created was unappeasable” (71) and warning him that people whose opinions remain the same must be sure to form the correct opinion from the start. Though she means to suggest that Darcy has not properly secured an accurate opinion of Wickham, she herself has not formed an accurate opinion of Darcy. Her determination to think ill of Darcy is blatantly demonstrated when she tells Charlotte, who has suggested Elizabeth may enjoy her dance with Darcy, that “[t]o find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate” (88) is “the greatest misfortune of all” (69). Darcy himself recognizes this stubbornness in her: during Elizabeth’s visit to Netherfield, in response to her comment that his “defect is a propensity to hate every body” (43), he tells her that her defect “is to wilfully misunderstand them” (43). Elizabeth’s stubbornness over her opinions of Darcy is the source of countless miscommunications and misunderstandings throughout Pride and Prejudice.

“Mr. Bingley’s defence of his friend was a very able one, I dare say; but since he is unacquainted with several parts of the story, and has learnt the rest from that friend himself, I shall venture still to this of both gentlemen as I did before.”

Jane warns Elizabeth that Bingley “will vouch for the good conduct, the probity, and honour” of Darcy and that “by his account as well as his sister’s,” Wickham “deserved to lose Mr. Darcy’s regard” (73). Elizabeth brushes off this warning, believing that Bingley has heard only Darcy’s side of the story and therefore cannot be trusted to have an accurate opinion of what happened between Darcy and Wickham. Ironically, Elizabeth herself has heard only Wickham’s side of the story and therefore is in no stronger a position to judge either man. Her inability to see this irony is again the result of her prejudice.

“To Elizabeth it appeared that, had her family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening, it would have been impossible for them to play their parts with more spirit or finer success.”

Elizabeth is mortified by Mrs. Bennet’s brash insulting of Darcy and her bragging over the inevitability of Jane and Bingley’s marriage. Elizabeth is also embarrassed by Mr. Collins’s self-important speeches both to Darcy and to the room at large—gauche behavior that amuses Mr. Bennet. She fears that Mrs. Bennet’s insults of Darcy will affect Jane’s relationship with Bingley; she also grieves that Bingley’s sisters “should have such an opportunity of ridiculing her relations” (78). Indeed, Bingley’s sisters frequently mock Jane and Elizabeth’s relatives, and the Bennets’ unsophisticated behavior only reinforces the sisters’ prejudices. When Bingley leaves Netherfield, Elizabeth assumes his sisters are designing to keep Bingley and Jane apart because they don’t want to be connected to her family. In his letter, Darcy confirms that her family’s “total want of propriety” (152) was a concern among himself and Bingley’s sisters. When Elizabeth and the Gardiners encounter Darcy at Pemberley, Elizabeth experiences a sense of “triumph” that Darcy has the opportunity to meet “relations for whom there was no need to blush” (193); she is proud of their “intelligence,” “taste,” and “good manners” (193).

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

In choosing a wife, Mr. Collins does not look at women as individuals with different personalities; he first intends to propose to Jane and easily switches to Elizabeth when Mrs. Bennet informs him that Jane is likely to be engaged soon. His proposal to Elizabeth demonstrates that he has no understanding of who she is as a person. He takes her hesitation to speak with him privately as “modesty” that “adds to” her “other perfections” (80), and he refuses to accept her rejections because “the true delicacy of the female character” (83) requires that she turn him down several times before accepting. Elizabeth begs him to pay her the “compliment of being believed sincere” (83). Mr. Collins, as a disciple of the school of thought that preaches women should be docile and accommodating—he lectures Lydia for not reading sermons and tells Elizabeth Lady Catherine will like her once her “wit and vivacity” are “tempered” (81)—sees all women as the same, treating a wife as another piece of property to enhance his own “happiness." For all these reasons, Elizabeth assures Mr. Collins that they could never make each other happy. Mr. Collins contrasts with Darcy, who appreciates that Elizabeth staunchly rejects this school of thought.

“Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object: it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and, however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.”

Charlotte’s perception of marriage solely as a safety against poverty and hunger is indicative of the lack of options for unmarried women in Austen’s day. Charlotte, who is described as “plain,” settles for Mr. Collins, whom she finds “irksome,” because it prevents her from depending on her brothers, who “[are] relieved from their apprehension of Charlotte’s dying an old maid” (94). She tells Elizabeth that she will be as happy “as most people can boast” (96) in marriage; Elizabeth, who by nature rebels against the system that subverts women, is disappointed that Charlotte has “sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage” (96).

“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 either merit or sense.”

Elizabeth laments the disappointment she feels when Jane’s romance collapses and Charlotte marries Mr. Collins. Bingley, Elizabeth believes, has sacrificed his love for Jane by succumbing to his sisters’ manipulation, whereas Charlotte has given up on love. In a world in which people who love each other are separated and people who don’t love each other are married, Elizabeth feels disillusioned and dejected. The novel’s ending—with Jane’s marriage to Bingley and Elizabeth’s marriage to Darcy—suggests that happiness is indeed possible with personal growth and willingness to work through obstacles.

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

Darcy opens his proposal to Elizabeth by stating that he has “struggled” to avoid loving her; his feelings will be heard despite his efforts to suppress them. The rest of his proposal lists the objections he has to her family. He speaks as much of her “inferiority” (145) as he does of his admiration of her. This, in combination with his evident expectation that she will accept and his command that she listen to his speech, offends and infuriates Elizabeth, serving to “spare” her “the concern” (148) she otherwise might have had for his feelings. Elizabeth vehemently rejects his proposal, telling him his behavior makes him “the last man in the world” (148) she would marry. Later, when their many misunderstandings have been resolved, he tells her he’s come to realize that his “behaviour to you at the time had merited the severest reproof” (281) and that he underwent harsh self-examination before realizing her words were true. His willingness to examine his behavior and to behave with more “civility” and “gentleness” pays off, earning him Elizabeth’s respect and love, and demonstrates that happiness is possible after growth and self-awareness.

“Till this moment, I never knew myself.”

After reading Darcy’s letter, Elizabeth undergoes painful self-reflection of her own, for she is forced to acknowledge that her prejudice against Darcy has made her susceptible to Wickham’s lies. Growing “absolutely ashamed of herself,” she realizes that of all people she, who has “prided” herself on her “discernment,” should not have “driven reason away” due to her “preference” for one man over the other (159). The “discovery” of her hypocrisy is “humiliating” but “just” (159) and, like Darcy, from this point forward, she is more humble and more open-minded. Her willingness to endure these painful self-reflections separates her from many other characters, such as Mr. Collins, who mentally manipulates Elizabeth’s rejection to avoid considering that she doesn’t want to marry him, and Mrs. Bennet, whose lack of shame or gratitude show her to be permanently incorrigible.

“But the misfortune of speaking with bitterness is a most natural consequence of the prejudices I had been encouraging.”

When Jane expresses regret that Elizabeth “used such very strong expressions in speaking of Wickham to Mr. Darcy” (172), Elizabeth humbly admits that her harshness was the result of her prejudice. Later, when Elizabeth speaks to her father about her marrying Darcy, Elizabeth wishes “that her former opinions had been more reasonable” (272). Elizabeth has thus learned about the dangers of prejudice and demonstrates her eagerness to apply these lessons to her life.

“We shall have no peace at Longbourn if Lydia does not go to Brighton.”

Mr. Bennet dismisses Elizabeth’s concerns that if Lydia is allowed to go to Brighton, her “character will be fixed” and that she will become “the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous” (177). He believes that she will become more responsible only after embarrassing herself and that there’s no better time for her to do it than when she is far away from her family. His statement that there will be “no peace” if she doesn’t go reflects his “indolence” and ultimately leads to Lydia’s elopement with Wickham. Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennet escapes the “ignorance and folly” of his wife and youngest daughters by finding “amusement” in their behavior; he puts on a show of frustration but rarely takes action to stop them. He retreats to the comfort of his library, choosing to ignore the behavior. His decision to let Lydia go to Brighton—his prioritizing his peace over her safety—proves a grave mistake and is arguably the natural result of his attitude.

“To his wife he was very little otherwise indebted than as her ignorance and folly had contributed to his amusement.”

After the marriage of Lydia and Wickham, Elizabeth muses on her parents’ “unsuitable” marriage and the “disadvantages” their children have had because of it (180). She has overlooked her father’s flaws because he has been kind to her; however, Lydia’s elopement with Wickham shows her how her father’s escapism has led to the irresponsibility of her mother and younger sisters.

“What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people’s happiness were in his guardianship! How much of pleasure or pain it was in his power to bestow! How much of good or evil must be done by him!”

When Elizabeth visits Pemberley, she and the Gardiners speak with Mrs. Reynolds, the housekeeper, who praises Darcy, saying she has “never had a cross word from him in my life,” that he is a loving brother, and that “[h]e is the best landlord, and the best master” (188). Stunned, Elizabeth ponders the “amiable light” in which these words place Darcy and the significance of the fact that Darcy, who has so much power over his servants, chooses to be kind and respectful. Elizabeth already had been altering her opinions of Darcy after reading his letter. Mrs. Reynolds’s comments reinforce to her that she has misread his character. Her words are confirmed shortly after when Elizabeth meets Darcy on the Pemberley grounds and notices the marked change in his behavior.

“Every body declared that he was the wickedest young man in the world; and every body began to find out, that they had always distrusted the appearance of his goodness.”

Mere months before, the town of Meryton had seen Wickham as “an angel of light” (223). This quotation demonstrates the fickle nature of town gossip and the quickness with which news travels through town. Public opinion can have significant effects on events; for example, once Bingley and his party leave Netherfield, Wickham spreads his accusations against Darcy, and “every body [is] pleased to think how much they had always disliked Mr. Darcy before they had known any thing of the matter” (107).

“She was more alive to the disgrace, which her want of new clothes must reflect on her daughter’s nuptials, than to any sense of shame at her eloping and living with Wickham a fortnight before they took place.”

As opposed to Mr. Bennet, Jane, Elizabeth, and the Gardiners, who see Lydia and Wickham’s wedding as the least evil conclusion to Lydia’s running away with Wickham, Mrs. Bennet’s “spirits” are “oppressively high,” and she feels “[n]o sentiment of shame” (236) for the circumstances that have brought the wedding on. Completely ungrateful to Mr. Gardiner for the time and money he invested in this solution—and in fact “blaming every body but the person to whose ill-judging indulgence the errors of her daughter must be principally owing” (217)—Mrs. Bennet’s only concern is that Lydia be given money to buy new clothes. She is outraged when Mr. Bennet refuses, feeling more annoyed by his refusal than by the trouble Lydia has caused her family. In the final chapter, the narrator states she wishes she could report that after Jane’s and Elizabeth’s marriages Mrs. Bennet became “sensible, amiable, [and] well-informed” (295). Many people learn and grow in Pride and Prejudice; Mrs. Bennet is thus established as one who learns nothing.

“She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her.”

Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy begins to change when she reads the letter he writes after his rejected proposal. Her feelings soften further when she visits Pemberley and speaks with his admiring housekeeper and witnesses the newfound civility in his behavior. She feels “gratitude” toward him for loving her even after her rejection of him, and she appreciates his kindness to Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. After Lydia runs away with Wickham, Elizabeth believes she will never be given another chance to marry Darcy, for he will never connect himself with her family. She is aggrieved more than ever because she realizes that they are perfect for each other and that they could learn from each other.

“But at last your uncle was forced to yield, and instead of being allowed to be of use to his niece, was forced to put up with only having the probable credit of it, which went sorely against the grain.”

Mrs. Gardiner, at Elizabeth’s request, writes to explain why Darcy was at Lydia and Wickham’s wedding. In doing so, she reveals to Elizabeth that Darcy, not Mr. Gardiner, settled Wickham’s debts, breaking their promise that they themselves would take credit. Darcy had insisted on anonymity, and Mr. Gardiner had felt uncomfortable taking credit that wasn’t his—each thus showing his integrity. Here, Mrs. Gardiner expresses relief that they can now give credit where it’s due.

“You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these.”

When Lady Catherine insists Elizabeth promise not to marry Darcy, Elizabeth tells Lady Catherine that she is not one to be intimidated by threats or professions of entitlement grounded in wealth or position. She has similarly expressed her refusal to prioritize money by denying Mr. Collins’s proposal, and even Darcy’s first proposal. Lady Catherine, who has “not been accustomed” (271) to disagreement, is shocked by Elizabeth’s refusal to submit to her whim. The qualities she condemns in Elizabeth are the very qualities that make Darcy fall in love with her.

“What did you say of me that I did not deserve?”

Darcy confesses that, save for her comments about Wickham, Elizabeth’s accusations against him are well founded. He says he is ashamed of how he’d behaved, that he had been proud and uncivil, that he had been raised “to think meanly of all the rest of the world” (282). He thanks Elizabeth for helping him become “properly humbled” and for showing him that his “pretensions” were “insufficient” (282) to win her heart. Though it was, he admits, a difficult realization to come to, Elizabeth sees signs of his transformation as early as their encounter at Pemberley. His kindness toward her family demonstrates that he’s acknowledged his prejudices and improved himself.