Elizabeth Bennet Quotes

We neither of us perform to strangers.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 31. Darcy smiles as he says this to Elizabeth in defense of his social awkwardness. It is an ambiguous line that has been the subject of much debate as to how it should be interpreted. It comes after Elizabeth has been teasing Darcy for being rude and refusing to dance with anyone outside his own party at the ball at Meryton. Darcy ends the conversational sparring with a kind word diffusing the situation. The line suggests an intimacy between them and a moment of connection, with Darcy using the word "we" and essentially saying that he and Elizabeth are the same. This is the full quote of what Darcy says: "You are perfectly right. You have employed your time much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you can think anything wanting. We neither of us perform to strangers."

"Mr. Collins appears to be very fortunate in his choice of a wife."
"Yes, indeed, his friends may well rejoice in his having met with one of the very few sensible women who would have accepted him, or have made him happy if they had. My friend has an excellent understanding – though I am not certain that I consider her marrying Mr. Collins as the wisest thing she ever did. She seems perfectly happy, however, and in a prudential light it is certainly a very good match for her."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 31. Mr. Darcy believes that Mr. Collins is very lucky in his choice of a wife in Charlotte. However, Elizabeth is not so sure that her friend got the better end of the bargain. Charlotte is one of the few sensible women that would have married Mr. Collins, Elizabeth says. But she concedes that Charlotte appears happy and from the practical point of view it is a good match for her. Elizabeth is also being contradictory, describing Charlotte as sensible, but saying that her choosing Mr. Collins is not the wisest thing she ever did.

"It must be very agreeable for her to be settled within so easy a distance of her own family and friends."
"An easy distance, do you call it? It is nearly fifty miles."
"And what is fifty miles of good road? Little more than half a day’s journey. Yes, I call it a very easy distance."
"I should never have considered the distance as one of the advantages of the match," cried Elizabeth. "I should never have said Mrs. Collins was settled near her family."
"It is a proof of your own attachment to Hertfordshire. Anything beyond the very neighbourhood of Longbourn, I suppose, would appear far."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 32. Darcy and Elizabeth disagree about whether the fifty miles between Charlotte’s’s family in Meryton and her new home in Hunsford parsonage is an "easy distance." The well-traveled Darcy thinks it is. But the more sheltered Elizabeth does not. This speaks to the class difference between them, those with wealth having greater access to transport and carriages than those without it. The "bewitched" Darcy (remember this from Chapter 10) may also be testing Elizabeth to see if she is open to the idea of moving away from her family in Longbourn to settle with him in Pemberley!

But why Mr. Darcy came so often to the Parsonage, it was more difficult to understand. It could not be for society, as he frequently sat there ten minutes together without opening his lips; and when he did speak, it seemed the effect of necessity rather than of choice – a sacrifice to propriety, not a pleasure to himself. He seldom appeared really animated. Mrs. Collins knew not what to make of him. Colonel Fitzwilliam’s occasionally laughing at his stupidity, proved that he was generally different, which her own knowledge of him could not have told her; and as she would liked to have believed this change the effect of love, and the object of that love her friend Eliza.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 32. Elizabeth is staying with her friend Charlotte and Charlotte is puzzled as to why Mr. Darcy and his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam visit them so often at the parsonage. Darcy is not giving much away as he often just sits there in dumb silence. Charlotte wants to believe that it is all because Darcy loves Elizabeth.

More than once did Elizabeth, in her ramble within the park, unexpectedly meet Mr. Darcy. She felt all the perverseness of the mischance that should bring him where no one else was brought, and, to prevent its ever happening again, took care to inform him at first that it was a favourite haunt of hers. How it could occur a second time, therefore, was very odd! Yet it did, and even a third. It seemed like wilful ill-nature, or a voluntary penance, for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal inquiries and an awkward pause and then away, but he actually thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 33. While staying with her friend Charlotte, Elizabeth goes on walks in the countryside near Rosings and keeps running into Darcy. The two reluctant lovebirds are still tip-toeing around each other as they "unexpectedly" bump into each other in the park twice. But there may be nothing unexpected about it. Elizabeth lets Darcy know that it is her favorite place, so practically extends to him an invitation to be there.

I do not see what right Mr. Darcy had to decide on the propriety of his friend’s inclination, or why, upon his own judgment alone, he was to determine and direct in what manner that friend was to be happy.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 33. Elizabeth speaks out against Mr. Darcy’s unwarranted interference in his friend Charles Bingley’s love life and future with Jane. She tells Colonel Fitzwilliam that Darcy didn’t have the right to alone decide how his friend was to be happy.

He was the cause, his pride and caprice were the cause, of all that Jane had suffered, and still continued to suffer. He had ruined for a while every hope of happiness for the most affectionate, generous heart in the world; and no one could say how lasting an evil he might have inflicted.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 33. Elizabeth lays the blame for the romantic breakup of Charles Bingley and her sister Jane entirely at the feet of Mr. Darcy and his pride. By intervening to stop their marriage, Darcy ruined the hope of happiness for the most loving and generous heart in the world, she believes. Elizabeth clearly loves Jane very much and is very upset that Darcy would do such a thing.

"There were some very strong objections against the lady," were Colonel Fitzwilliam’s words; and these strong objections probably were, her having one uncle who was a country attorney, and another who was in business in London.
"To Jane herself," she exclaimed, "there could be no possibility of objection; all loveliness and goodness as she is! – her understanding excellent, her mind improved, and her manners captivating."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 33. Petty snobbery and the ugly class divide in Austen’s England looms their ugly head regarding Jane’s relationship with Mr. Bingley and his sudden disappearance. When Colonel Fitzwilliam reveals that there were strong objections against Jane because of low class family connections, Elizabeth strongly defends her sister’s character and manners.

She was suddenly roused by the sound of the door-bell, and her spirits were a little fluttered by the idea of its being Colonel Fitzwilliam himself, who had once before called late in the evening, and might now come to inquire particularly after her. But this idea was soon banished, and her spirits were very differently affected, when, to her utter amazement, she saw Mr. Darcy walk into the room. In an hurried manner he immediately began an inquiry after her health, imputing his visit to a wish of hearing that she were better. She answered him with cold civility. He sat down for a few moments, and then getting up, walked about the room. Elizabeth was surprised, but said not a word. After a silence of several minutes, he came towards her in an agitated manner.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. Elizabeth is surprised by an unexpected visitor to the Hunsford parsonage, when an obviously nervous Mr. Darcy arrives to her door. After a little awkward and hurried small talk from him, which she responds to coldly but civilly, he walks around the room for a few minutes in silence. Then he walks agitatedly towards her and shocks her with what comes next – a most unexpected proposal of marriage!

"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." Elizabeth’s astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement, and the avowal of all that he felt and had long felt for her, immediately followed. He spoke well, but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed, and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority – of its being a degradation – of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. Mr. Darcy arrives at the Hunsford parsonage to make his first proposal of marriage to Elizabeth. While he is frank and honest and open, he goes about it in a clumsy and unromantic way. He speaks of how he has struggled to repress his feelings for Elizabeth, her inferior social rank and the family obstacles to such a union. But despite Elizabeth’s inferiority, he manages to declare his strong admiration and love for her. Elizabeth is absolutely shocked by the proposal, especially as she finds Darcy less "eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride." Darcy’s proposal seems to be more about himself than about the woman he says he loves and admires. One might say that his presentation leaves a lot to be desired. This is an example of situational irony, because Darcy proposes at the precise moment when Elizabeth hates him the most.

Do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. The fallout from Darcy’s marriage proposal goes from bad to worse. Elizabeth accuses him of insulting her and ruining the happiness of her sister Jane. An angry Elizabeth confronts him about his interference in her sister’s relationship with Mr. Bingley. This appears to be her main reason for refusing his proposal, she could not imagine marrying the man who caused her sister’s unhappiness. Elizabeth is close to Jane whom she thinks is a beacon of goodness and she believes Darcy stood between her sister and her happiness with Bingley. Elizabeth is a woman of integrity whose loyalty to family trumps any proposal of marriage, even from a man as wealth as Darcy.

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.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, 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 being ungentlemanlike. This comment greatly troubles Darcy afterwards, causing him much self-reflection and to eventually re-evaluate his behavior as he grows in self-knowledge.

From the very beginning, from the first moment, I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. Elizabeth tells Mr. Darcy off using sharp words in his famous first proposal scene. She is responding to his claim that she is refusing him out of hurt pride over his honest admission that he struggled against proposing to someone with inferior connections. She uses a metaphor to compare her dislike of him to a building constructed on the foundations of her unfavorable first impressions of him. From the first moment she thought him arrogant, vain and contemptuous of the feelings of others. He is the last man in the world she would wish to marry, she snaps.

The tumult of her mind, was now painfully great. She knew not how to support herself, and from actual weakness sat down and cried for half-an-hour. Her astonishment, as she reflected on what had passed, was increased by every review of it. That she should receive an offer of marriage from Mr. Darcy! That he should have been in love with her for so many months! So much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections which had made him prevent his friend’s marrying her sister, and which must appear at least with equal force in his own case – was almost incredible! It was gratifying to have inspired unconsciously so strong an affection. But his pride, his abominable pride – his shameless avowal of what he had done with respect to Jane – his unpardonable assurance in acknowledging, though he could not justify it, and the unfeeling manner in which he had mentioned Mr. Wickham, his cruelty towards whom he had not attempted to deny, soon overcame the pity which the consideration of his attachment had for a moment excited.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. This passage gives us an insight into Elizabeth’s complex feelings towards Darcy. She sits and cries for half an hour. She is confused and astonished that he should make her an offer of marriage and declare that he has been in love with her for months. She admits that she is "gratified" to have "unconsciously" inspired such affection in him. She finds it "almost incredible" that he overcame the social barriers between them to propose marriage. She has "pity" for him because of his feelings. But she is also horrified by his pride and what what she thinks is his cruelty to Jane and Wickham. This passage suggests that the affection between Darcy and Elizabeth may not be all one-sided, but shared by her also, although she may not yet know or admit it.

With a strong prejudice against everything he might say, she began his account of what had happened at Netherfield. She read with an eagerness which hardly left her power of comprehension, and from impatience of knowing what the next sentence might bring, was incapable of attending to the sense of the one before her eyes.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. When Elizabeth begins to read the letter Darcy handed to her she at first is not interested in his explanations. Her strong prejudice against him kicks in. But after a number of readings these prejudices began to melt away as she gets to know Darcy more.

He expressed no regret for what he had done which satisfied her; his style was not penitent, but haughty. It was all pride and insolence.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. Darcy’s lack of remorse for what he had done to Jane makes Elizabeth angry. She doesn’t believe his explanation for persuading Bingley to ends things with her sister. Elizabeth, who is protective of Jane, puts it all down to Darcy’s insolent pride. The fuller quote: "His belief of her sister’s insensibility she instantly resolved to be false; and his account of the real, the worst objections to the match, made her too angry to have any wish of doing him justice. He expressed no regret for what he had done which satisfied her; his style was not penitent, but haughty. It was all pride and insolence."

What Wickham had said of the living was fresh in her memory, and as she recalled his very words, it was impossible not to feel that there was gross duplicity on one side or the other; and, for a few moments, she flattered herself that her wishes did not err.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. Darcy’s defense against George Wickham’s claims of mistreatment by him has certainly got Elizabeth’s attention. Darcy’s explanation turns out to be very different than the story Wickham told Elizabeth. She realizes that one of them is guilty of gross deception.

As to his real character, had information been in her power, she had never felt a wish of enquiring. His countenance, voice and manner had established him at once in the possession of every virtue.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. The realization that Elizabeth has been been wrong in her understanding of George Wickham hits home and hard. Because Wickham was charming and handsome, she decided from those first impressions that he must be a good person. So she failed to question the aspersions he cast on Darcy’s character and as a result was prejudiced against Darcy. But Darcy’s letter forces her to reconsider her opinion of Wickham, question her poor judgment of people and realize her lack of knowledge of herself.

She was now struck with the impropriety of such communications to a stranger, and wondered it had escaped her before. She saw the indelicacy of putting himself forward as he had done, and the inconsistency of his professions with his conduct.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. Elizabeth looks back with hindsight on her meetings and conversations with George Wickham. She starts to see those conversations in a different light, realizing now their "impropriety" and "indelicacy" and the "inconsistency" of what he was saying with his conduct. She is shocked at how blind she was.

"How despicably have I acted!" she cried; "I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust! How humiliating is this discovery! Yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind! But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 36. This is the pivotal moment of self-knowledge and self-rebuke for Elizabeth when she realizes how much her judgment has been clouded by her own pride and prejudice. She has read the long letter from Mr. Darcy explaining himself. For her it sheds a new and clear light on the noble qualities of Darcy’s character and the deceit and predatory nature of the handsome George Wickham, all of which she had been blind to. In a moment of epiphany for her, she recognizes that her belief in her good judgment of others was mere vanity, and that she never really knew herself until now. Using a metaphor, she compares her unwillingness to see the true characters of Darcy and Wickham to the blindness that a lover has for the flaws of their beloved.

Elizabeth could not see Lady Catherine without recollecting that, had she chosen it, she might by this time have been presented to her as her future niece; nor could she think, without a smile, of what her ladyship’s indignation would have been. "What would she have said? how would she have behaved?" were questions with which she amused herself.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 37. Elizabeth entertains herself at Lady Catherine’s expense. Each time Elizabeth looks at her she smiles at the thought that had she accepted Darcy’s proposal, she would have been presented as a future niece to the indignant Lady Catherine!

"There can be no occasion for your going so soon. Mrs. Bennet could certainly spare you for another fortnight."
"But my father cannot. He wrote last week to hurry my return."
"Oh! your father of course may spare you, if your mother can. Daughters are never of so much consequence to a father."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 37. Elizabeth moves to depart the parsonage at Hunsford and Lady Catherine insists that she stay for another two weeks. When Elizabeth says her father cannot spare her, Lady Catherine dismisses this saying that that daughters are not important to fathers. It’s true that in Austen’s time daughters of landed gentry were regarded as "never of so much consequence" when it came to inheritence rights. The patriarchal system severely limited women’s access to legal ownership of property.

Reflection must be reserved for solitary hours; whenever she was alone, she gave way to it as the greatest relief; and not a day went by without a solitary walk, in which she might indulge in all the delight of unpleasant recollections.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 37. While Elizabeth is generally a social person with a gift for witty conversation, during her last days at Hunsford and Rosings likes to go on solitary walks and reflect. She keeps thinking about the letter Darcy gave her.
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