Elizabeth Bennet Quotes

They were hopeless of remedy. Her father, contented with laughing at them, would never exert himself to restrain the wild giddiness of his youngest daughters; and her mother, with manners so far from right herself, was entirely insensible of the evil. Elizabeth had frequently united with Jane in an endeavour to check the imprudence of Catherine and Lydia; but while they were supported by their mother’s indulgence, what chance could there be of improvement? Catherine, weak-spirited, irritable, and completely under Lydia’s guidance, had been always affronted by their advice; and Lydia, self-willed and careless, would scarcely give them a hearing. They were ignorant, idle, and vain. While there was an officer in Meryton, they would flirt with him; and while Meryton was within a walk of Longbourn, they would be going there forever.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 37. Elizabeth reflects on the flaws of her family after reading Darcy’s letter. From her father’s judgmental sarcasm, to the flirtations of her wild youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia, to the unwillingness of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet to control their behavior – the family is beyond remedy, Elizabeth says.

Poor Charlotte! it was melancholy to leave her to such society! But she had chosen it with her eyes open; and though evidently regretting that her visitors were to go, she did not seem to ask for compassion. Her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their dependent concerns, had not yet lost their charms.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 38. On parting with Charlotte, Elizabeth reflects on her married life with Mr. Collins and living at close quarters to Lady Catherine. She feels sorry for her friend. But Elizabeth forgets that to Charlotte, happiness is – a comfortable home! She has sacrificed love and feelings for a better life through marriage with Mr. Collins.

"They are going to be encamped near Brighton; and I do so want papa to take us all there for the summer! It would be such a delicious scheme, and I dare say would hardly cost anything at all. Mamma would like to go too of all things! Only think what a miserable summer else we shall have!"
"Yes," thought Elizabeth, "that would be a delightful scheme indeed, and completely do for us at once. Good Heaven! Brighton, and a whole campful of soldiers, to us, who have been overset already by one poor regiment of militia, and the monthly balls of Meryton."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 39. Lydia wants her father to take the Bennet girls to Brighton, so she can flirt with the soldiers of the militia regiment who are leaving soon for the seaside resort. But Elizabeth is not so keen.

Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however incapable of such coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other than her own breast had harboured and fancied liberal.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 39. Elizabeth listens to Lydia call Wickham’s former girl Mary King a "nasty little freckled thing" and say that he never cared three straws about her. Elizabeth is shocked and reproaches herself for having similar uncharitable feelings. She sees others acting with a coarseness that she has been guilty of in her own thoughts. It is a moment of self-awareness for her, as her understanding and knowledge of herself continues to grow.

You never will be able to make both of them good for anything. Take your choice, but you must be satisfied with only one. There is but such a quantity of merit between them; just enough to make one good sort of man; and of late it has been shifting about pretty much. For my part, I am inclined to believe it all Darcy’s; but you shall do as you choose.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 40. Elizabeth is discussing Wickham and Darcy with Jane. In typical Elizabeth wit when commenting on the goodness of men, she delivers the memorable line that between the two there is just enough merit to make one good man. Darcy is that man, she declares.

Your profusion makes me saving; and if you lament over him much longer, my heart will be as light as a feather.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 40. When Jane joins Elizabeth in lamenting over how badly Darcy was treated, Elizabeth feels a sense of relief as her sister helps share her distress. Burdened by guilt over her misjudgment of Darcy, Elizabeth uses a simile to compare her heart to a feather. Jane and Elizabeth are two of the closest Bennet sisters and are very supportive of each other.

There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 40. What Elizabeth says to sister Jane concerning Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham highlights the dangers of judging a book by its cover, something she has been guilty of. Reading Darcy’s letter shocked her into self-knowledge, so that she now realizes that Darcy is the one with the goodness, while Wickham had only the appearance of it. Before this her prejudices about the two men she has been romantically associated with clouded her judgment about them.

One cannot always be laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 40. Elizabeth admits to Jane that she has been mistaken in her judgment of Darcy and she misused her wit to abuse him. This self-knowledge comes after the letter from Darcy to Elizabeth explaining the truth of his relationship with George Wickham. The fuller quote: "I meant to be uncommonly clever in taking so decided a dislike to him, without any reason. It is such a spur to one’s genius, such an opening for wit to have a dislike of that kind. One may be continually abusive without saying any thing just; but one cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty."

If I endeavor to undeceive people as to the rest of his conduct, who will believe me? The general prejudice against Mr. Darcy is so violent that it would be the death of half the good people in Meryton, to attempt to place him in an amiable light.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 40. Elizabeth decides that it is better not to reveal the true noble nature of Mr. Darcy’s dealings with Wickham. She accepts that she has done an injustice to Darcy with her misjudgment of him. But she does nothing to correct the false perception of him since the prejudice against him is so strong she believes that she cannot overcome it. So people will continue to deceive themselves about Darcy until they find out for themselves.

"Lydia will never be easy until she has exposed herself in some public place or other, and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense or inconvenience to her family as under the present circumstances."
"If you were aware," said Elizabeth, "of the very great disadvantage to us all which must arise from the public notice of Lydia’s unguarded and imprudent manner – nay, which has already arisen from it, I am sure you would judge differently in the affair."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 41. This is Mr. Bennet’s final word on Lydia’s wish to to go to Brighton, where the militia regiment is relocating. A believer in the passive parenting, Mr. Bennet doesn’t see any problem with Lydia’s trip. He thinks there will be little cost or inconvenience for the family if she goes. This is despite his eldest daughter Elizabeth’s warning that Lydia’s wild behavior will impact the family negatively. But Mr. Bennet turns out to be so wrong, and Elizabeth’s worst fears come to pass. This exchange is foreshadowing of the trouble that Lydia is about to bring down on the Bennets.

Our importance, our respectability in the world must be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia’s character. Excuse me – for I must speak plainly. If you, my dear father, will not take the trouble of checking her exuberant spirits, and of teaching her that her present pursuits are not to be the business of her life, she will soon be beyond the reach of amendment. Her character will be fixed, and she will, at sixteen, be the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 41. Elizabeth lectures her father over his questionable parenting of his youngest daughter Lydia. Fifteen-year-old Lydia has received an invitation from the wife of Colonel Forster to come with the militia regiment to Brighton. But Elizabeth is opposed to the wild and unrestrained Lydia going, ominously warning that she will become the "most determined flirt" and damage the family’s reputation and standing. Mr. Bennet fails to "check" his daughter’s "exuberant spirits" as demanded by Elizabeth, with very troubling consequences later on, as we discover. This foreshadows the scandal Lydia will soon become embroiled in.

Elizabeth, however, had never been blind to the impropriety of her father’s behaviour as a husband. She had always seen it with pain; but respecting his abilities, and grateful for his affectionate treatment of herself, she endeavoured to forget what she could not overlook, and to banish from her thoughts that continual breach of conjugal obligation and decorum which, in exposing his wife to the contempt of her own children, was so highly reprehensible. But she had never felt so strongly as now the disadvantages which must attend the children of so unsuitable a marriage.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 42. Even Mr. Bennet’s favorite daughter Elizabeth is critical of his behavior as a husband. She reflects on his "reprehensible" treatment of his wife by continually exposing her to the contempt of her own children. Elizabeth feels strongly that her parents are unsuited to one another and this has disadvantaged their children.

Elizabeth was distressed. She felt that she had no business at Pemberley, and was obliged to assume a disinclination for seeing it. She must own that she was tired of great houses; after going over so many, she really had no pleasure in fine carpets or satin curtains…The possibility of meeting Mr. Darcy, while viewing the place, instantly occurred. It would be dreadful!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 42. When Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner invite Elizabeth to visit Darcy’s estate of Pemberley, she is very hesitant and seeks reassurance that he will not be there. She finds the thought of running into Darcy at Pemberley too much to contemplate and only agrees to go after she learns that none of the family will be there.

Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high flutter. The park was very large, and contained great variety of ground. They entered it in one of its lowest points, and drove for some time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. The chapter’s opening lines describes Elizabeth’s arrival at Pemberley with her aunt and uncle. Her visit turns out to be a key event, for she not only meets Darcy but he reveals his true and real self to her. The description of her spirits being in a "high flutter" suggests that Elizabeth is in love with, not just Pemberley, but its owner Darcy.

They gradually ascended for half a mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome, stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills; – and in front, a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal, nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place where nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Elizabeth gets her first view of the estate that will eventually become her home when she visit Pemberley with Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. She and her aunt and uncle are impressed by the beauty and elegance of Pemberley House and its grounds. For a moment Elizabeth even imagines herself being mistress of Mr. Darcy’s home. Her appreciation of Pemberley during her tour of it – "a large, handsome, stone building" – foreshadows her eventual realization of her love for Darcy and that she will become mistress of Pemberley. It is believed that Jane Austen may have based her idea of Darcy’s fictional country estate of Pemberley on Chatsworth House. Chatsworth is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and can trace its history back to 1549, when the Cavandish family acquired the estate. The beautiful 105-acre Chatsworth gardens are world famous and attract more than one million visitors a year. The stately home features extensively in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film as Mr. Darcy’s residence.

Elizabeth, after slightly surveying it, went to a window to enjoy its prospect. The hill, crowned with wood, from which they had descended, receiving increased abruptness from the distance, was a beautiful object. Every disposition of the ground was good; and she looked on the whole scene, the river, the trees scattered on its banks, and the winding of the valley, as far as she could trace it, with delight.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. During Elizabeth’s first visit to Pemberley she is impressed by the beauty of the grounds, as she views them through a window of Darcy’s country estate home.

The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Elizabeth praises the tastefully furnished and elegant rooms in Darcy’s Pemberley. She compares them to those in in Lady Catherine’s home of Rosings, which were more splendid but less elegant. Her verdict: Darcy has more taste than his aristocratic aunt. But is it Darcy’s rooms she loves – or Darcy?

"And of this place," thought she, "I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own, and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt. But no," – recollecting herself – "that could never be; my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. As Elizabeth wanders around Pemberley room by room, she is struck by the realization that she could have been mistress of the estate. It is only on seeing Darcy’s country home, that she can imagine herself being Mrs. Darcy. But amid her day-dreaming, the reality hits that if she married Darcy she could not invite Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner over because of Darcy’s class prejudice.

On reaching the spacious lobby above they were shown into a very pretty sitting-room, lately fitted up with greater elegance and lightness than the apartments below; and were informed that it was but just done to give pleasure to Miss Darcy, who had taken a liking to the room when last at Pemberley.
"He is certainly a good brother," said Elizabeth, as she walked towards one of the windows.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Family is important to Darcy and he is a good and caring brother, Elizabeth discovers when she is taken into an attractive sitting room. His sister Georgiana took a liking to the room when she last visited Pemberley, so Darcy had it more elegantly fitted out for her pleasure.

"If your master would marry, you might see more of him."
"Yes, sir; but I do not know when that will be. I do not know who is good enough for him."
Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner smiled. Elizabeth could not help saying, "It is very much to his credit, I am sure, that you should think so."
"I say no more than the truth, and everybody will say that knows him," replied the other. Elizabeth thought this was going pretty far; and she listened with increasing astonishment as the housekeeper added, "I have never known a cross word from him in my life, and I have known him ever since he was four years old."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Elizabeth is taken aback as Mrs. Reynolds has high praise for her master Mr. Darcy in conversation with Mr. Gardiner. She tells him that she doesn’t know when Mr. Darcy might marry as she doesn’t know "who is good enough for him." She also claims to have never heard a cross word from him since he was a young child. Elizabeth is astonished as this has not been her experience with Darcy.

There was certainly at this moment, in Elizabeth’s mind, a more gentle sensation towards the original, that she had ever felt in the height of their acquaintance.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. This line speaks to Elizabeth’s changing relationship with Darcy on her first visit to Pemberley. As she contemplates the smiling portrait of Darcy in the gallery and after his servant speaks so highly of him, she has a "more gentle" feeling towards the real Darcy. The realization of her love for him perhaps?

The picture-gallery, and two or three of the principal bedrooms, were all that remained to be shown. In the former were many good paintings; but Elizabeth knew nothing of the art; and from such as had been already visible below, she had willingly turned to look at some drawings of Miss Darcy’s, in crayons, whose subjects were usually more interesting, and also more intelligible.
In the gallery there were many family portraits, but they could have little to fix the attention of a stranger. Elizabeth walked in quest of the only face whose features would be known to her. At last it arrested her – and she beheld a striking resemblance to Mr. Darcy, with such a smile over the face as she remembered to have sometimes seen when he looked at her. She stood several minutes before the picture, in earnest contemplation, and returned to it again before they quitted the gallery. Mrs. Reynolds informed them that it had been taken in his father’s lifetime.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. There is much homage to family in Darcy’s portrait gallery in Pemberley, Elizabeth discovers when she views it. Many family portraits are on view. Elizabeth is interested in the drawings of Georgiana but is particularly drawn to the portrait of Mr. Darcy himself. She stands for several minutes before Darcy’s likeness in deep contemplation, even returning for a second look after they quit the gallery. Darcy is wearing the same smile that Elizabeth remembers when he sometimes looked at her. Elizabeth learns from the housekeeper that the picture was taken in his father’s lifetime.

Her astonishment, however, was extreme, and continually was she repeating, "Why is he so altered? From what can it proceed? It cannot be for me, it cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened. My reproofs at Hunsford could not work such a change as this. It is impossible that he should still love me."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Darcy suddenly appears at Pemberley and he is very polite and civil to everyone, including Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Elizabeth is astonished at how the old socially awkward, rude Darcy has changed. Could it be love for Elizabeth? Impossible, she says, still the unbeliever. Elizabeth and Darcy still continue to dance around each other.

Elizabeth, on her side, had much to do. She wanted to ascertain the feelings of each of her visitors; she wanted to compose her own, and to make herself agreeable to all; and in the latter object, where she feared most to fail, she was most sure of success, for those to whom she endeavoured to give pleasure were prepossessed in her favour. Bingley was ready, Georgiana was eager, and Darcy determined, to be pleased.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 44. Elizabeth is surprised when Mr. Darcy, Georgiana and Charles Bingley show up for a visit at the inn at Lambton where she is staying with her aunt and uncle. Initially nervous at their sudden appearance a day before they were expected, she soon regains her self-confidence as they meet face to face. Anxious to please her company, Elizabeth need not have worried. For Austen describes beautifully how Elizabeth finds them "prepossessed in her favour" with each in turn "ready," "eager" and "determined" to be pleased – three words that sum up the mood of her visitors. Any barriers that may have existed before, including those of class and misunderstanding, appear to have melted away. They meet as equals. Elizabeth goes on to observe that Bingley and Georgiana are not romantically interested in each other, proving Caroline Bingley’s claim a fiction. She also finds that Mr. Darcy continuing to show good manners.
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