Mr. Darcy Quotes

A man who has once been refused! How could I ever be foolish enough to expect a renewal of his love? Is there one among the sex who would not protest against such a weakness as a second proposal to the same woman? There is no indignity so abhorrent to their feelings!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 54. Elizabeth says this as Darcy walks away to another part of the room at Longbourn and she envies everyone he speaks to. She is angry at herself for being "so silly" in refusing his first proposal. She doesn’t expect a second.

"And this," said she, "is the end of all his friend’s anxious circumspection! of all his sister’s falsehood and contrivance! – the happiest, wisest, most reasonable end!"

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 55. Elizabeth is delighted and relieved that after months of "suspense and vexation" Mr. Bingley and Jane have got engaged. For her it is a happy ending to Darcy’s "anxious circumspection" about the match and Caroline Bingley’s "falsehood and contrivance" in her deception towards Jane.

This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence, and the little value he put on his own good qualities. Elizabeth was pleased to find that he had not betrayed the interference of his friend; for, though Jane had the most generous and forgiving heart in the world, she knew it was a circumstance which must prejudice her against him.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 55. Jane is understanding of Mr. Bingley for initially abandoning her and taking off to London, and she praises his shyness and modesty. Elizabeth is relieved that her sister doesn’t know the role Darcy had in Bingley’s departure, otherwise the usually forgiving Jane would be prejudiced against him.

A report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago. I was told that not only your sister was on the point of being most advantageously married, but that you, that Miss Elizabeth Bennet, would in all likelihood be soon afterwards united to my nephew – my own nephew – Mr. Darcy.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. Lady Catherine de Bourgh pays an unexpected call on the Bennet family, where she targets Elizabeth. What follows is of the most fascinating and captivating battle of wits in all of English literature. In her opening shot Lady Catherine expresses her alarm over a report she received that Elizabeth is likely to marry her nephew Mr. Darcy.

If Mr. Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. A defiant Elizabeth rejects Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s demands to give up all claims on Mr. Darcy, since Lady Catherine and her sister decided long ago that he would marry Lady Catherine’s daughter. Elizabeth also indicates here that she is not opposed to the idea of marrying Darcy – foreshadowing his second proposal to her and her acceptance.

In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, 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 is 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.

You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends, and make him the contempt of the world.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. Obsessed with status, Lady Catherine warns Elizabeth that her marriage to Darcy would bring ruin and contempt upon him. Lady Catherine is a symbol of the class system and the social hierarchy in the England of Austen’s time. Austen is satirizing these here through Lady Catherine’s dismissal of Elizabeth as an inferior who would somehow pollute the upper-class gene pool if she were allowed marry Darcy.

Mr. Darcy, you see, is the man! Now, Lizzy, I think I have surprised you. Could he or the Lucases have pitched on any man, within the circle of our acquaintance, whose name would have given the lie more effectually to what they related? Mr. Darcy, who never looks at any woman but to see a blemish, and who probably never looked at you in his life! It is admirable!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57. Mr. Bennet tells Elizabeth that he has received a letter from Mr. Collins which has astonished him, saying that his daughter Elizabeth will not long bear the name of Bennet. The chosen partner is "one of the most illustrious personages in this land" and that man is Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bennet reveals. The fact that Mr. Bennet thinks the idea of a match between his daughter and Mr. Darcy is ridiculous is an example of dramatic irony. For he is unaware of the growing chemistry and connection that the two share.

That is what makes it amusing. Had they fixed on any other man it would have been nothing; but his perfect indifference, and your pointed dislike, make it so delightfully absurd!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57. There is dramatic irony here when Mr. Bennet tries to make light of a letter from Mr. Collins referring to a rumor about a possible engagement between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Her father thinks that this is hilarious, in view of what he says are Darcy’s indifference to Elizabeth and her complete dislike of him. Little does he know! His daughter’s feelings towards Darcy are quite the opposite. Elizabeth has strong romantic feelings for him and now regrets refusing his marriage proposal.

She went boldly on with him alone. Now was the moment for her resolution to be executed, and, while her courage was high, she immediately said:
"Mr. Darcy, I am a very selfish creature; and, for the sake of giving relief to my own feelings, care not how much I may be wounding yours. I can no longer help thanking you for your unexampled kindness to my poor sister."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. During a walk in the country Elizabeth finds herself alone with Mr. Darcy. She gathers up her courage to thank him for helping her sister Lydia during their family crisis.

"If you will thank me," he replied, "let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. When Elizabeth thanks Mr. Darcy for helping her sister Lydia after she ran away with Wickham, Darcy declares his affection for Elizabeth. He did it all for her, he reveals.

Elizabeth was much too embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, "You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever." Elizabeth feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand, that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure, his present assurances.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. If at first your don’t succeed…the climax of Austen’s classic story of love and misunderstanding arrives with Mr. Darcy’s famous second proposal and Elizabeth’s acceptance of it. Moments before Elizabeth learned that Darcy intervened to save Lydia because of his affection for Elizabeth. She is speechless with embarrassment, and Darcy uses the opportunity to propose again. Elizabeth clearly wasn’t ready to receive Darcy’s first proposal and his declaration of "how ardently I admire and love you." That proposal was also clumsily presented by Darcy, who spoke of how he struggled to repress his feelings and referred to Elizabeth’s inferior social position and family obstacles. But what an insulted Elizabeth didn’t understand then was that Darcy was trying to explain how he loved her in spite of her position and family connections. The second time round when Darcy proposes and Elizabeth accepts, it is more a conversation of equals instead of one or the other thinking that they are superior. Class is not a barrier. Also Darcy’s less prideful second proposal suggests no expectation on his part that Elizabeth will automatically accept him, as clearly was the expectation first time round. Elizabeth sees Darcy in a different light now as well, her stubbornness and prejudice against him having given way to a deeper understanding of his true character: honest and noble and a person of integrity. She has matured and grown to this point where she is ready to accept him.

The happiness which this reply produced, was such as he had probably never felt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. Darcy is filled with happiness when Elizabeth accepts his second proposal. He is said to express himself "as warmly as a man violently in love." Does that mean that they embraced, or even kissed? It’s not spelled out, except to say it was "violent" and "warm," and so the debate on how Darcy expressed his love continues to this day.

They walked on, without knowing in what direction. There was too much to be thought, and felt, and said, for attention to any other objects.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. After a relationship dogged by pridefulness, prejudice and misunderstandings, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy finally have their perfect story-tale happy ending. The barriers that they put up against each other have been taken down, and Elizabeth has accepted his marriage proposal. They walk on, their attention on nothing but each other, alone to express their true feelings to each other and plan a life together. It is the moment that they and every reader of the novel has been waiting for. Sadly Jane Austen’s own story with her real-life Mr. Darcy didn’t have the same happy ending. Darcy is believed to be partly based on Irish judge and politician Thomas Lefroy. The Limerick born Lefroy and Austen were said to have a flirtation and spent some time together. In a letter to her sister Cassandra Austen in 1796 she wrote: "At length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea." Both Jane and Cassandra never married but Lefroy married Mary Paul from Wexford, Ireland, in 1799. Just three years before this Jane told Cassandra in a letter: "At length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea."

What did you say of me that I did not deserve? For, though your accusations were ill-founded, formed on mistaken premises, my behaviour to you at the time had merited the severest reproof. It was unpardonable. I cannot think of it without abhorrence…I cannot be so easily reconciled to myself. The recollection of what I then said, of my conduct, my manners, my expressions during the whole of it, is now, and has been many months, inexpressibly painful to me. Your reproof, so well applied, I shall never forget: "Had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner." Those were your words. You know not, you can scarcely conceive, how they have tortured me; – though it was some time, I confess, before I was reasonable enough to allow their justice.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. Darcy reveals to Elizabeth that her refusal of his first proposal helped to open his eyes. He accepts that he behaved in an ungentlemanly fashion and his unpardonable behavior deserved her strongest reproof. His character has changed and developed as a result of Elizabeth’s rebuke of his manners and conduct. He has learned a great deal about himself and is brave enough to admit his fault.

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. Mr. Darcy’s journey to self-discovery has brought him to this important moment of clarity and humility. Darcy has just proposed to Elizabeth and she has accepted. In this speech to Elizabeth he acknowledges his selfishness and pride and vanity all his life, having being spoiled by both parents. His father taught him to be overbearing, to care for none outside his family circle, and also to think meanly of the worth of others compared to his own. He acknowledges the debt that he owes to Elizabeth for changing all that: humbling him and ridding him of his pretensions. His deep love for Elizabeth comes through when he tenderly refers to her as "a woman worthy of being pleased."

She remembered that he had yet to learn to be laughed at, and it was rather too early to begin.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58. After learning that Darcy effectively gave "permission" to Charles Bingley to propose to Jane, Elizabeth longs to tease Darcy about his easily persuadable "friend". But she stops herself because she doesn’t want to hurt her future husband’s feelings. Darcy is not ready to be laughed at yet, she decides. Darcy admits twice interfering in Bingley’s relationship with Jane, once to separate them because he thought she didn’t love Bingley, then to bring them back together. The quick-witted Elizabeth finds irony in the fact that Bingley is such a good friend of Darcy’s and yet a good friend is so easily influenced. However, she decides to keep her ironic wit under control on this occasion. Here is the expanded quote: "Elizabeth longed to observe that Mr. Bingley had been a most delightful friend; so easily guided that his worth was invaluable; but she checked herself. She remembered that he had yet to learn to be laughed at, and it was rather too early to begin. In anticipating the happiness of Bingly, which of course was to be inferior only to his own, he continued the conversation till they reached the house."

"You are joking, Lizzy. This cannot be! – engaged to Mr. Darcy! – No, no, you shall not deceive me. I know it to be impossible."
"This is a wretched beginning indeed! My sole dependence was on you; and I am sure nobody else will believe me, if you do not. Yet, indeed, I am in earnest. I speak nothing but the truth. He still loves me, and we are engaged."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59. When Elizabeth opens her heart to Jane and tells her of her engagement to Darcy, her sister is flabbergasted. She thinks that Elizabeth who hates Darcy must be deceiving her. But Elizabeth assures her that Darcy still loves her and the engagement is real.

"Lizzy," said he, "what are you doing? Are you out of your senses, to be accepting this man? Have not you always hated him?"
"I do, I do like him," she replied, with tears in her eyes; "I love him. Indeed he has no improper pride. He is perfectly amiable. You do not know what he really is; then pray do not pain me by speaking of him in such terms."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59. An incredulous Mr. Bennet walks around the room of his house looking grave and anxious, and wonders why his daughter wants to marry a man that she has always hated. But Elizabeth blurts out that she loves Mr. Darcy and that he has no improper pride. She tells him that it pains her to hear him speak badly of Darcy, that her father doesn’t know Mr. Darcy’s real character.

Good gracious! Lord bless me! only think! dear me! Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it? And is it really true? Oh! my sweetest Lizzy! how rich and great you will be! What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! Jane’s is nothing to it – nothing at all. I am so pleased – so happy. Such a charming man! – so handsome! so tall! Oh, my dear Lizzy! Pray apologize for my having disliked him so much before. I hope he will overlook it. Dear, dear Lizzy. A house in town! Everything that is charming!…Ten thousand a year, and very likely more! ‘Tis as good as a Lord!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59. A giddy Mrs. Bennet rhapsodizes over Elizabeth’s engagement to Mr. Darcy, hardly able to believe her ears when her daughter announces the good news. She is ecstatic that Elizabeth is going to be rich, even richer than Jane. Her previous dislike of Mr. Darcy all of a sudden vanishes. The person she once described as "a most disagreeable, horrid man" is now "charming" and "handsome." Of course Darcy’s considerable wealth buys a lot of credit with Mrs. Bennet, it is his ten thousand a year income that she finds most attractive in him – "as good as a Lord!" For Mrs. Bennet, pin-money, jewels and carriages are what make Darcy and her daughter a good match. At the beginning of the novel we learned that the business of Mrs. Bennet’s life was to see her daughters married. Now with three of them finding husbands, one of the novel’s most mocked characters has achieved much of what she set out to do.

She wanted Mr. Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her. "How could you begin?" said she. "I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in the first place?"
"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60. Many of the novel’s readers would like to believe that it was love at first sight for Darcy. In this passage Elizabeth asks him to account for his falling in love with her. Darcy seems cagey with his answer, unable to pinpoint the moment or the place. But he does admit that it was long ago and he was in the throes of love before he knew it. Does that qualify for love at first sight? Or second sight perhaps?

The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60. The independent-minded, outspoken and spirited Elizabeth tells Mr. Darcy why he was attracted to her. She suggests that he was sick of deferential women who always pandered to his approval. She was different to those kind of upper class women he was used to. Elizabeth is right here, Darcy was aroused by her high degree of intelligence and lively personality, not by any learned accomplishments that women in his circle tended to educate themselves with. One of the main themes of the novel is the nature of a strong and happy marriage. For Elizabeth it is a mix of affection, character and mutual respect.

"What made you so shy of me, when you first called, and afterwards dined here? Why, especially, when you called, did you look as if you did not care about me?"
"Because you were grave and silent, and gave me no encouragement."
"But I was embarrassed."
"And so was I."
"You might have talked to me more when you came to dinner."
"A man who had felt less, might."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60. Elizabeth and Darcy have come a long way since the barbed and awkward conversations they once shared. In this passage the tone is less sparring and combative, and a lot more tender, as they arrive at a greater understanding of each other and themselves. When Elizabeth teases Darcy on why he was so quiet when he came to dinner, he reveals in the brilliant last line, that his shyness was not a sign of coldness but of the deep feelings he had for her.
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