Mr. Darcy Quotes

I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world that he can spare from me. You are all to come to Pemberley at Christmas.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60. Announcing her engagement to Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth writes a letter to the Gardiners expressing her great joy with her typical Lizzy wit. Now that she is mistress of Pemberley, she invites them there for Christmas.

I wish you joy. If you love Mr. Darcy half as well as I do my dear Wickham, you must be very happy. It is a great comfort to have you so rich, and when you have nothing else to do, I hope you will think of us. I am sure Wickham would like a place at court very much, and I do not think we shall have quite money enough to live upon without some help. Any place would do, of about three or four hundred a year; but however, do not speak to Mr. Darcy about it, if you had rather not.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 61. In the novel’s last chapter, the author gives me a glimpse of what the future might be for all the characters. Here in Lydia’s congratulatory letter to Elizabeth on her marriage, we have Austen’s final word on Lydia and Wickham. It comes as no surprise that Lydia is asking for money, and for Darcy to help Wickham get a place and an income at court. Lydia’s request is almost certainly manipulated by the mercenary and fortune-seeking Wickham, who has a track record of using women to get money and is targeting his now wealthy sister-in-law and her husband Darcy.

Georgiana had the highest opinion in the world of Elizabeth; though at first she often listened with an astonishment bordering on alarm at her lively, sportive, manner of talking to her brother. He, who had always inspired in herself a respect which almost overcame her affection, she now saw the object of open pleasantry. Her mind received knowledge which had never before fallen in her way. By Elizabeth’s instructions, she began to comprehend that a woman may take liberties with her husband, which a brother will not always allow in a sister more than ten years younger than himself.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 61. After their marriage Elizabeth doesn’t waste any time in educating Darcy in how to enjoy being laughed at. And she has a very willing pupil in Darcy’s younger sister Georgiana, who learns that a wife can take liberties with her husband that a younger sister cannot.

By Elizabeth’s persuasion, he was prevailed on to overlook the offence, and seek a reconciliation; and, after a little farther resistance on the part of his aunt, her resentment gave way, either to her affection for him, or her curiosity to see how his wife conducted herself: and she condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that pollution which its woods had received, not merely from the presence of such a mistress, but the visits of her uncle and aunt from the city.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 61. After the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth, Lady Catherine is so angry that she sends her nephew Darcy a letter full of abuse, especially towards Elizabeth. But in the above passage we learn that Elizabeth plays the role of peacemaker and persuades Darcy to seek a reconciliation with his aunt. Lady Catherine "condescends" to visit them at Pemberley in spite of the "pollution" that the great lady had forecast would descend on the place if the lowly Elizabeth married into her family. In her final word on Lady Catherine, Austen mercilessly satirizes upper class snobbery in her deliciously sarcastic and ironic style – as only she can do.
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