Pride and Prejudice Quotes

"Do not give way to useless alarm," added he; "though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Mr. Gardiner says this to his sister Mrs. Bennet, assuring the family that he would be in London the next day and would help Mr. Bennet "in every endeavour for recovering Lydia." There is consternation in the Bennet family when Lydia runs off to London with Wickham and Mr. Bennet goes there to track them down.

Loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. The teenage tearaway of the Bennet family Lydia has run off with George Wickham. Her sister Mary draws what she believes is an important moral lesson from Lydia’s elopment. She speaks of the frailty of a woman’s reputation, warning her other sisters that once a woman loses her virtue it cannot be recovered. Here she is echoing how highly prized a woman’s virtue and moral reputation were at the time, if she aspired to have a decent life for herself and maintain the respect of society.

You need not send them word at Longbourn of my going, if you do not like it, for it will make the surprise the greater, when I write to them, and sign my name "Lydia Wickham." What a good joke it will be! I can hardly write for laughing.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Lydia writes this in the letter she leaves behind when she elopes with Wickham. In the note, sent to Colonel Forster’s wife, Lydia refers to Wickham as the "one man in the world I love, and he is an angel." To Lydia, running off with a man is a huge joke. But in her foolishness she doesn’t stop to think about the repercussions of her actions for her and her sisters.

Under such a misfortune as this, one cannot see too little of one’s neighbours. Assistance is impossible; condolence insufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Elizabeth is bent on keeping nosey neighbors at arms length after the scandal of Lydia’s elopement with Wickham. She has just learned from Jane that Lady Lucas called to offer her condolences and services – "she had better have stayed at home," Elizabeth retorts.

All Meryton seemed striving to blacken the man who, but three months before, had been almost an angel of light. He was declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and his intrigues, all honoured with the title of seduction, had been extended into every tradesman’s family. Everybody declared that he was the wickedest young man in the world; and everybody began to find out, that they had always distrusted the appearance of his goodness.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 48. The gossip machine cranks into top gear in Meryton after Wickham runs away with Lydia. In the residents’ crosshairs are the one-time "angel of light" who is now branded the "wickedest young man in the world" and credited with seducing someone in "every tradesman’s family." It’s discovered too that he owes a lot of money to people in the locality. There is ironic description in this passage. You have the metaphorical description of Wickham as "almost an angel of light," which conjures up the image of Lucifer (meaning light-bearing in Latin). Also Wickham’s intrigues are said to be "honoured" with the "title of seduction."

I feel myself called upon, by our relationship, and my situation in life, to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now suffering under…No arguments shall be wanting on my part, that can alleviate so severe a misfortune – or that may comfort you, under a circumstance that must be, of all others, most afflicting to a parent’s mind. The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented, because there is reason to suppose, as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter, has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence, though, at the same time, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity, at so early an age…Let me advise you then, my dear Sir, to console yourself as much as possible, to throw off your unworthy child from your affection for ever, and leave her to reap the fruits of her own heinous offence.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 48. Clergymen console members of their flock who are in pain or difficulty in different ways. But Mr. Collins’s style is the most unique and strangest of all. On the matter of Lydia’s elopement and promiscuous behavior, he writes to Mr. Bennet to "condole" with him on his "grevious affliction." Then he suggests that the death of his daughter would have been a blessing in comparison with this. He goes on to insult the family, criticizing the parents for their bad parenting by indulging Lydia. Then he advises Mr. Bennet to disown his daughter. Austen is satirizing Collins here and being wickedly ironic. The irony is in the fact that it is supposed to be a consolation letter, but most of it is spent attacking the Bennet family.

You are grievously to be pitied; in which opinion I am not only joined by Mrs. Collins, but likewise by Lady Catherine and her daughter, to whom I have related the affair. They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family? And this consideration leads me moreover to reflect, with augmented satisfaction, on a certain event of last November; for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved in all your sorrow and disgrace.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 48. When Lydia runs off with Wickham, Mr. Collins effectively kicks the Bennet family when they are down. In an extremely rude letter of condolences to Mr. Bennet, he tells him that Lydia’s promiscuous behavior will harm the prospects of the rest of his daughters marrying well. He plays the class card and quotes his patroness Lady Catherine saying that nobody will want to have anything to do with such a family. Recalling Elizabeth’s rejection of his own marriage proposal, Mr. Collins counts his blessings that he didn’t marry into the family, as this would have involved him in their disgrace.

You go to Brighton. I would not trust you so near it as East Bourne for fifty pounds! No, Kitty, I have at last learnt to be cautious, and you will feel the effects of it. No officer is ever to enter my house again, nor even to pass through the village. Balls will be absolutely prohibited, unless you stand up with one of your sisters. And you are never to stir out of doors till you can prove that you have spent ten minutes of every day in a rational manner.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 48. Mr. Bennet has learned the lessons of bad parenting – but a little too late. Here he responds to Kitty, when she says that if she should ever go to Brighton she would behave better than Lydia. Mr. Bennet decrees that from now on: no officer in the house, no balls, no going out for his daughters until they prove they can behave themselves at home. Too late to save Lydia from scandal, however.

Yes, yes they must marry. There is nothing else to be done. But there are two things that I want every much to know – one is, how much money your uncle has laid down, to bring it about; and the other is, how I am ever to pay him.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 49. Mr. Bennet responds to Mr. Gardiner’s letter stating that Wickham and Lydia have been persuaded to marry if Wickham has his debts paid and receives a small yearly stipend. Mr. Bennet suspects that Mr. Gardiner has already paid Wickham a great deal of his own money and he dislikes the idea of being indebted to his brother-in-law. Wickham is being paid to wed Lydia.

To know that her daughter would be married was enough. She was disturbed by no fear for her felicity, nor humbled by any remembrance of her misconduct.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 49. Mrs. Bennet can hardly contain herself on hearing that Wickham is essentially being bribed to marry Lydia – "her joy burst forth," we learn. She is totally unconcerned about her youngest daughter’s happiness, nor is she bothered by any memories of her scandalous misbehavior. Mrs. Bennet’s only focus is on marrying off her daughters.

Well! I am so happy! In a short time I shall have a daughter married. Mrs. Wickham! – how well it sounds! And she was only sixteen last June.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 49. After her previous regrets and lamentations about Lydia’s elopement and hurling invectives against the "villainous" Wickham, Mrs. Bennet is now in raptures over her daughter marrying him. Mrs. Bennet flip flops a lot between ecstacy over her schemes to get husbands for her daughters and lamentations about her personal suffering when these don’t work. After receiving her brother Mr. Gardiner’s letter that Lydia is to be wed to Wickham and her reputation saved, Mrs. Bennet suddenly reverses her opinion on the character of the fortune-hunting Wickham. Now he is fit to be her son-in-law. Here again the shallow, foolish, tiresome and vacuous Mrs. Bennet makes us laugh – but at her! The passage is another example of Austen’s fine use of ironic humor. Mr. Gardiner’s letter explains that Wickham will wed Lydia if Mr. Bennet pays Wickham a small sum of money annually to Wickham – the Bennets suspect that Mr. Gardiner has also already paid Wickham a good deal. The fuller quote of Mrs. Bennet’s reaction to this news from her brother: "It is all very right; who should do it but her own uncle? If he had not had a family of his own, I and my children must have had all his money, you know; and it is the first time we have ever had anything from him, except a few presents. Well! I am so happy! In a short time I shall have a daughter married. Mrs. Wickham! How well it sounds!"

The marriage of a daughter, which had been the first object of her wishes since Jane was sixteen, was now on the point of accomplishment, and her thoughts and her words ran wholly on those attendants of elegant nuptials, fine muslins, new carriages, and servants.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50. Instead of concerning herself with her youngest daughter Lydia’s moral behavior, Mrs. Bennet worries about carriages and servants and expensive wedding outfits – without regard to whether Lydia and Wickham can afford all this.

Had Lydia’s marriage been concluded on the most honourable terms, it was not to be supposed that Mr. Darcy would connect himself with a family where, to every other objection would now be added, an alliance and relationship of the nearest kind with the man whom he so justly scorned.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50. Elizabeth is concerned that Lydia’s marriage to Wickham will push Darcy further away from her. She cannot see him wanting to connect with a family that has made an alliance with the man he rightly scorned. To Elizabeth, she and Darcy appear even more separated now by Lydia’s marriage.

From such a connection she could not wonder that he would shrink. The wish of procuring her regard, which she had assured herself of his feeling in Derbyshire, could not in rational expectation survive such a blow as this. She was humbled, she was grieved; she repented, though she hardly knew of what. She became jealous of his esteem, when she could no longer hope to be benefited by it. She wanted to hear of him, when there seemed the least chance of gaining intelligence. She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50. After Elizabeth learns that Lydia will marry Wickham, she takes the opportunity to think more deeply about her feelings for Darcy. While her rival for Darcy’s affections Caroline Bingley is jealous of her, Elizabeth is only jealous of winning Darcy’s admiration. She longs for him and wants to hear of him. But she is fearful that his feelings for her in Derbyshire will not survive the scandal with Lydia. Now that Wickham has married into the Bennet family, she expects that Darcy will keep his distance from her. Is Elizabeth at last realizing that she is hopelessly in love with Darcy?

What a triumph for him, as she often thought, could he know that the proposals which she had proudly spurned only four months ago, would now have been gladly and gratefully received! He was as generous, she doubted not, as the most generous of his sex; but while he was mortal, there must be a triumph.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50. Elizabeth ponders what she has lost by her proud rejection of Mr. Darcy’s marriage proposal. Her views of and feelings for Darcy have since dramatically changed. Now she thinks him as the most generous man and if he proposed now she would "gladly and gratefully" accept him.

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

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50. After her frosty rejection of Darcy’s first proposal of marriage, Elizabeth realizes that he is exactly the man most suited to her. As she grows in self-knowledge and gets to know the true Darcy, she realizes how flawed her perceptions of him have been. But has her realization come too late? The fuller quote shows the greater understanding she now has of Darcy’s true nature and character and how compatible they are: "She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her. His understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have answered all her wishes. It was an union that must have been to the advantage of both; by her ease and liveliness, his mind might have been softened, his manners improved; and from his judgment, information, and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of greater importance."

How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50. The narrator warns of the dangers involved in allowing passions overrule virtue. This refers to Lydia’s whirlwind affair with George Wickham when the boy-crazy fifteen-year-old elopes with the military officer to go to Gretna Green. This is a place in Scotland where fast weddings were performed for eloping couples. But it turns out that the pair don’t go there and instead went to a love nest in London.

Elizabeth was disgusted, and even Miss Bennet was shocked. Lydia was Lydia still – untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless. She turned from sister to sister, demanding their congratulations; and when at length they all sat down, looked eagerly round the room, took notice of some little alteration in it, and observed, with a laugh, that it was a great while since she had been there.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. Arriving back to Longbourn after her marriage to Wickham, Lydia still has the capacity to shock Elizabeth and Jane with her behavior. They view her as wild and untamed and completely unabashed by what she had done – run off with Wickham, unmarried.

Oh! Mamma, do the people hereabouts know I am married to-day? I was afraid they might not; and we overtook William Goulding in his curricle, so I was determined he should know it, and so I let down the side glass next to him, and took off my glove and let my hand just rest upon the window-frame, so that he might see the ring; and then I bowed and smiled like anything.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. On her wedding day when Lydia returns home to Longbourn, she remains oblivious to the family consternation and embarrassment she has caused. Amid the distress of a number of family members, Lydia chooses to ignore this and prattles on about being married to Wickham that day and how anxious she is to make everybody in the locality aware of the news.

What do you think of my husband? Is not he a charming man? I am sure my sisters must all envy me. I only hope they may have half my good luck. They must all go to Brighton. That is the place to get husbands.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. After a forced marriage to Wickham and putting her family through a form of hell, an unrepentant Lydia returns to Longbourn. She sees no fault in her behavior and jokes about her luck in finding a husband in Brighton. With great irony she hopes her sisters get half as lucky in finding a good husband in Brighton. Lydia is unaware that Wickham had to be paid to marry her.

"And then when you go away, you may leave one or two of my sisters behind you; and I dare say I shall get husbands for them before the winter is over."
"I thank you for my share of the favour," said Elizabeth; "but I do not particularly like your way of getting husbands."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. When newly married Lydia makes a flippant remark about getting husbands for her sisters, Elizabeth puts her in her place. Lydia boasts about how she successfully found a husband, while her sisters are still single, but little does she realize how difficult it was to get Wickham to marry her. The irony is that Wickham had to be bribed to wed her.

Wickham’s affection for Lydia was just what Elizabeth had expected to find it – not equal to Lydia’s for him. She had scarcely needed her present observation to be satisfied, from the reason of things, that their elopement had been brought on by the strength of her love rather than by his; and she would have wondered why, without violently caring for her, he chose to elope with her at all, had she not felt certain that his flight was rendered necessary by distress of circumstances; and if that were the case, he was not the young man to resist an opportunity of having a companion.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. Here Elizabeth is thinking about the elopment of Wickham and Lydia. She figures out that Wickham did not elope and marry Lydia out of true love but because of "distress of circumstances" (he owed a lot of money locally) and "an opportunity of having a companion" (he is a serial sexual predator). The elopement was also driven by Lydia’s strong infatuation for Wickham.

Oh, yes! He was to come there with Wickham, you know. But gracious me! I quite forgot! I ought not to have said a word about it. I promised them so faithfully! What will Wickham say? It was to be such a secret!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. Giddy over her marriage to Wickham, Lydia recounts to her family all the details of her wedding, including the revelation that there was one unexpected guest there – Mr. Darcy! She had blurted it out before she realized it was meant to be a secret.

But to live in ignorance on such a point was impossible; or, at least, it was impossible not to try for information. Mr. Darcy had been at her sister’s wedding. It was exactly a scene, and exactly among people, where he had apparently least to do, and least temptation to go. Conjectures as to the meaning of it, rapid and wild, hurried into her brain; but she was satisfied with none.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51. On learning from Lydia that Darcy was at her wedding, Elizabeth is filled with curiosity. Darcy is the last person she would expect to see at Wickham’s wedding as he "justly scorned" the man. She decides that she must find out, so she writes a letter to her aunt.

The motive professed was his conviction of its being owing to himself that Wickham’s worthlessness had not been so well known as to make it impossible for any young woman of character to love or confide in him. He generously imputed the whole to his mistaken pride, and confessed that he had before thought it beneath him to lay his private actions open to the world. His character was to speak for itself. He called it, therefore, his duty to step forward, and endeavour to remedy an evil which had been brought on by himself. If he had another motive, I am sure it would never disgrace him.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 52. Mrs. Gardiner writes a long letter to Elizabeth detailing how Darcy effectively negotiated and paid for the marriage of Wickham and Lydia. He traveled to London and found them, persuaded Wickham to marry Lydia by paying him a substantial sum of money and arranging a commission in the army, and got Mr. Gardiner to take credit for everything. Mrs. Gardiner’s letter speaks about Darcy’s professed motive for saving Lydia, but also hints at another motive – his love for Elizabeth.

She cared for none of her friends; she wanted no help of his; she would not hear of leaving Wickham; she was sure they should be married some time or other, and it did not much signify when. Since such were her feelings, it only remained, he thought, to secure and expedite a marriage, which, in his very first conversation with Wickham, he easily learnt had never been his design. He confessed himself obliged to leave the regiment on account of some debts of honour which were very pressing; and scrupled not to lay all the ill consequences of Lydia’s flight on her own folly alone.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 52. Mrs. Gardiner’s letter to Elizabeth tells how Darcy tracked down Lydia and Wickham in London and tried to persuade her to "quit her present disgraceful situation, and return to her friends." But he found Lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was. So Darcy determined to negotiate a marriage between the two, discovering that this had never been Wickham’s plan and he had left Brighton because of gambling debts there.

Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her. But it was a hope shortly checked by other considerations, and she soon felt that even her vanity was insufficient, when required to depend on his affection for her, for a woman who had already refused him, as able to overcome a sentiment so natural as abhorrence against relationship with Wickham.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 52. When Mrs. Gardiner implies that Darcy’s rescue of Lydia was motivated by love for Elizabeth, Elizabeth wants to believe this. But she soon dismisses that hope as vanity. She cannot see how Darcy would want a woman who had refused him and a family that now included Wickham.
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