You are a gentleman’s daughter. But who was your mother? Who are your uncles and aunts? Do not imagine me ignorant of their condition.
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. While the haughty Lady Catherine de Bourgh accepts that Elizabeth’s father is a gentleman, she tells her that the low social status of her mother, aunts and uncles make her an unfit match for her nephew. Lady Catherine represents the extremes of class snobbery in Austen’s England.