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.