payment page
In a society where class lines are strictly drawn, Lady Catherine de Bourgh does not tolerate anyone trying to breach their rank. Lady Catherine enjoys the authority and respect granted to a person of near royal status. Her opinion is esteemed and sought after, and the grandeur of her station is a source of awe. She is severe and self-important, her affability and generosity borne from a place of superiority. Lady Catherine perfectly embodies both pride and prejudice. Her pride is exhibited through the congeniality she affords only to those who sufficiently admire her. For instance, she acts as benefactor to Mr. Collins, who showers her with fawning respect and endless proclamation of her goodness and charity. Lady Catherine’s prejudice is demonstrated most clearly through her attempt to stop the marriage between her nephew, Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth, due to the latter’s lower social standing.
While she can scarcely be described as warm, Lady Catherine is not, at first, outright cruel to Elizabeth. There is an undercurrent of self-aggrandizing judgment in their interactions, and Lady Catherine haughtily judges the Bennet family’s apparent inferiority. She does not, however, turn the fullness of her fury on Elizabeth until she perceives her to be a threat against the desired matrimony of Lady Catherine’s daughter to Darcy. Lady Catherine’s indignance and anger at the revelation of Darcy and Elizabeth’s engagement not only emphasizes her immovable snobbishness, but underscores how little she appreciates Elizabeth’s excellent character. By the novel’s end, however, she does eventually accept the marriage she was so opposed to, ultimately highlighting the goodness of Darcy and Elizabeth’s union.
