Pride and Prejudice (Grades 9–1) York Notes

Austen presents Lady Catherine as very unpleasant person as she is very nasty indeed to Lizzie in this passage.

The way she speaks shows that she thinks she is in charge of the situation. ‘Let me be rightly understood’ is a very strong statement and makes it sound like a teacher telling off a little child but of course Lizzie is not a child, but a grown woman.

Another thing is that she speaks in a very rude way and says nasty things about Elizabeth. For example, she says, ‘of inferior birth, of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the family.’ By saying she is not important she is making it sound as if Elizabeth is a nobody and that Lady Catherine is like the lady of the manor. This is not a respectful way to talk to anyone let alone someone who is basically a nice person.

Elizabeth’s reply to this is that she says that it doesn’t matter if lots of other people wanted Darcy to marry Miss de Bourgh as the most important thing was that he doesn’t want to. She says, ‘If Mr Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice?’

But Lady Catherine won’t give up. She is very determined and very unhappy that this young woman is standing up to her. But most important of all she threatens her. ‘Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us.’

This basically means that if they get married then they not be talked about by any of the rich landowners and the family. So she is saying that they will be embarrassed and shamed by him marrying a common girl. This is not unusual as this is how the rich viewed things in Austen’s day.

To end with she tells Lizzie that she is used to getting her own way which sounds very spoiled and snobbish. This shows that overall she is not a pleasant person at all which is what you see in the rest of the story.

Elizabeth has met Lady Catherine before when she was staying with Charlotte. They didn’t get on very well then because Elizabeth didn’t want to tell Lady Catherine how old she was and Lady Catherine didn’t like not getting an answer. She is used to people flattering her and doing everything she says because she is rich and powerful. Elizabeth just thinks she is nosy. ‘Elizabeth felt all the impertinence of her questions, but answered them very composedly. That suggests that Elizabeth was trying to be polite.

Mr Darcy was also staying at Rosings when Elizabeth was there. She expected him to be as snobbish as his aunt and in those days he was. By the time Lady Catherine comes to Longbourn to tell Elizabeth not to marry Darcy, Elizabeth has met him again at Pemberley and she has seen him being polite to her aunt and uncle. So now she can say ‘if your nephew does not object to them they can be nothing to you’ but she doesn’t really know. When Lady Catherine has gone she can’t talk to anyone about the conversation because she doesn’t know what to think. She knows that she loves Darcy but she doesn’t know whether he will listen to his aunt or what Lady Catherine will do next.