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Social Class In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

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The above passage from Pride and Prejudice depicts a major turning point in the novel. This passage follows Mr. Darcy’s marriage proposal to Elizabeth. Before this passage, Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth and then follows by explaining to her all the reasons he tried to stop himself from falling for, claiming that Elizabeth’s low social class would degrade his own social standing and the problem with her family were reasons he tried to resist his feelings for her, which emphasizes the theme of social class because it shows how social class means something different for everyone and is more important to some people than to others. What Mr. Darcy says to Elizabeth before the passage above illustrates a justification to Elizabeth’s anger towards Mr. Darcy and is a reason Elizabeth was so angry and frustrated towards Mr. Darcy in this passage, compared to when she rejected Mr. Collin’s marriage proposal.

The current behaviors of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy contrast to their usual behavior portrayed in the novel leading up to this passage, especially Mr. Darcy’s. The anger Elizabeth expresses in this passage is a kind of anger that she has never expressed in the novel before, which shows how Mr. Darcy’s marriage proposal has affected her. What he said to her as his ‘marriage proposal’, which was more like a speech full of insults towards Elizabeth, seemed to push Elizabeth past her breaking point and caused her to lose control and let all her rage towards Mr. Darcy out. This anger

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