My Favourite Passage From PnP - Marianne 08 S204

From Chapter 34:

"But it is not merely this affair," she continued, "on which my dislike is founded. Long before it had taken place my opinion of you was decided. Your character was unfolded in the recital which I received many months ago from Mr. Wickham. On this subject, what can you have to say? In what imaginary act of friendship can you here defend yourself? or under what misrepresentation can you here impose upon others?"

"You take an eager interest in that gentleman's concerns," said Darcy, in a less tranquil tone, and with a heightened colour.

"Who that knows what his misfortunes have been, can help feeling an interest in him?"

"His misfortunes!" repeated Darcy contemptuously; "yes, his misfortunes have been great indeed."

"And of your infliction," cried Elizabeth with energy. "You have reduced him to his present state of poverty—comparative poverty. You have withheld the advantages which you must know to have been designed for him. You have deprived the best years of his life of that independence which was no less his due than his desert. You have done all this! and yet you can treat the mention of his misfortune with contempt and ridicule."

"And this," cried Darcy, as he walked with quick steps across the room, "Is your opinion of me! This is the estimation in which you hold me! I thank you for explaining it so fully. My faults, according to this calculation, are heavy indeed! But perhaps," added he, stopping in his walk, and turning towards her, "these offenses might have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I, with greater policy, concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by reason, by reflection, by everything. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just. Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections?—to congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?"


This scene is one of my favourite scenes and passages in Pride and Prejudice as it is the turning point where we discover that Mr Darcy, despite his seemingly hostile and cold attitude, is actually very much in love with Elizabeth. What is happening here is that he has just declared his love to her and asked for her hand in marriage, but she has rejected him.

One of the important themes in this passage is that of prejudice, one of the very crucial elements in this book. This is the prejudice that Elizabeth has against Mr Darcy because of all her preconceived notions about him as well as her pride. It is this very prejudice that prevents her from seeing him as he really is, and prevents her, initially, from accepting his proposal of marriage.

It is also this prejudice that reveals one of Elizabeth’s character traits – judging people. In a later part of the book, she laments that she had judged Darcy wrongly, despite priding herself in her discernment. Here, it is evident that she had judged Darcy based on comments made by others as well as superficiality. She admits that his “character was unfolded in the recital which I received many months ago from Mr. Wickham”. In other words, it was not Darcy who proved himself to be of such a character as she thought him to be, but it was based on Wickham’s lies that she had formed such an image of Darcy.

Here, she accuses him of reducing Wickham “to his present state of poverty”, although she had never heard the story from Darcy’s side. Darcy knew of his own innocence, and indirectly explained the fact that she would have believed in Darcy rather than Wickham, had he also pretended to be just and chauvinistic. However, Darcy behaved as himself, saying that whatever feelings he had related “were natural and just”. This shows Darcy’s sincerity towards her and his honesty and morality as a person. He does love Elizabeth, yet he worries for their contrasting backgrounds and how it will affect their relationship.

After this, Darcy writes a letter to Elizabeth explaining exactly what had happened between him and Darcy, and why he had asked Bingley to leave Jane. It is then that Elizabeth realizes her folly and begins to fall for the real Darcy. It is indeed heartwarming to know that the both of them end up together and in love with each other!