Kevin McAdam
AP English/ Mr. George
12/2/09
Pride and Prejudice Essay #2

Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice, although a magnificent love story, can equally be read as a societal critique of the classist structure. Jane Austen displays many of her characters in an extreme light in order to emphasize the differences in societal beliefs. One of the extreme characters of the story is Lady Catherine. Her unjustifiable feelings of superiority over lower class families, such as the Bennets, and her arrogant beliefs that she deserves her high place in society provoke her desire to maintain societal structure at all costs. Lady Catherine’s snobbish opinion of lower class families like the Bennets is greatly unwarranted. Her disgust towards people inferior to her is hypocritical because she had once been in a similar situation as Lizzy. Lady Catherine, herself, had married a man of considerable wealth. In light of these circumstances, one would think Lady Catherine would act more kindly to those aspiring to the same great lengths as Lady Catherine. However, Lady Catherine became enveloped in the theory of social structure that she forgot her roots. Lady Catherine held her position atop society, but she did nothing to deserve the privilege or to stay there. Lady Catherine’s methods for using the power bestowed upon her were shameful for someone who is supposed to set an example for all of society. An example of Lady Catherine’s poor manners is when she asks Lizzy several rude questions about their upbringing: “‘No governess! How was that possible? Five daughters brought up at home without a governess! – I never heard of such a thing. Your mother must have been quite a slave to your education’” (Austen 127). Lady Catherine uses this opportunity to incorrectly establish her superiority over Lizzy and to intimidate her. Lady Catherine’s ill-mannered temperament greatly affects prideful people like Lizzy, but in this classist system, it is shown that those in the higher class levels are treated with utmost respect regardless of character. It is outrageous how Lady Catherine sustains a position in society so similar to Mr. Darcy when the two are juxtaposed to one another. A man like Mr. Darcy, truthful and sincere, who is courteous to every one of his workers, is exactly the kind of person who deserves a position of such power. Conversely, Lady Catherine’s haughty nature confirms that societal structure at the time was based solely on wealth instead of character. Lady Catherine’s desire to preserve her supremacy in society drove her to act so maliciously when confronting Lizzy. Lady Catherine became threatened by the rumors of a marriage between Darcy and Lizzy. If this happened, Lacy Catherine would have less power over the lower classes and her position in society would become irrelevant. In order to maintain her dominance, she needed to ensure that higher class citizens married people of similar societal background: “‘Have you not heard me say, that from his earliest hours he was destined for his cousin?’” (271). Here, Lady Catherine not only promotes marriage between wealthy and wealthy, she also attempts to put Lizzy in her place and end any affections she had with Darcy. She effectively states that the connection between Darcy and his cousin is set in stone and there was nothing she could do to change it. Lady Catherine prided herself in devastating the moral of anyone from aspiring to join her atop society. Lady Catherine did not feel bad about using such harmful terms because, after all, her goal when dealing with Lizzy, or with any person of a lower class, was to uphold societal structure by using any means necessary.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride And Prejudice. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.