english pride & prejudice set 1: character arcs

Elizabeth Bennet

• B: "I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine."

• M: "Until this moment I never knew myself."

• M: ‘‘There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.’’

• E: "She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her. His understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have answered all her wishes."

• E: "I am much ashamed of my former blindness. My conduct, at the time, was certainly very reprehensible."

Mr. Darcy

• B: "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me."

• M: "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

• M: "He wanted to make her forget that she had ever been treated with any thing like disrespect by him; and he was never more hopeful of success, than when he could see her aunt and uncle."

• E: "By you, I was properly humbled… You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions."

Jane Bennet

• B: "He is just what a young man ought to be… sensible, good-humoured, lively”

• M: "I do not at all despair of [happiness]… but I must forget him."

• E: "’Tis too much! … I do not deserve it. Oh! why is not everybody as happy?"

Mr. Bingley

• B: "I never met with so many pleasant girls in my life."

• M: ?

• E: "Bingley was quite staggered... but the person whom he had loved the most, and whom he had long believed to be most indifferent to him, was now proved to have been always constant." (realises his instincts were right, learning not to place all trust in Darcy’s opinion)

Mr. Wickham

• B: "there was truth in his looks”

• M: "The sudden acquisition of ten thousand pounds was the most remarkable charm of the young lady to whom he was now rendering himself agreeable."

• E: "I do not find that I ought to be quite so much in debt to [Darcy] as I thought."

Mr. Collins

• B: "I have been so fortunate as to be distinguished by the patronage of the Right Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh."

• M: "My situation in life, my connections with the family of de Bourgh… are circumstances highly in my favour."

• E: "You ought certainly to forgive them as a christian… but never admit them in your sight."

Mrs. Bennet

• B: "A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!"

• M: "I am frightened out of my wits… who is to maintain us when your father is dead?"

• E: "My dear, dear Jane! … He is so handsome! So tall!"

Mr. Bennet

• B: "I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends."

• M: "I have at last learnt to be cautious, and you will feel the effects of it."

• E: “My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life. You know not what you are about.”

Lady Catherine de Bourgh

• B: "I have told you once or twice that you give your opinion very decidedly for so young a person."

• M: "I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother."

• E: "Heaven and earth!—of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"

Charlotte Lucas

• B: "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance."

• M: "I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask only a comfortable home."

• E: "I am very happy… I have many things of which I can be reasonably proud."