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Key Chapters Analysed

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A volume-by-volume analysis of the most important chapters in the novel, with full public-domain quotations and exam-ready commentary on Austen's methods.

See it unfold

Each key moment in turn. Choose a part of the text to jump to it.

Key moments

A linocut print of a plain room at Longbourn by day, lit by one tall sash window with its curtains drawn back and round-headed trees beyond the glass. On the left is a shut panelled door. In front of the window Mrs Bennet stands leaning forward with her news, in a white cap, a kerchief at her neck and a dark gown: one hand is thrown out with the fingers spread, the other is pressed to her breast, and her mouth is open. On the right Mr Bennet sits back in an armchair beside a cold fireplace, his legs crossed and a shut book on his knee under his hand, turned towards her with a dry half-smile. Nothing in the print is red.

Moment 1 of 14 · Volume I, Chapter 1

A rich young man takes Netherfield

Longbourn, the Bennets’ house in Hertfordshire

Mrs Bennet tells her husband that Netherfield Park has been taken by a rich young man, Mr Bingley, and urges him to call so that their five daughters can be introduced. Mr Bennet teases her, and the narrator sums both of them up.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Who

Mrs Bennet
Mr Bennet

Why it matters

The first sentence sets the ironic voice and the question the whole novel explores: what is marriage for?

Marriage and moneyFamily and responsibility

Volume I, Chapter 1: A rich young man takes Netherfield. Mrs Bennet tells her husband that Netherfield Park has been taken by a rich young man, Mr Bingley, and urges him to call so that their five daughters can be introduced. Mr Bennet teases her, and the narrator sums both of them up. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." The first sentence sets the ironic voice and the question the whole novel explores: what is marriage for?
Volume I, Chapter 3: The Meryton assembly. At the public ball in Meryton, Bingley is delighted with Jane, while Darcy dances only with the women of his own party. Elizabeth, sitting out two dances for lack of partners, overhears him refuse to dance with her, and tells the story against him with great spirit. "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me" One overheard remark creates both faults of the title: his pride in showing it and her prejudice in answer to it.
Volume I, Chapter 16: Wickham’s story. At an evening at Mrs Philips’s house in Meryton, the charming new officer Wickham tells Elizabeth that Darcy denied him the church living old Mr Darcy intended for him. Already hostile to Darcy, she believes every word. "Till I can forget his father, I can never defy or expose him." Wickham promises not to expose Darcy while doing exactly that, and Elizabeth’s failure to notice is the novel’s central misjudgement.
Volume I, Chapter 18: The Netherfield ball. Elizabeth dances with Darcy and challenges him about Wickham, and he answers with a cool warning. Then her family embarrass her one after another: Mr Collins introduces himself to Darcy uninvited, Mrs Bennet talks loudly at supper of Jane marrying Bingley, and after supper Mary sings until her father stops her. "Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friends" Darcy tells the truth about Wickham and is not believed, while the Bennets supply the evidence for his later objections to her family.
Volume I, Chapters 19-20: Mr Collins proposes. Mr Collins, the cousin who will inherit Longbourn, proposes to Elizabeth with a list of reasons and refuses to believe her refusal is meant. Mrs Bennet demands that Mr Bennet make her accept; instead he tells Elizabeth he will never see her again if she does. "Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." A comic proposal that states the novel’s serious question: may a woman without fortune refuse a secure marriage?
Volume I, Chapter 22: Charlotte accepts Mr Collins. Soon after Elizabeth’s refusal, her friend Charlotte Lucas accepts Mr Collins. Charlotte tells her plainly that she wants only a comfortable home, and Elizabeth is shocked that her friend has chosen worldly advantage over feeling. "I am not romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home" Charlotte’s choice shows what refusing Collins could have cost, and tests whether Elizabeth’s judgement of her friend is fair.
Volume II, Chapter 11 (Chapter 34): The first proposal. Too upset by Colonel Fitzwilliam’s news that Darcy had saved a friend from a most imprudent marriage to go to Rosings, Elizabeth stays at Hunsford parsonage. Darcy calls and proposes, dwelling on her inferiority; she refuses him and accuses him of ruining Jane’s happiness and wronging Wickham. "In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed." The two faults of the title collide head on, and each lover’s refusal to see the other at last becomes impossible to ignore.
Volume II, Chapters 12-13 (Chapters 35-36): The letter. Next morning Darcy meets Elizabeth at a gate into the park at Rosings and hands her a letter. It explains that he believed Jane indifferent to Bingley, that Wickham gave up the living for three thousand pounds, and that Wickham later tried to persuade Darcy’s fifteen-year-old sister to elope with him for her fortune. Elizabeth reads and re-reads it, and sees her own prejudice. "Till this moment, I never knew myself." Evidence replaces first impressions, and Elizabeth’s recognition of her own fault is the turning point of the novel.
Volume III, Chapter 1 (Chapter 43): Pemberley. Touring Derbyshire with her aunt and uncle Gardiner, Elizabeth visits Pemberley believing Darcy to be away. The housekeeper, Mrs Reynolds, praises him as a master and landlord. Then Darcy arrives unexpectedly, asks to be introduced to the Gardiners, and invites Mr Gardiner to fish. "She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste." Seen at home and through the people who depend on him, Darcy is a different man, and his courtesy to relatives in trade shows he has listened.
Volume III, Chapter 4 (Chapter 46): Lydia has gone. At the inn at Lambton, Elizabeth reads two letters from Jane: Lydia has left Brighton with Wickham, and they seem never to have gone to Scotland to marry. As Elizabeth rushes to find her uncle, Darcy arrives; she tells him the news, and when he leaves she believes she has lost him. "My youngest sister has left all her friends—has eloped;—has thrown herself into the power of—of Mr. Wickham." The family’s disgrace seems to end all hope just as Elizabeth understands that she could have loved Darcy.
Volume III, Chapters 9-10 (Chapters 51-52): Darcy’s secret. At Longbourn the newly married Lydia lets slip that Darcy was at her wedding, though it was meant to be a secret. Mrs Gardiner’s reply to Elizabeth’s letter reveals that Darcy found the couple in London, paid Wickham’s debts, settled money on Lydia and bought Wickham’s commission. "Proud that in a cause of compassion and honour, he had been able to get the better of himself." Darcy’s pride is shown overcome in action, not words, and Elizabeth’s pride in him replaces her prejudice against him.
Volume III, Chapter 14 (Chapter 56): Lady Catherine’s visit. Having heard a report that Elizabeth is likely to marry Darcy, Lady Catherine drives to Longbourn and, in the copse beside the house, demands a promise that she will never accept him. Elizabeth refuses to promise anything, and Lady Catherine leaves seriously displeased. "Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?" Rank at its most arrogant meets a woman who will not be bullied, and the interference backfires by giving Darcy hope.
Volume III, Chapter 16 (Chapter 58): The second proposal. Walking out from Longbourn, Elizabeth thanks Darcy for what he did for Lydia. He says he thought only of her, and asks whether her feelings have changed since April. They have, and she accepts him; both then admit how wrong they were. "You are too generous to trifle with me." The second proposal answers the first point by point, built this time on humility and on what each has learned.
Volume III, Chapter 19 (Chapter 61): Endings. Jane and Elizabeth are married, and the last chapter follows everyone’s future. Lady Catherine is in time reconciled enough to visit Pemberley, and the Gardiners remain the Darcys’ closest friends. "Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters." A comic ending in marriages, still ironic, which gives its last sentence to the relations in trade Darcy once despised.

Volume I, Chapter 1

The Bennets learn of Bingley's arrival

The novel opens with one of the most famous sentences in English literature. Mrs Bennet excitedly tells her husband that Netherfield Park has been let to a young man of large fortune, Mr Bingley. Mr Bennet teases his wife with dry irony while she schemes to secure an introduction for her daughters. The chapter establishes the Bennet marriage as a comic mismatch and introduces the novel's central preoccupation with marriage and money.

Key Quotations

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Austen's ironic opening inverts the real situation: it is the families with daughters who are in want of wealthy husbands. The word "universally" signals satire - this is a truth acknowledged only in the narrow world of the rural gentry. The sentence establishes Austen's narrative voice: witty, detached and quietly subversive.

"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least."

Mr Bennet deflects his wife's anxiety with irony. His wit is entertaining but also reveals a habit of disengagement - he retreats into sarcasm rather than addressing real concerns. This foreshadows his failure to manage Lydia, which nearly destroys the family.

Why this chapter matters

The opening chapter introduces Austen's ironic narrative voice, establishes the economic pressures driving the marriage market, and presents the Bennet parents as contrasting approaches to life - one anxious and foolish, the other witty but negligent. It sets the comedic tone while embedding serious social commentary about women's dependence on marriage for financial security.

Volume I, Chapter 3

The Meryton assembly ball

Bingley and Darcy attend the public ball at Meryton. Bingley is immediately charming, dances every dance and is clearly attracted to Jane. Darcy, by contrast, refuses to dance with anyone outside his own party and is overheard slighting Elizabeth: "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me." The neighbourhood unanimously condemns Darcy as proud while praising Bingley.

Key Quotations

"She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men."

Darcy's dismissal of Elizabeth is the inciting moment of the novel's central relationship. The word "consequence" reveals his class arrogance - he believes his attention would elevate her. Elizabeth overhears this and responds with amused contempt, but it also plants a prejudice against Darcy that will take the entire novel to overcome.

"He is just what a young man ought to be ... sensible, good humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners!"

Jane's praise of Bingley is characteristically generous and unguarded. Her openness contrasts with Darcy's reserve and with Elizabeth's sharper judgement. Austen uses Jane to demonstrate a kind of goodness that, while admirable, also leaves her vulnerable to being hurt.

Why this chapter matters

This chapter creates the first impressions that drive the entire plot. Elizabeth's prejudice against Darcy and Darcy's pride in his own status are both established in a single overheard remark. Austen demonstrates how quickly and firmly people form judgements based on surfaces, and how those judgements can mislead.

Volume I, Chapter 11

Elizabeth and Darcy spar at Netherfield

While Jane recovers from illness at Netherfield, Elizabeth engages Darcy in a sparkling verbal duel about pride and vanity. Darcy admits his temper is "resentful" and that his "good opinion once lost is lost for ever." Elizabeth teases him for this inflexibility. The conversation crackles with intellectual attraction disguised as antagonism.

Key Quotations

"My good opinion once lost is lost for ever."

Darcy presents his stubbornness as moral consistency, but Austen shows it to be a form of pride - the inability to revise one's judgement. This flaw is central to the novel's argument: true virtue requires the willingness to change one's mind when confronted with new evidence.

"I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr Darcy has no defect. He owns it himself without disguise."

Elizabeth's irony is razor-sharp. She turns Darcy's self-assessment inside out, suggesting that admitting a flaw openly is itself a form of vanity. The exchange shows two exceptionally intelligent people testing each other, and hints at the compatibility they are both too proud to acknowledge.

Why this chapter matters

The Netherfield scenes establish the intellectual equality between Elizabeth and Darcy. Their verbal sparring is the novel's engine: each challenges the other's self-knowledge. Austen uses dialogue rather than action to drive character development, demonstrating her distinctive narrative method.

Volume I, Chapter 15 & Volume II, Chapter 1

Wickham's slander of Darcy

Wickham arrives with the militia and quickly charms Elizabeth with his easy manners. He tells her a detailed and apparently credible story: Darcy denied him the living promised by old Mr Darcy, out of jealousy and spite. Elizabeth believes Wickham entirely because his account confirms her existing prejudice against Darcy. She does not question why Wickham tells such a private story to a near-stranger.

Key Quotations

"I can much more easily believe Mr Bingley's being imposed on, than that Mr Wickham should invent such a history of himself as he gave me last night."

Elizabeth reveals the core of her prejudice: she interprets all evidence through her initial dislike of Darcy. She cannot conceive that Wickham - who is pleasant and flattering - might be dishonest. Austen dramatises how charm and agreeableness are poor indicators of character.

Why this chapter matters

Wickham's lies are the most important test of Elizabeth's judgement, and she fails it entirely. Austen shows that Elizabeth's intelligence does not protect her from prejudice - in fact, her cleverness allows her to construct increasingly elaborate rationalisations for her wrong opinion. The reader is also deceived, which makes Elizabeth's later self-correction all the more powerful.

Volume II, Chapter 11 (Chapter 34)

Darcy's first proposal at Hunsford

Darcy visits Elizabeth at the Hunsford parsonage and, to her astonishment, proposes marriage. His proposal is a disaster: he dwells on her inferior connections, the degradation of allying himself with her family, and his struggle against his own feelings. Elizabeth refuses him furiously, accusing him of separating Jane and Bingley, of mistreating Wickham, and of proposing without civility or genuine respect.

Key Quotations

"In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

Darcy's declaration is passionate but catastrophically framed. Words like "struggled" and "repressed" reveal that he sees loving Elizabeth as a weakness to overcome, not a joy to celebrate. "You must allow me" is almost a command - he cannot conceive of being refused.

"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?"

Darcy's honesty is genuinely shocking. He lays bare the class prejudice that governs Regency society - and that he has internalised completely. Austen forces the reader to see how even sincere love can be distorted by snobbery.

"you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."

Elizabeth's rejection is absolute and devastating. The superlative "last man in the world" matches Darcy's extremism. Both characters are at their most proud and most prejudiced in this scene - their worst selves fully exposed.

Why this chapter matters

The Hunsford proposal is the structural and thematic turning point of the novel. It brings the twin faults of pride and prejudice into direct collision. Darcy's pride makes him insult the woman he loves; Elizabeth's prejudice makes her misread a man whose faults are real but whose virtues she has entirely overlooked. From this point, both characters must change.

Volume II, Chapters 12-13 (Chapters 35-36)

Darcy's letter

The morning after the proposal, Darcy gives Elizabeth a long letter. He explains that he separated Jane and Bingley because he genuinely believed Jane did not return Bingley's feelings, and he provides the true history of Wickham - including Wickham's attempted elopement with Darcy's fifteen-year-old sister, Georgiana. Elizabeth reads the letter twice and is forced to confront the extent of her own misjudgement.

Key Quotations

"How despicably have I acted! ... I, who have prided myself on my discernment! - I, who have valued myself on my abilities!"

Elizabeth's self-reproach is one of Austen's greatest moments. The repetition of "I" dramatises her recognition that her pride in her own intelligence was itself a form of vanity. She realises that her prejudice was not evidence-based but emotional, and that she has been as blind as the people she mocked.

"Till this moment, I never knew myself."

This is the novel's most important single sentence. Elizabeth achieves genuine self-knowledge - the Socratic ideal that Austen places at the heart of moral growth. The sentence is devastating in its simplicity. All her wit, all her confidence, has been built on a foundation of self-deception.

Why this chapter matters

The letter is the mechanism of transformation. It provides Elizabeth with facts she cannot dismiss and forces her to re-evaluate every judgement she has made. Austen makes the reader re-read the novel alongside Elizabeth: events that seemed straightforward now appear in a completely different light. The letter demonstrates Austen's belief that moral growth requires confronting uncomfortable truths about oneself.

Volume III, Chapter 1 (Chapter 43)

Elizabeth visits Pemberley

Elizabeth tours Darcy's estate with the Gardiners during their Derbyshire trip. She is deeply impressed by the beauty and taste of the house and grounds, and even more by the housekeeper Mrs Reynolds, who speaks of Darcy with genuine warmth and respect. Darcy himself arrives unexpectedly and treats the Gardiners - Elizabeth's trade-connected relatives - with perfect courtesy, a dramatic reversal of his earlier snobbery.

Key Quotations

"And of this place," thought she, "I might have been mistress!"

Elizabeth's thought is not simply mercenary - Pemberley represents taste, responsibility and stewardship. Her admiration for the house mirrors her growing admiration for its owner. Austen uses the estate as an outward expression of Darcy's inner character: well-ordered, generous and beautiful.

"He is the best landlord, and the best master," said she, "that ever lived... There is not one of his tenants or servants but what will give him a good name."

Mrs Reynolds's testimony is crucial evidence. A man's treatment of those who depend on him - tenants and servants - reveals his true character more reliably than his behaviour in a ballroom. Austen privileges domestic virtue over social performance.

Why this chapter matters

Pemberley is the novel's most important symbolic space. Elizabeth sees Darcy's character reflected in his estate: responsible, tasteful, generous to dependents. Her prejudice was formed in the artificial social settings of balls and drawing rooms; it begins to dissolve when she encounters the real substance of Darcy's life. The scene also shows Darcy's transformation - his courtesy to the Gardiners proves he has listened to Elizabeth's reproaches.

Volume III, Chapters 4-6 (Chapters 46-48)

Lydia's elopement with Wickham

Elizabeth receives letters from Jane revealing that Lydia has eloped with Wickham without any prospect of marriage - a scandal that would destroy the entire family's reputation and ruin the other sisters' marriage prospects. Elizabeth blames herself for not exposing Wickham's true character. Darcy, who is present when she receives the news, quietly leaves. Mr Bennet travels to London to find Lydia, but it is Darcy who ultimately locates the couple and bribes Wickham into marrying her.

Key Quotations

"My youngest sister has left all her friends - has eloped; - has thrown herself into the power of - of Mr Wickham."

Elizabeth's broken, fragmented speech reveals genuine distress - a sharp contrast to her usual eloquence. The dashes mimic her inability to process the catastrophe. That she turns instinctively to Darcy, the man she once despised, shows how completely her feelings have changed.

"How Wickham and Lydia were to be supported in tolerable independence, she could not imagine."

In Chapter 50 Austen examines the practical economic reality behind the scandal. An elopement without marriage means destitution for Lydia and disgrace for her sisters. Austen never lets the reader forget that in Regency England, a woman's reputation was her only social currency.

Why this chapter matters

The Lydia crisis is the novel's climactic test. It forces every character to reveal their true nature: Mr Bennet's negligence, Mrs Bennet's hysteria, Darcy's quiet generosity, Elizabeth's matured judgement. It also demonstrates the real-world consequences of the themes Austen has been exploring - pride, prejudice, reputation, class - by showing how a single reckless act can destroy a family's standing in society.

Volume III, Chapter 16 (Chapter 58)

Darcy's second proposal

After Lady Catherine's furious visit (in which she demands Elizabeth promise never to accept Darcy), Elizabeth and Darcy walk together. Darcy proposes again, this time with humility and genuine equality. Elizabeth accepts. They discuss their journey of mutual self-correction, each acknowledging how wrong they were. Darcy credits Elizabeth with teaching him the lesson: "You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled."

Key Quotations

"You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled."

Darcy's language has completely changed from the first proposal. Instead of emphasising Elizabeth's inferiority, he acknowledges his own debt to her. "Properly humbled" - not crushed or degraded, but rightly brought to self-knowledge. This is Austen's model of moral education: painful but ultimately liberating.

"I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle."

Darcy's self-assessment, spoken to Elizabeth on this walk rather than written in his letter, shows genuine self-knowledge. He distinguishes between what he was taught (good principles) and how he actually behaved (selfishly). This admission shows the humility that has transformed him.

"I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit... I was spoilt by my parents, who... allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing."

Darcy traces the origin of his pride to his upbringing - good values poorly applied. Austen suggests that character is not fixed at birth but shaped by education and environment, and that recognising this is the first step toward genuine virtue.

Why this chapter matters

The second proposal mirrors and corrects the first. Where Darcy was arrogant, he is now humble; where Elizabeth was furious, she is now grateful. Both have undergone genuine moral growth. Austen structures the novel as a double education: each protagonist teaches the other to see past their own blind spots. The marriage that results is presented as a true partnership of equals - the ideal that the novel has been working toward from its opening sentence.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813) is in the public domain. Quotations are reproduced freely as the text is no longer subject to copyright.

Back to Pride and Prejudice

19th-Century NovelAQA / Edexcel / OCR / Eduqas / Edexcel IGCSE / Cambridge IGCSE

Key Chapters Analysed

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A volume-by-volume analysis of the most important chapters in the novel, with full public-domain quotations and exam-ready commentary on Austen's methods.

See it unfold

Each key moment in turn. Choose a part of the text to jump to it.

Key moments

Moment 1 of 14 · Volume I, Chapter 1

A rich young man takes Netherfield

Longbourn, the Bennets’ house in Hertfordshire

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Who

Mrs Bennet
Mr Bennet

Why it matters

The first sentence sets the ironic voice and the question the whole novel explores: what is marriage for?

Marriage and moneyFamily and responsibility

Volume I, Chapter 1: A rich young man takes Netherfield. Mrs Bennet tells her husband that Netherfield Park has been taken by a rich young man, Mr Bingley, and urges him to call so that their five daughters can be introduced. Mr Bennet teases her, and the narrator sums both of them up. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." The first sentence sets the ironic voice and the question the whole novel explores: what is marriage for?
Volume I, Chapter 3: The Meryton assembly. At the public ball in Meryton, Bingley is delighted with Jane, while Darcy dances only with the women of his own party. Elizabeth, sitting out two dances for lack of partners, overhears him refuse to dance with her, and tells the story against him with great spirit. "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me" One overheard remark creates both faults of the title: his pride in showing it and her prejudice in answer to it.
Volume I, Chapter 16: Wickham’s story. At an evening at Mrs Philips’s house in Meryton, the charming new officer Wickham tells Elizabeth that Darcy denied him the church living old Mr Darcy intended for him. Already hostile to Darcy, she believes every word. "Till I can forget his father, I can never defy or expose him." Wickham promises not to expose Darcy while doing exactly that, and Elizabeth’s failure to notice is the novel’s central misjudgement.
Volume I, Chapter 18: The Netherfield ball. Elizabeth dances with Darcy and challenges him about Wickham, and he answers with a cool warning. Then her family embarrass her one after another: Mr Collins introduces himself to Darcy uninvited, Mrs Bennet talks loudly at supper of Jane marrying Bingley, and after supper Mary sings until her father stops her. "Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friends" Darcy tells the truth about Wickham and is not believed, while the Bennets supply the evidence for his later objections to her family.
Volume I, Chapters 19-20: Mr Collins proposes. Mr Collins, the cousin who will inherit Longbourn, proposes to Elizabeth with a list of reasons and refuses to believe her refusal is meant. Mrs Bennet demands that Mr Bennet make her accept; instead he tells Elizabeth he will never see her again if she does. "Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." A comic proposal that states the novel’s serious question: may a woman without fortune refuse a secure marriage?
Volume I, Chapter 22: Charlotte accepts Mr Collins. Soon after Elizabeth’s refusal, her friend Charlotte Lucas accepts Mr Collins. Charlotte tells her plainly that she wants only a comfortable home, and Elizabeth is shocked that her friend has chosen worldly advantage over feeling. "I am not romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home" Charlotte’s choice shows what refusing Collins could have cost, and tests whether Elizabeth’s judgement of her friend is fair.
Volume II, Chapter 11 (Chapter 34): The first proposal. Too upset by Colonel Fitzwilliam’s news that Darcy had saved a friend from a most imprudent marriage to go to Rosings, Elizabeth stays at Hunsford parsonage. Darcy calls and proposes, dwelling on her inferiority; she refuses him and accuses him of ruining Jane’s happiness and wronging Wickham. "In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed." The two faults of the title collide head on, and each lover’s refusal to see the other at last becomes impossible to ignore.
Volume II, Chapters 12-13 (Chapters 35-36): The letter. Next morning Darcy meets Elizabeth at a gate into the park at Rosings and hands her a letter. It explains that he believed Jane indifferent to Bingley, that Wickham gave up the living for three thousand pounds, and that Wickham later tried to persuade Darcy’s fifteen-year-old sister to elope with him for her fortune. Elizabeth reads and re-reads it, and sees her own prejudice. "Till this moment, I never knew myself." Evidence replaces first impressions, and Elizabeth’s recognition of her own fault is the turning point of the novel.
Volume III, Chapter 1 (Chapter 43): Pemberley. Touring Derbyshire with her aunt and uncle Gardiner, Elizabeth visits Pemberley believing Darcy to be away. The housekeeper, Mrs Reynolds, praises him as a master and landlord. Then Darcy arrives unexpectedly, asks to be introduced to the Gardiners, and invites Mr Gardiner to fish. "She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste." Seen at home and through the people who depend on him, Darcy is a different man, and his courtesy to relatives in trade shows he has listened.
Volume III, Chapter 4 (Chapter 46): Lydia has gone. At the inn at Lambton, Elizabeth reads two letters from Jane: Lydia has left Brighton with Wickham, and they seem never to have gone to Scotland to marry. As Elizabeth rushes to find her uncle, Darcy arrives; she tells him the news, and when he leaves she believes she has lost him. "My youngest sister has left all her friends—has eloped;—has thrown herself into the power of—of Mr. Wickham." The family’s disgrace seems to end all hope just as Elizabeth understands that she could have loved Darcy.
Volume III, Chapters 9-10 (Chapters 51-52): Darcy’s secret. At Longbourn the newly married Lydia lets slip that Darcy was at her wedding, though it was meant to be a secret. Mrs Gardiner’s reply to Elizabeth’s letter reveals that Darcy found the couple in London, paid Wickham’s debts, settled money on Lydia and bought Wickham’s commission. "Proud that in a cause of compassion and honour, he had been able to get the better of himself." Darcy’s pride is shown overcome in action, not words, and Elizabeth’s pride in him replaces her prejudice against him.
Volume III, Chapter 14 (Chapter 56): Lady Catherine’s visit. Having heard a report that Elizabeth is likely to marry Darcy, Lady Catherine drives to Longbourn and, in the copse beside the house, demands a promise that she will never accept him. Elizabeth refuses to promise anything, and Lady Catherine leaves seriously displeased. "Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?" Rank at its most arrogant meets a woman who will not be bullied, and the interference backfires by giving Darcy hope.
Volume III, Chapter 16 (Chapter 58): The second proposal. Walking out from Longbourn, Elizabeth thanks Darcy for what he did for Lydia. He says he thought only of her, and asks whether her feelings have changed since April. They have, and she accepts him; both then admit how wrong they were. "You are too generous to trifle with me." The second proposal answers the first point by point, built this time on humility and on what each has learned.
Volume III, Chapter 19 (Chapter 61): Endings. Jane and Elizabeth are married, and the last chapter follows everyone’s future. Lady Catherine is in time reconciled enough to visit Pemberley, and the Gardiners remain the Darcys’ closest friends. "Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters." A comic ending in marriages, still ironic, which gives its last sentence to the relations in trade Darcy once despised.

Volume I, Chapter 1

The Bennets learn of Bingley's arrival

Key Quotations

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least."

Why this chapter matters

Volume I, Chapter 3

The Meryton assembly ball

Key Quotations

"She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men."

"He is just what a young man ought to be ... sensible, good humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners!"

Why this chapter matters

Volume I, Chapter 11

Elizabeth and Darcy spar at Netherfield

Key Quotations

"My good opinion once lost is lost for ever."

"I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr Darcy has no defect. He owns it himself without disguise."

Why this chapter matters

Volume I, Chapter 15 & Volume II, Chapter 1

Wickham's slander of Darcy

Key Quotations

"I can much more easily believe Mr Bingley's being imposed on, than that Mr Wickham should invent such a history of himself as he gave me last night."

Why this chapter matters

Volume II, Chapter 11 (Chapter 34)

Darcy's first proposal at Hunsford

Key Quotations

"In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

"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?"

"you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."

Why this chapter matters

Volume II, Chapters 12-13 (Chapters 35-36)

Darcy's letter

Key Quotations

"How despicably have I acted! ... I, who have prided myself on my discernment! - I, who have valued myself on my abilities!"

"Till this moment, I never knew myself."

Why this chapter matters

Volume III, Chapter 1 (Chapter 43)

Elizabeth visits Pemberley

Key Quotations

"And of this place," thought she, "I might have been mistress!"

"He is the best landlord, and the best master," said she, "that ever lived... There is not one of his tenants or servants but what will give him a good name."

Why this chapter matters

Volume III, Chapters 4-6 (Chapters 46-48)

Lydia's elopement with Wickham

Key Quotations

"My youngest sister has left all her friends - has eloped; - has thrown herself into the power of - of Mr Wickham."

"How Wickham and Lydia were to be supported in tolerable independence, she could not imagine."

Why this chapter matters

Volume III, Chapter 16 (Chapter 58)

Darcy's second proposal

Key Quotations

"You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled."

"I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle."

"I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit... I was spoilt by my parents, who... allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing."

Why this chapter matters

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813) is in the public domain. Quotations are reproduced freely as the text is no longer subject to copyright.