P&P Mini-essay--The Abridged Version!

Scott Pero
AP English Language/Mr. George
December 2, 2009
Lady Catherine as a class critique
Lady Classist de Bourgh

High school cliques—various sects composed of a certain type of student—are an everyday form of classism, or prejudice against a certain group in society. This type of society is greatly critiqued in Pride and Prejudice, a novel written by Jane Austen. To do this, Austen uses Lady Catherine de Bourgh, a governess of the upper class who constantly looks down on everyone around her. Austen utilizes Lady Catherine de Bourgh as a critique of the classist society by portraying her as the zenith of classism and relaying, through her actions, the absurdity and lack of merit attributed to the upper class.

Lady Catherine embodies every negative aspect that is associated with the upper class—she is wealthy and of a high-ranking family. In reality, however, Lady Catherine does not live up to the reputation attributed to her. She is an elitist, prejudiced control freak who is constantly condescending toward the lower classes: “[Lady Catherine’s] air was not conciliating…such as to make her visitors forget their inferior rank…whatever she said, was spoken in so authoritative a tone, as marked her self-importance” (Austen 125). Here, Austen describes how everyone around Lady Catherine is affected by her arrogance. To her, the world revolves around wealth and title. She compares people not by their merit, but their family’s income, reputation, and social status. They are all of a lower class, and according to Lady Catherine, they should know it.

When Lady Catherine visits Elizabeth after hearing a rumor of her marriage to Mr. Darcy, Lady Catherine again flaunts her social status and rank in order to intimidate the lower-ranking Elizabeth: “‘[Darcy and Miss de Bourgh] are destined for each other…and what is to divide them? The upstart pretensions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune’” (272). Lady Catherine does not hold back in attacking Elizabeth, brusquely bringing up Elizabeth’s lack of wealth and title. She believes a union between Darcy and Elizabeth is a toxic pollutant that will forever tarnish her family’s name—something that would, due to her classist nature, mortify Lady Catherine.

Elizabeth drives Austen’s message deeper into the readers’ minds. She never backs down from Lady Catherine’s confrontations, and in the back of the readers’ minds, they are rooting for Elizabeth the entire time: “‘I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable…You have widely mistaken my character’” (273). The reader likes that Elizabeth is breaking barriers by climbing up the social ladder, and so Austen shows that the classist society can and should be overcome.

Lady Catherine is the mouthpiece for Austen’s stance on classism. By setting Lady Catherine as an antagonist, the audience despises her and everything she stands for. If she stands for classism, the reader will be the first to reprimand it. Also, Austen contrasts Lady Catherine with another member of the same class, Mr. Darcy. Though he is of the same class as Lady Catherine, he is willing to transcend the bonds of a classist society to be with the woman he loves, Elizabeth.

Classism, to Austen, is a wretched and unjust ideal. This is why she incorporates Lady Catherine to reinforce her beliefs and criticisms. Lady Catherine is a classist, condescending snob who embodies the upper class, and as such she is meant to be abhorred. Elizabeth, the readers’ favorite, is the one to shatter Lady Catherine’s elitist monopoly and further promote Austen’s stance; she is the new girl in school standing up to the mean rich girl. Like every high school story, the popular girl always falls in the end.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. United States: Oxford University, 1990