Mr. Darcy shows the dangers of pride and the ability to change.
Mr. Darcy’s charm has immortalized him as one of English literature’s most enduring romantic heroes.
He highlights his understanding of the significance of manners over mere wealth.
Let’s revisit Mr. Darcy’s timeless wisdom and trace his journey from arrogance to humility.
Pride and Prejudice Quotes With Page Numbers
Mr. Darcy Character Character Analysis
Fitzwilliam. Darcy, a pivotal character in Jane Austen’s timeless novel “Pride and Prejudice,” is a complex embodiment of pride, humility, and transformation.
Darcy’s initial aloofness and arrogance are captured eloquently in quotes such as “My good opinion once lost, is lost forever” (Page 185) and “A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment” (Page 28), gives way to a deeper understanding of his character.
Given his guarded nature and innate propensity to judge, he has the propensity to be misunderstood. This is expressed in the quote, “Your defect is a propensity to hate everybody and yours is willfully to misunderstand them,”
Darcy’s character is molded by his upbringing. As the only son, he was taught to value his family above others, and he carried this with him into adulthood, as articulated on Page 349.
Throughout the novel, he demonstrates considerable growth. He recognizes his flaws and credits them to the love he feels and the lessons he learns from Elizabeth Bennet.
This leads to a transformation from a man known to be a “proud, unpleasant sort of man” (as told by Mr. Bennet), to someone who can express his feelings ardently, as witnessed in his declaration: “In vain I have 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” (Page 185).
Despite his tendency to be judgmental and somewhat dismissive in the early part of the novel, a deeper layer of his character emerges later on that reveals his willingness to admit his mistakes and change for the better, illustrating a profound character arc.
Ultimately, Mr. Darcy’s journey underscores the transformative power of self-awareness and humility in overcoming one’s own defects and the influence of love and understanding on personal growth.
Mr. Darcy Quotes With Page Numbers
“Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud; to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, Chapter 3, Page 12
“She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 3, Page 13
“Your conjecture is totally wrong, I assure you. My mind was more agreeably engaged. I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 6, Page 27
“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 6, Page 28
“All this she must possess,” added Darcy, “and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 8, Pages 38, 39
“Nothing is more deceitful…than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 10, Page 47
“The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, Chapter 10, Pages 47, 48
“I have not the smallest objection to explaining them,” said he, as soon as she allowed him to speak. “You either choose this method of passing the evening because you are in each other’s confidence, and have secret affairs to discuss, or because you are conscious that your figures appear to the greatest advantage in walking; if the first, I would be completely in your way, and if the second, I can admire you much better as I sit by the fire.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 11, Page 55
“Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride – where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 11, Page 56
“I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding— certainly too little for the convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of other so soon as I ought, nor their offenses against myself. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 11, Page 56
“My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 11, Page 57
“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil—a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 11, Page 57
“Your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.” “And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand them.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Chapter 11, Page 57
“I remember hearing you once say, Mr. Darcy, that you hardly ever forgave, that your resentment once created was unappeasable. You are very cautious, I suppose, as to its being created.”
“I am,” said he, with a firm voice.
“And never allow yourself to be blinded by prejudice?”
“I hope not.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Chapter 11, Page 92
“In vain I have 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.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 25, Page 185
“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet to Mr. Darcy, Chapter 34, Page 188
“I will only add, God bless you.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet, Chapter 35, Page 197
“They parted at last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: The Narrator about Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, Chapter 41, Page 226
“She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 50, Page 295
“If you will thank me,” he replied, “let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 58, Page 346
“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 58, Page 346
“If you will thank me,” he replied, “let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 58, Page 346
“I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 58, Page 349
“I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 58, Page 349
“We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Chapter 59, Page 356
“Elizabeth’s spirit’s soon rising to playfulness again, she wanted Mr. Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her. ‘How could you begin?’ said she.
‘I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in the first place?’ ‘I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 60, Page 359
“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 60, Page 359
“I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Chapter 60, Page 361
What was Mr. Darcy’s famous line?
“My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Chapter 11, Page 57
What does Darcy say first attracted him to Elizabeth?
Darcy reveals that he was initially attracted to Elizabeth because of “the liveliness of [her] mind.” (Page 359, Chapter 59). Despite their initial differences and class disparities, her intellect and spirited personality drew him towards her.
This sparks his interest, which later grows into profound love and respect, transcending their time’s societal expectations and norms.
How does Mr. Darcy represent pride?
Mr. Darcy, from “Pride and Prejudice,” is portrayed as prideful predominantly through his initial demeanor, given his affluent aristocratic background. His conscious awareness of class differences demonstrates this: his meticulous manners and his high self-esteem.
However, this innate sense of pride is transformed as the novel progresses from pure arrogance to a more nuanced articulation of self-respect and duty.
What was Mr. Darcy’s first proposal quote?
“My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. In declaring myself thus, I’m fully aware that I will be going expressly against the wishes of my family, my friends, and, I hardly need add, my own better judgment.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Pages 56, 57