Lady Catherine De Bourgh Essay

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In Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lady Catherine De Bourgh's words, actions and dialogues all reveal her as a supercilious and domineering figure. Lady Catherine's "manner" of receiving her visitors making them realize their "inferior rank", shows her selfishness, and portrays her as a character who not only is arrogant, but has an unpleasant attitude. Selfishness often applies to those egoistic of character, and Lady Catherine's sense of superiority over her guests suggests she makes her guests realize that their potential is lower than hers and that she is more powerful than them. Lady Catherine's supercilious trait is portrayed in her comments to Elizabeth Bennett about her "instrument", which she calls "capital", being "superior" to her. …show more content…

Lady Catherine's rather boastful conversation with Elizabeth suggests she is capable of accomplishing many young people "well placed out". This revels that Lady Catherine believes she has the power and wealth to "engage" a brilliant partner for others and is arrogant of her superiority to do so. Lady Catherine is quite astonished when Elizabeth does not give her a "direct answer" suspecting Elizabeth to be the first "creature", who "dared to trifle" with her and treat her insignificant. Lady Catherine tends to question many if they do not treat her with the superiority she ought to receive being a woman of money, as she believes no one is to show "dignified impertinence" in front of her social standing. Lady Catherine's final act of "relating some anecdote" about herself while she quadrille explains she is self-centered and arrogant; she draws every focus to relate to her social status and prosperity boasting she has better potential and class than others. This suggests her supercilious attribute, for she clearly sees more class in herself than she sees in

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