The First Proposal Scene in Pride and Prejudice

The scene where Mr. Darcy initially proposes to Elizabeth is arguable the most important scene in the novel and is a major turning point. Until this moment, both parties have been repressing their feelings for one another. Although it doesn’t turn out exactly how Mr. Darcy was hoping, this scene airs many if not all of the grievances between the two, and it is during this fight that Mr. Darcy learns everything he did that made Elizabeth lose favor for him. Darcy takes the opportunity to not only explicitly write out to Elizabeth why everything happened how it did, but he goes and does everything in his power to fix the wrongs he did. The scene itself is beautifully written, as is the whole novel, and sets a perfect tone for the moment. There is tons of negative diction throughout the scene. You could look anywhere on the pages and see words with more negative connotations and denotations, but one place where it really sticks out is where Austen explains that “in spite of her [Elizabeth’s] deeply rooted dislike…she was at fist sorry for the pain he was to receive…” and how overcome with anger she is at the whole situation.

As the argument builds, the sentence structure of the dialogue becomes interesting to follow because it is definitely reminiscent and reflective of a real life argument. Longer sentences start off speech paragraphs, as the individuals rapidly argue a major point they have. As these bits of dialogue continue, sentences become shorter and reflect the anger in both characters that is coming out rapidly in different points they have rolling off their tongues. It is also interesting to note that this scene takes place in Mr. and Mrs. Collins’ home, not in any environment that’s particularly comfortable, familiar, or important to either character. Not just this, but it is also the home of a marriage of compromise, not true love. Darcy could not have possibly been set up for worse success than he is in this scene between the context of Elizabeth’s feelings for him, the setting being in such a home, and Austen’s constant use of negative language. However, it is the passion built between all of these things and the characters themselves that eventually drive them together in the end.