Characters Guilty of Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice beautifully portrays the life of a middle-class country family in England in the early 19th century . The Bennet family is currently busy finding suitable (rich) husbands for their five daughters. The protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, is an intelligent, witty and opinionated young woman. She has already rejected one potential suitor because she felt he was unsuitable, and in this scene she rejects another, Fitzwilliam Darcy, because she feels he is arrogant and cruel. This scene portrays a lively exchange between the two, with Elizabeth accusing him of prejudice and Darcy accusing her of being full of pride. The scene opens with Darcy entering the room where Elizabeth was reading. After inquiring about his health, he pauses for a few moments and then suddenly declares, “You must permit me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you” (Austen, 142). He then proceeds to tell her all the things that are wrong. with his family and his own "inferiority" (142). Despite all this, he still loves her. Darcy seems certain that he will accept, but Elizabeth's aversion to his pride and arrogance make it impossible for her to accept. They then proceed to get into a heated argument and each barrage of insults at the other. Austen's words during this exchange increase the liveliness of this argument. Elizabeth first denigrates his proposal by saying, "Why with so evident an object of offending and insulting me, you have chosen to tell me that you like me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character" (143) Darcy's proposal he was far from romantic and convinced Elizabeth that Darcy wants a wife inferior to him, something she would never tolerate. She goes on to accuse him of being prejudiced against another, making accusation after accusation against him, and concluding with, "You have done all this! Yet you can treat the mention of his misfortunes with contempt and ridicule" (144). He retorts, “These offenses might have been overlooked, if your pride had not been wounded by my honest confessions of the scruples which had long prevented me from formulating any serious plan” (144). She retorts by saying, “You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the manner of your statement affected me” (145). She goes on to say, “There was no way you could have made me the offer of your hand to tempt me to accept it"." (145).