Lady Catherine de Bourgh

Basic Information

• Original name: Lady Catherine de Bourgh
• Korean rendering: Lady Catherine de Bourgh
• Position: an aristocratic lady; widow of the late Sir Lewis de Bourgh
• Family: related to the Darcy family as the sister of Darcy’s mother; mother of Anne de Bourgh, Miss de Bourgh
• Residence: Rosings Park, Kent
• First appearance: chunk_18 (Chaps. 28–29, in person); introduced earlier through Collins’s remarks

Character Introduction

The novel’s embodiment of “pride” in its most extreme form. Mistress of the great estate of Rosings Park and the absolute authority of the local community, she interferes with everyone and imposes her opinion on everything. She is the sister of Darcy’s mother and claims that, while both mothers were alive, they promised a marriage between her daughter Anne and Darcy. This expectation of a dynastic marriage triggers her confrontation with Elizabeth near the novel’s end.

Lady Catherine’s pride differs in kind from Darcy’s. Where Darcy’s pride is inward and self-restrained, Lady Catherine’s is outward and coercive. Darcy changes; Lady Catherine remains unchanged to the end. Ironically, her visit to threaten Elizabeth gives Darcy the courage to propose again: “Your refusal to give my aunt the promise she demanded gave me hope.”

Development by Event

The Rosings Park Episode (Chaps. 28–31)

• EVT-025: while Elizabeth is visiting Hunsford, she is invited to Rosings Park. Lady Catherine questions and judges her point by point about her family, education, and fortune. When Elizabeth answers confidently without intimidation, Lady Catherine is surprised but refuses to concede. Her intrusions range from trivial directions such as the need for three gardeners to blunt criticism: “All your younger sisters out before your elder is married!”

Threatening Elizabeth (Chap. 56)

• EVT-045: hearing a rumor that Darcy and Elizabeth will marry, Lady Catherine comes all the way to Longbourn and demands Elizabeth’s promise to renounce the match. She insists that Darcy and Anne de Bourgh were engaged by their mothers’ agreement. Elizabeth refuses: “I will make no promise of the kind.” “I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable.”
• EVT-046: paradoxically, Lady Catherine’s report of the visit gives Darcy hope that Elizabeth has not rejected him entirely. It becomes the direct catalyst for his second proposal.

Core Relationships

• Darcy: her nephew; she expects a dynastic marriage between him and Anne, but Darcy is uninterested
• Anne de Bourgh, her daughter: a sickly daughter whose presence remains faint despite her mother’s expectations
• Collins: a patronage relationship; she takes Collins’s flattery as her due
• Elizabeth: initially an insignificant person, then an enemy once Lady Catherine learns of her relationship with Darcy
• The Gardiners: she despises them for their origins in trade, though they never meet directly

Translation Notes

• Transliterate “Lady” in languages where translating it as an ordinary form of address would blur its distinction from “Mrs.” Preserve it as an aristocratic title.
• Lady Catherine’s speech favors imperatives and categorical assertions. Preserve the coercive tone of phrases such as “You ought to know” and “I insist upon being satisfied.”
• When Collins uses “condescension,” it carries the positive sense of gracious favor, despite the gap from the modern sense of patronizing arrogance.
• Clearly distinguish the comic tone of the Rosings Park scenes from the tension of the Longbourn visit.