Distinction of Rank

"Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your apparel. Lady Catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which becomes herself and daughter. I would advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the rest, there is no occasion for any thing more. Lady Catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply dressed. She likes to have the distinction of rank preserved." (Austen 154).

Here is another good example of class distinction and social structure governed by money, an important point in the novel. Lady Catherine is a woman of very high rank because she is very rich. Elizabeth, and the rest of the Bennetts, are well below her in this respect. This passage is interesting because it states that Lady Catherine prefers people to look especially inferior so that she will look even more superior to them in contrast. This may have been a gross exaggeration of the way the high class acted in the late 18th century, but it may also have been not far off base. Either way, Austen is expressing her own views on the absurdity of the high class here.