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Angeline's avatar

Another contrast I noticed in these chapters was that of time; the more fickle and passionate union between Lydia and Wickham forms surprisingly quickly. In contrast, Jane and Bingley’s relationship, which is more characterized by a similar temperament and understanding, takes more time to become realized. But most of all, at least we hope, Lizzy and Darcy coming together is long! This is likely due to their more striking differences, which Elizabeth later points out as a complementarity which would be to their advantage (though they still share many common values and traits). These contrasts seem to say, anything valuable takes time. And so I hope our patience will be rewarded…

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Maryann's avatar

I'm sad for Lydia, flirty yet naive, spoiled by her mother, overshadowed by older sisters, ignored by her father. In the words of Cyndi Lauper "I wanna be the one to walk in the sun...Girls just wanna have fun." The new Mrs. Wickham's return to Longbourne is embarrassing to almost the whole family, but she is triumphant. As the only married sister, she even says to Jane, the oldest, "sister I take your place now." I fear at best poverty and neglect if not outright abuse are in her future.

Her mother is also triumphant. A daughter married. And at only 16! Mrs. Bennet pivots rapidly from taking to her room in nervous collapse to planning for Lydia's wedding clothes as though this was a normal marriage. I'm not sure if Austen wants me to sympathize with Mrs. Bennet or just cringe at her melodramatic and clueless responses. Living for years with a husband who has shut her out and ridicules her to her children can't have been easy.

And what of Mr. Bennet? He had run after Lydia in such a state of anger that his wife feared he would be killed in a duel. (Was he truly recklessly angry or is that Mrs. Bennet's perception based on her truest fear, that his death will result in Collins taking over Longbourne and throwing them all out?) After his unsuccessful search for Lydia, Mr. Bennet retreats to his study with an apparent "what's done is done" attitude. His sole response to his brother-in-law finding Lydia appears to be concern for this new indebtedness to him. He wants to know how much Mr. Gardiner had to pay Wickham to arrange the marriage and mulls how he can pay him back. (In truth he knows he will never repay the debt but needs to know how beholden he now is to his brother-in-law.) He rues that he has not saved more so that he could settle this debt and also to better support the futures of his wife and daughters, but then seems to shrug this off too. Even indolence seems too active a word for him. I think he is in the midst of a major depression that has seriously impacted his entire family.

Three sad lives.

Even without reading ahead I know there is a happier ending in store for Elizabeth. The big bombshell in these chapters is what Lydia lets slip - Darcy had attended her wedding! A letter in reply to Elizabeth's query to her aunt confirms it was actually DARCY who found Lydia and Wickham and it was DARCY who made the arrangements and DARCY who made the payments that assured a marriage took place. Her aunt and uncle assume he did this for Elizabeth. DARCY has also has apparently urged Bingley to return to wooing Jane. Thus he has shown he's all in, and has delivered to Lizzy his bouquet of roses, so to speak. We're ready for the big finish unless Austen has more obstacles in these last few chapters.

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