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Maryann's avatar

Who is this Darcy that Elizabeth encounters on his home turf at Pemberly? At least the Bingley sisters are as haughty as ever, or Elizabeth might have felt she'd entered a parallel universe. There is still the problem of his role in keeping Bingley from Jane. Does Elizabeth now understand this to be the prudent act that he claimed? Austen has used prudent and imprudent as frequent descriptors, and it has seemed that some of the "prudent" actions have been more selfish or self-serving, than just sensible and wise choices. Though counter to what he's always considered prudent in the past, Darcy's attentiveness to the Gardiners, even once he knows who they are, seems to indicate that he's become more open minded since his proposal and letter. He clearly is still captivated by Elizabeth, and though she struggles to admit it to herself, she is falling in love with him. As for me, I'm starting to think past the romance to their future. Darcy would not be the only man to fall for an outspoken woman only to later try to constrain her to meet expectations. Elizabeth's role as Mrs. Darcy would be much different than anything for which she's had a good role model. Nor have the Bennets given her a good example of how to be married. Their union would definitely bring challenges. Just as the potential for romance is heating up, Elizabeth gets news from Jane that Lydia has "eloped" with Wickham. When Elizabeth blurts this all out to Darcy, I think she fails to see that she may have shared her situation with the one person who might understand most acutely. After all, Darcy did have to rescue his own sister from the duplicitous Wickham. Austen sure understands how to build tension by bringing her characters to the brink of resolution and then yanking them back with some new obstacle; and picking the end of this chapter to pause our reading has created quite a cliffhanger.

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Linda Quayle's avatar

What a great section! I particularly loved the little cameo of the reactions to the Wickham debacle: Mr Collins, sanctimonious (of course); Mrs B, torn between fears of catastrophe and worries about Lydia's wedding clothes; Elizabeth, metaphorically pulling up the drawbridge ("Under such a misfortune as this, one cannot see too little of one's neighbors. Assistance is impossible; condolence insufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied"); and Mr B, with his incomparable line in cynical repentance ("Let me once in my life feel how much I have been to blame. I am not afraid of being overpowered by the impression. It will pass away soon enough"). Brilliant stuff...

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