Ooh what a treat I wasn’t sure when you’d manage to post so I’d been holding off reading. This section is my absolute favourite and the bit I return to again and again. The impressions of Pemberley, Darcy appearing. Miss Bingley provoking him to a response. I always wonder about some of the events/conversations outside the novel. Exactly how does Darcy bring up the subject of Elizabeth with his sister? - I find it hard to imagine! Also why is he calling on Elizabeth in Lambton - he would have needed an excuse (beyond driving the plot!) or perhaps not as he called at The Collin’s too. This is the bit in the 2005 film that annoyed me the most (sorry!) - too grand a house, sculptures not paintings, Lizzy wandering off and then walking home alone - did her uncle & aunt just leave her?! The 1995 version isn’t perfect either but the house to me seems just right & love the housekeeper.
I love how much Pemberly becomes a character in its own right in these chapters! They really, for me, inspire so much about how I read Darcy. (Likewise in both filmic adaptations: the Pemberlys for each Darcy seem to align really beautifully with the rendition or interpretation of Darcy we are experiencing!)
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.
I’m enjoying this Close Read so much — after rereading P&P so many times, I’ve gotten in a bad habit of skimming.
I do want to disagree with this one point:
“Mr. Bennet seems finally to recognize the role he has played in the chaos…. Suddenly, the business of marriage isn’t so silly or simple as Mr. Bennet has wanted Mrs. Bennet to believe.”
I don’t think he was trying to persuade his wife: I think he was making excuses to himself for his indolence and self-indulgence and failure to protect his daughters’ future as a truly caring father would have.
I’m so glad you are enjoying the close reading experience! I think you’re right about your reading of Mr. Bennet; maybe we’re both seeing sides of a coin (of his character) here. He seems to be attempting to “save face” while the precise details of what’s happening around him seem to continually escape his control. I found myself wondering so much about his feelings and true inner experience during all of this.
Not exactly a favorite quote, but I keep coming back to Mr. Collins' horrible letter, which goes from bad to worse: "...The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented, because there is reason to suppose, as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter, has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence, though, at the same time, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity, at so early an age. ... And this consideration leads me moreover to reflect with augmented satisfaction on a certain event of last November, for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved in all your sorrows and disgrace." Maybe let Mrs. Collins write the sympathy cards from now on!
Collins’ letter really ticked me off. In my book, next to his letter, I wrote “OMGosh, Collins is a BUTT”. (I would have used harsher language , but I don’t know if a younger person may pick up my book at some point). I so really wanted to read about Jane and Lizzy’s reactions to his judgemental ramblings and terrible unsolicited advice, but the next paragraph moved on to another subject. Bummer!
Isn’t his letter so heinous?! He’s so unbearably cruel, under the guise of being such a saint. I love that he actually calls out his own fortune at not being married into the family, lest his perfect self be tainted by the whiff of scandal 😂
It seems often that characters who try to project the most saintly demeanor are other the ones most cruel. These are the villains I watch for as they're often the ones to cause havoc for main characters. Collins seems more anxious here to protect his reputation with Lady Catherine.
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...
Isn’t it so fun to be at a place with these characters where we likely would’ve been able to very accurately guess their reactions? It almost makes the section ultra-extra satisfying, because we’re now firmly in on the joke.
I really enjoyed this week’s reading! The scene where Darcy meets Lizzy’s aunt and uncle really touched me. He was so very friendly and generous towards them, inviting her uncle to fish on his property. It warmed my heart and I found it actually made me tear up a little. What a nice guy!
Miss Bingley’s jab at the Bennet family’s loss of the militia in Meryton as being said with “sneering civility” was a hoot. I think it must take a very special person to be able to sneer in a civil way.
Oh, I love that you’ve called attention to the Darcy-Gardiners relationship: they really do have such a sweet connection. Darcy is so gracious and inviting, and you really get the sense that it’s not just for Lizzy’s sake. He’s a kind person.
Can't help falling in love with Mr Darcy, can we? Specially when we see him through the eyes of the adoring housekeeper, who's known him since he was a child. "...to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!" thinks Elizabeth, and undoubtedly seeing the man in his element, in the huge, beautiful grounds and the impressive luxurious house stirs something in her. No doubt his generosity to Elizabeth's uncle and aunt plays a part.
The little bits of snark Austen throws us every few passages are such a delight. In chapter 43 when they are being shown around Pemberley, and Mrs Reynolds mentions how "Ms Darcy is always down for the summer months" Elizabeth thinks "except when she goes to Ramsgate"!
Darcy's feelings are so apparent, even the aunt is able to detect it. So does Caroline, no doubt, and jealousy makes her heckle Darcy. "Miss Bingley was left to all the satisfaction of having forced him to say what gave no one any pain but herself." lol
My favourite part of this section: "The present unhappy state of the family, rendered any other excuse for lowness of her spirits unnecessary; nothing therefore could be conjectured from that, though Elizabeth, who was by this time tolerably well acquainted with her own feelings, was perfectly aware that had she known nothing of Darcy, she could have borne the dread of Lydia's infamy somewhat better. It would have spared her, she thought, one sleepless night out of two." Elizabeth is in love!
I love all of these observations! I also found myself dwelling on the unhappy family line—and thinking about the infamous opening of Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
What a week. You beautifully captured everything I was feeling whilst reading Hayley. Thank you. “Let her visit a place that can help her see a different view. Let her change her mind.” ….sigh….
Thank you everyone for your amazing comments that help enrich our close read.
This is such an excellent analysis. In re your favorite quote, Haley, I think that Liz’s realization here is an exceptionally genuine and mature way for her to think about what real love means, especially given that her parents don’t appear to model this at all: that it should be mutually beneficial and life-giving (which is also a great contrast to the Lydia/Wickham scandal, in which Wickham marries for money and Lydia marries for passion out of ignorance of his feelings for her—certainly not mutually beneficial or life-giving).
Thanks so much Taylor! You’re so right that it’s such a mature moment for Lizzy. The longer I’ve been in therapy and have learned about basic psychology, the more profound these turns away from what is known toward “what could be” feel to me. It’s quite brave of Lizzy to admit she’s been wrong all this time.
Ooh what a treat I wasn’t sure when you’d manage to post so I’d been holding off reading. This section is my absolute favourite and the bit I return to again and again. The impressions of Pemberley, Darcy appearing. Miss Bingley provoking him to a response. I always wonder about some of the events/conversations outside the novel. Exactly how does Darcy bring up the subject of Elizabeth with his sister? - I find it hard to imagine! Also why is he calling on Elizabeth in Lambton - he would have needed an excuse (beyond driving the plot!) or perhaps not as he called at The Collin’s too. This is the bit in the 2005 film that annoyed me the most (sorry!) - too grand a house, sculptures not paintings, Lizzy wandering off and then walking home alone - did her uncle & aunt just leave her?! The 1995 version isn’t perfect either but the house to me seems just right & love the housekeeper.
I can't wait to watch both of these.
I love how much Pemberly becomes a character in its own right in these chapters! They really, for me, inspire so much about how I read Darcy. (Likewise in both filmic adaptations: the Pemberlys for each Darcy seem to align really beautifully with the rendition or interpretation of Darcy we are experiencing!)
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.
I’m enjoying this Close Read so much — after rereading P&P so many times, I’ve gotten in a bad habit of skimming.
I do want to disagree with this one point:
“Mr. Bennet seems finally to recognize the role he has played in the chaos…. Suddenly, the business of marriage isn’t so silly or simple as Mr. Bennet has wanted Mrs. Bennet to believe.”
I don’t think he was trying to persuade his wife: I think he was making excuses to himself for his indolence and self-indulgence and failure to protect his daughters’ future as a truly caring father would have.
I’m so glad you are enjoying the close reading experience! I think you’re right about your reading of Mr. Bennet; maybe we’re both seeing sides of a coin (of his character) here. He seems to be attempting to “save face” while the precise details of what’s happening around him seem to continually escape his control. I found myself wondering so much about his feelings and true inner experience during all of this.
Not exactly a favorite quote, but I keep coming back to Mr. Collins' horrible letter, which goes from bad to worse: "...The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented, because there is reason to suppose, as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter, has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence, though, at the same time, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity, at so early an age. ... And this consideration leads me moreover to reflect with augmented satisfaction on a certain event of last November, for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved in all your sorrows and disgrace." Maybe let Mrs. Collins write the sympathy cards from now on!
I love Mr Collins he is so spectacularly awful.
Collins’ letter really ticked me off. In my book, next to his letter, I wrote “OMGosh, Collins is a BUTT”. (I would have used harsher language , but I don’t know if a younger person may pick up my book at some point). I so really wanted to read about Jane and Lizzy’s reactions to his judgemental ramblings and terrible unsolicited advice, but the next paragraph moved on to another subject. Bummer!
Isn’t his letter so heinous?! He’s so unbearably cruel, under the guise of being such a saint. I love that he actually calls out his own fortune at not being married into the family, lest his perfect self be tainted by the whiff of scandal 😂
It seems often that characters who try to project the most saintly demeanor are other the ones most cruel. These are the villains I watch for as they're often the ones to cause havoc for main characters. Collins seems more anxious here to protect his reputation with Lady Catherine.
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...
Yes, exactly this, I was noting down the varying reactions to Lydia's elopement too!
Isn’t it so fun to be at a place with these characters where we likely would’ve been able to very accurately guess their reactions? It almost makes the section ultra-extra satisfying, because we’re now firmly in on the joke.
Truly!
My favorite quote is in Chapter 52:
"She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet"
It is when she thinks she has lost him , that she realizes a very strong attachment to him.
Two intense feelings at the same time: love and sadness to have lost the object of it.
They often stand togheter.
Such a heartbreaking moment isn’t it?! She doesn’t know what she’s got til it’s gone!
I really enjoyed this week’s reading! The scene where Darcy meets Lizzy’s aunt and uncle really touched me. He was so very friendly and generous towards them, inviting her uncle to fish on his property. It warmed my heart and I found it actually made me tear up a little. What a nice guy!
Miss Bingley’s jab at the Bennet family’s loss of the militia in Meryton as being said with “sneering civility” was a hoot. I think it must take a very special person to be able to sneer in a civil way.
Oh, I love that you’ve called attention to the Darcy-Gardiners relationship: they really do have such a sweet connection. Darcy is so gracious and inviting, and you really get the sense that it’s not just for Lizzy’s sake. He’s a kind person.
Can't help falling in love with Mr Darcy, can we? Specially when we see him through the eyes of the adoring housekeeper, who's known him since he was a child. "...to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!" thinks Elizabeth, and undoubtedly seeing the man in his element, in the huge, beautiful grounds and the impressive luxurious house stirs something in her. No doubt his generosity to Elizabeth's uncle and aunt plays a part.
The little bits of snark Austen throws us every few passages are such a delight. In chapter 43 when they are being shown around Pemberley, and Mrs Reynolds mentions how "Ms Darcy is always down for the summer months" Elizabeth thinks "except when she goes to Ramsgate"!
Darcy's feelings are so apparent, even the aunt is able to detect it. So does Caroline, no doubt, and jealousy makes her heckle Darcy. "Miss Bingley was left to all the satisfaction of having forced him to say what gave no one any pain but herself." lol
My favourite part of this section: "The present unhappy state of the family, rendered any other excuse for lowness of her spirits unnecessary; nothing therefore could be conjectured from that, though Elizabeth, who was by this time tolerably well acquainted with her own feelings, was perfectly aware that had she known nothing of Darcy, she could have borne the dread of Lydia's infamy somewhat better. It would have spared her, she thought, one sleepless night out of two." Elizabeth is in love!
I love all of these observations! I also found myself dwelling on the unhappy family line—and thinking about the infamous opening of Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
What a week. You beautifully captured everything I was feeling whilst reading Hayley. Thank you. “Let her visit a place that can help her see a different view. Let her change her mind.” ….sigh….
Thank you everyone for your amazing comments that help enrich our close read.
I have found the end of the novel a little heavy with all the explanations between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy about their feeling.
I much prefer the end of the 2005 movie where we just have a beautiful image if them holding hands.
This is such an excellent analysis. In re your favorite quote, Haley, I think that Liz’s realization here is an exceptionally genuine and mature way for her to think about what real love means, especially given that her parents don’t appear to model this at all: that it should be mutually beneficial and life-giving (which is also a great contrast to the Lydia/Wickham scandal, in which Wickham marries for money and Lydia marries for passion out of ignorance of his feelings for her—certainly not mutually beneficial or life-giving).
Thanks so much Taylor! You’re so right that it’s such a mature moment for Lizzy. The longer I’ve been in therapy and have learned about basic psychology, the more profound these turns away from what is known toward “what could be” feel to me. It’s quite brave of Lizzy to admit she’s been wrong all this time.
Absolutely! Even just from an attachment perspective, Liz’s worldview shift here is incredibly profound.