Pride & Prejudice: Chapters 24-34
Episode 32
Join Professor Pipes as she starts to explore Part Two of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Get ready for promenades, piano, and proposals!
Transcript
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to Piper’s Paraphrases. I’m Professor Pipes and for maximum alliteration, I’m discussing Pride and Prejudice. Specifically, chapters 24 through 34, also known as Part 2, chapters 1-11. Let’s get to it!
Previously:
Previously in Pride and Prejudice, the Bennet family was super excited about the arrival of a new bachelor in town, Mr. Bingley, especially when he and Jane Bennet really hit it off. His best friend, Mr. Darcy, started to fall for Lizzy Bennet, but after he insulted her on their first encounter, she… didn’t like him. Pretty soon, Mr. Collins came to town and, after generally acting like a pompous idiot, he proposed to Lizzy, who refused. Then he proposed to her best friend! What!? And she accepted! Double what!?! Meanwhile, a new military officer in town, Mr. Wickham, arrived and caught the eye of Lizzy. He also told her that Darcy was jealous of his father’s friendship with Wickham and basically ruined his job prospects and his life after his father died. What a jerk! Unfortunately for Jane, then Bingley, his sisters, and Darcy all left town and made no plans to return.
Summary:
Part 2 starts off with a letter from Miss Bingley saying they had all settled in nicely in London and then basically just praising the heck out of Miss Darcy, reiterating how fantastic it will be when she inevitably marries Mr. Bingley because she’s just so great. Lovely. Lizzy gets real annoyed that Bingley has been so persuaded out of his feelings by his friend and sisters, but Jane won’t accept that anyone has any faults so he really just must have never really liked her. Suuuuure.
The family, and especially Lizzy, becomes closer with Wickham, who visits the Bennets often. Soon the whole town hears about his past with Darcy and everyone agrees that Darcy is awful and Wickham is the best! Duh!Soon, Mr. Collins leaves town again. Wait! Mr. Collins was in town? Oh yeah! I almost forgot he had come to visit, since he spent all his time hanging out over at Charlotte Lucas’ house. Anyways, when he leaves, Mrs. Bennet’s brother, Mr. Gardiner, arrives with his family for Christmas. After Lizzy tells Mrs. Gardiner about Jane and Bingley, they invite Jane to come visit them in London for a while as a distraction, and she accepts. She also has some advice regarding Lizzy’s love life, saying that Wickham wouldn’t be a very smart match. Umm… rude! Ok, but true. Lizzy isn’t offended at all and promises to not be in a hurry to fall in love.
Soon the Gardiners and Jane leave, and then Mr. Collins arrives yet again and marries Charlotte, who makes Lizzy promise that she’ll visit. Sounds fun. Lizzy then starts to receive letters from London. First, Jane seems hopeful about seeing the Bingleys, but eventually after a really cold, awkward visit from just the Bingley sisters, Jane realizes that maybe they aren’t so nice. About time!
Lizzy also writes to Mrs. Gardiner and tells her that Wickham is no longer interested in her. What?? Isn’t this supposed to be a LOVE story!? Apparently, another young woman recently inherited quite a bit of money, and that was just too much of an enticement for a young man with no prospects who was financially ruined by Mr. Darcy. Lizzy isn’t all that sad and doesn’t even fault him for it, but it kind of seems like maybe Mrs. Gardiner does.
Soon, Lizzy gets to see Jane’s heartbreak for herself, when she and Charlotte’s sister and father stop by on their way to visit Charlotte. Mrs. Gardiner invites Lizzy on a summer trip they have planned, and Lizzy happily accepts. The next day, the trio sets off for Charlotte’s home, and when they arrive, Mr. Collins immediately starts showing off and talking about Lady Catherine DeBourgh. Surprise surprise. They all dine at Rosings, Lady Catherine’s fancy estate, where she super rudely questions Lizzy about her family, her accomplishments, her education, and her age. And I thought dinner meant the meal was supposed to be grilled, not the people.
Charlotte’s father soon leaves, but Rosings gets some new visitors: Mr. Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, who ends up actually being super nice and even banters with Lizzy about Darcy.
One day, Mr. Darcy visits the parsonage and finds Lizzy alone. They have a super awkward conversation, where Darcy mentions that he thinks Bingley may never return to Netherfield and then talks about Mr. and Mrs. Collins. After Charlotte returns home, Darcy leaves, and Charlotte mentions to Lizzy that she thinks he might be in love with her. DING DING DING DING DING! Lizzy, however, says that’s impossible.
Lizzy is very surprised when, time and again, she runs into Mr. Darcy while out on her afternoon walks, especially after she specifically warned him that she likes to go walking there. One day, though, she is pleasantly surprised to run into Colonel Fitzwilliam. The two chat, and eventually Fitzwilliam reveals that he believes Mr. Darcy “saved” Mr. Bingley from an unsuitable relationship. Lizzy, who knows this must be the relationship with Jane, is understandably livid, so she decides not to go to dinner at Rosings that night, in order to avoid Darcy.
Darcy, however, has other plans. After the family leaves for Rosings, he comes to the parsonage and PROPOSES to Lizzy! And if you didn’t think it could be worse than the one from Collins, you’d be wrong. He spends a large portion of it saying how inferior she and her family are, what a degradation the match would be, and how he really was going against his better judgment in proposing. Aww. So sweet!
Lizzy not only turns him down, but when asked why, she kind of lets him have it. She calls him out for interfering with Bingley and Jane (oh, and he seems super proud about that, by the way) and for ruining Wickham’s life. She even says that she’s disliked him ever since they first met and she would never, ever, EVER be interested in him. Darcy wishes her well and heads outs.
Characterization:
There are lots of newcomers in this section, so I’ll only have time for a little snippet about a few of them.
The first is Mrs. Gardiner. She is kind and compassionate while also being smart and practical, combining the best qualities of Jane and Lizzy and functioning as a stand in parent, since their own are… well, less than ideal. She recognizes Jane’s sadness and tries to entertain and distract her, unlike Mrs. Bennet who just goes on and ON about Bingley. She also recognizes that Wickham, with no money and no prospects, would perhaps not be a great match for Lizzy, who likewise has little money to her name, unlike Mr. Bennet who jokingly tells Lizzy that Wickham would jilt her creditably. Clearly, Mrs. Gardiner has both sense and sensibility, but that’s a different story altogether!
Next, we finally meet the infamous Lady Catherine DeBourgh. She is the epitome of both good breeding and bad morals. In fact, along with Mr. Collins, she is one of the most clearly satirical characters in the novel, portraying everything that is wrong with the upper class, but we’ll talk more about that in our themes section.
The final significant new character we have is Colonel Fitzwilliam, who serves as a foil to Mr. Darcy. They even share the same name, Fitzwilliam, and yet they couldn’t be more different. Colonel Fitzwilliam is kind, witty, and easy to talk to. He and Elizabeth get along very well and are even able to joke together about Darcy’s rude and overly formal behavior. He’s kind of like a brother to Darcy, willing to make fun, but still demonstrating love and respect.
Finally, I want to mention a bit of a character shift. While, at the start of this section, we see all of Wickham’s gallantry and affability as he makes himself a friend to all, and especially to Elizabeth. It might come as a surprise, then, when he is her beau no mo, and all because Miss King has a sizable inheritance, leaving us to wonder if he’s really interested in her, if he’s just being practical about his future, like Charlotte Lucas, or if he’s a bit of a gold digger. I.0’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Analysis:
Next up, let’s discuss themes, starting with, you guessed it, Pride! Mr. Collins is, yet again, very prideful, and he is in a perfect position to show off in these chapters. When Lizzy arrives, he happily gives everyone the tour, but focuses especially on her, “as if wishing to make her feel what she had lost in refusing him.” And, yet again, much of his pride relies on his close connection with Lady Catherine DeBourgh, but we’ll come back to her later. But the king of pride may very well still be Mr. Darcy, particularly at the most awkward time to be super pompous: during a proposal. Even though he described his feelings well, “he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride.” He talked about how inferior Lizzy’s family was, proudly demonstrating how much he had to overcome in order to accept his feelings for her. It even states that, while he spoke of being anxious about her response, he seemed very self-assured, assuming her response would be an emphatic YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES! Sorry, buddy. Then, when Lizzy brings up his treatment of Bingley and Jane, he doubles down and says he was kinder to Bingley than to himself because he did everything in his power to stop their marriage. Seriously, man!? In the end, Lizzy can’t even feel sorry for his hurt feelings because of, “his pride, his abominable pride.”
Next up, let’s move on to the other half of the title, Prejudice. As per use, many of the characters either with the most pride or the most wounded pride also demonstrate prejudice, either because they look down on those they consider inferior or because they have formed a negative opinion about someone who hurt their feelings. Lizzy, of course, is in the latter category. Her opinion about Darcy was set in stone long ago. In fact, after his proposal, Lizzy admits she would never have accepted him saying, “From the very beginning, from the first moment I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that groundwork of disapprobation.” She has been prejudiced against him from the start because of his selfish pride and her wounded pride.
Next, I’ve got a rather classy topic, Class. And here is where we will finally discuss the infamous Lady Catherine DeBourgh. She demonstrates all the cliches of the upper class, which really establishes the novel as a comedy of manners. This means that it satirizes and makes fun of the behaviors and propriety of the elite, who tend to define what proper “manners” are in a society. Interestingly, Lady Catherine completely lacks what WE would call appropriate manners. For example, when Lizzy is first introduced to her, Lady Catherine asks lots of inappropriately personal questions and offers her judgement freely with the expectation that she will be neither questioned nor contradicted. In fact, “Elizabeth suspected herself to be the first creature who had ever dared to trifle with so much dignified impertinence.” Lady Catherine also loves sticking her nose in everyone’s business and ordering them about. However, one of my personal favorite examples of how she demonstrates the bubble that high society lives in is when talking about music. She says that she never learned how to play piano, and yet also states that, if she had, “I should have been a great proficient.” Clearly, Austen does a great job of showing how self-assured and out of touch the upper classes are.
Finally, I want to talk about Courtship, which in many ways is wrapped up in another important theme, Gender Dynamics. Mr. Bennet connects these, when he jokes about Jane’s sad situation, saying, “a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then” because it is “something to think of” and distinguishes her. Riiiiight. Just dying to get my heart broken so I have something to think about. However, in an attempt to absolve Bingley from any guilt for his part in her heartbreak, even Jane says that “women fancy admiration means more than it does.” In either case, though, it seems that women have little power or say in relationships and their happiness is reliant on men. Interestingly, this is not true in Elizabeth’s relationships. She turns down two different men, each of whom would have been financially advantageous, which brings us to the connection between class and courtship. Relationships have a great deal to do with power dynamics, which is why gender often plays an important role, but money is power, too. And we see this in the character of Wickham. While Mrs. Gardiner is suspicious of his sudden feelings for Miss King, Lizzy is not. She even asks her aunt, “what is the difference in matrimonial affairs between the mercenary and the prudent motive?” In other words, where do you draw the line between calling someone practical in their marriage choices and calling them a gold digger? And she’s kind of got a point. After all, Mrs. Gardiner had warned her that it wouldn’t be a smart move to fall for Wickham, since he has no prospects. However, it certainly seems that Miss Prejudiced Lizzy yet again is influenced by her positive feelings for Wickham, since she certainly didn’t approve of Charlotte Lucas’ choice to marry Mr. Collins for financial security, and yet she doesn’t fault Mr. Wickham for this same behavior. Finally, before I finish up this section, I just have to point out a couple of fun love quotes, one being, “Is not general incivility the very essence of love?” Bingley was so wrapped up in his love for Jane that he became oblivious to other people around him. Haven’t we all known couples like that? And this is a romance, after all, so we have to end with at least one romantic quote, which also happens to be the only romantic quote in Mr. Darcy’s proposal: “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” Aww! Actually sweet and loving! Too bad he’s got a funny way of showing it.
Food for Thought:
Before we head out, I’ll leave you with some food for thought. Consider these questions as you reflect on this section and as you continue the story.
First, what are your thoughts on Wickham? Do you tend to to agree more with Mrs. Gardiner’s or Lizzy’s opinion of him?
Second, in what ways do the Gardiners serve as foils to the Bennets?
Third, were you at all surprised by Mr. Darcy’s proposal or his behavior after he is turned down? And were you surprised by Elizabeth’s behavior towards him? Why or why not?
Fourth, what is the relationship like between Mr. Collins and Charlotte? Is it how you expected it to be? Why or why not?
Finally, in what ways is Pride and Prejudice a comedy of manners? How do the characters satirize the manners and behaviors of society?
Thanks for watching this episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. Now go forth, read a bunch, and be good people.
