Pride & Prejudice: Chapters 43-50
Episode 34
It’s the penultimate Pride and Prejudice episode, and things are going to get DRAMATIC! Grab your cup of tea because I’m about to spill it!
Transcript
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to Piper’s Paraphrases. I’m professor pipes and this week I’m discussing chapters 43-50 of Jane Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice, which are also part 3, chapters 1-8. We’re supposed to finally see Pemberley today, so let’s hurry up and get going!
Previously:
Previously in Pride and Prejudice, things were getting dramatic! After Jane’s beloved, Mr. Bingley, was ripped from her grasp, the guy responsible for it, Mr. Darcy, proposed to Elizabeth, but she wasn’t having it! She called him out for his poor treatment of both Jane and their friend, Mr. Wickham. However, all was NOT as it seemed. Darcy gave a letter to Elizabeth explaining that he didn’t think Jane liked Bingley, so he helped separate them to spare his heart. And as to Mr. Wickham, he was given a bunch of money under false pretenses, squandered it all, and then tried to scam more out of Darcy. When he didn’t get it, he secretly found and wooed Darcy’s fifteen year old sister in London and almost got her to run away with him so he could steal her inheritance, but luckily Darcy found out and stopped him. Jane and Elizabeth decided not to tell everyone about Wickham, since he would be leaving town soon. Oh! And who else was leaving town? Lydia Bennet. She was invited to stay at the military camp in Brighton, and even though Elizabeth begged her father not to let her go, he consented and Lydia left town. Then Lizzy left, too, for a trip with her aunt and uncle. In fact, when we left her, she was just about to take a tour of Pemberley, Darcy’s estate, and the home she turned down!
Summary:
Elizabeth and the Gardiners head out to see Pemberley. No, Cooper, It’s bigger than that. Still bigger. Ok, that’s about right. Lizzy is wowed by the beauty of its grounds and halls. Mrs. Reynolds, the housekeeper, shows them around, all the while complimenting the heck out of Mr. Darcy. Mrs. Gardiner points out a painting of Mr. Wickham, and Mrs. Reynolds informs them that he was a favorite of the previous owner, but she believes he’s become quite wild. Understatement of the year. Upon pointing out a painting of Mr. Darcy, she discovers that Lizzy knows him, and she is absolutely stoked. Soon the Gardiners and Lizzy head outside to tour the grounds when they are surprised to see… No, not you, Cooper. Mr. Darcy! That’s right, the spurned lover who was supposed to be out of town is home early. Awkward! And the conversation is awkward at first, but soon he joins the Gardiners in and Lizzy on their walk, and he is, dare I say, polite! Perhaps even charming! He even says that his sister would like to meet her when she arrives. Wow! Like Elizabeth and the Gardiners, I’m shook.
The next day, Darcy, Georgiana, and Bingley come to visit, and there are some key realizations. Lizzy realizes that Georgiana is shy, and Bingley is still interested in Jane. Meanwhile, the Gardiners realize that Darcy is in love with Elizabeth. Then the next day, Mrs. Gardiner and Elizabeth join Georgiana, plus Bingley’s sisters, for lunch at Pemberley while the guys go fishing. What with Caroline’s jealousy of Elizabeth and Georgiana’s shyness, there is little conversation until the gents arrive, when Caroline tries to embarrass Lizzy in front of Darcy by bringing up the militia, hinting about a certain someone, and unknowingly embarrassing Georgiana instead. When our protagonist leaves, Caroline tries to insult her, but Darcy replies by saying that she’s, “one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.” Oooh, look who’s still got the feels!
Soon Elizabeth receives two letters from Jane. The first has bad enough news: Lydia has run off with…. Wickham! Oh no! The two are apparently in love and have run away to get married. But the second letter, oh man… In it, even Jane is losing hope that they’ve actually gotten married, meaning that the two of them are… living in sin! Ok, ok, it was a super big deal back then! Just when Elizabeth is running to get her aunt and uncle so they can leave immediately, who walks in but Darcy! That man is sneaky! Always popping up out of nowhere. After Darcy asks what’s wrong, Elizabeth tells him about Lydia and Wickham, all the while blaming herself for not telling the whole world what a scoundrel Wickham is. Darcy says he wishes there were something he could do to help her, apologizes for intruding upon her time, and heads out, leaving Lizzy to realize her own changing feelings toward Darcy and regret what could have been.
Soon they all make it back to Longbourn, where they find out that Mr. Bennett has gone off to London to look for the couple. Mrs. Bennet, meanwhile, has been in absolute hysterics. Surprise surprise. Mr. Gardiner leaves for London to help out Mr. Bennet, but they don’t have much luck. Eventually Mrs. Gardiner heads home and Mr. Bennet does, too, much to his wife’s annoyance. After all, “Who is to fight Wickham, and make him marry her, if he comes away?” Luckily, they soon get a letter from Mr. Gardiner with good news! They have found the couple, who of course are not married. However, Wickham has agreed to marry her if Mr. Bennet provides him with a dowry and a small yearly allowance. A salary to be married to her. Sounds about right. Mr. Bennet assumes that his brother in law must have forked over a ton of cash to get him to agree to the marriage and is necessarily upset, but Mrs. Bennet is absolutely overjoyed and immediately starts talking about getting her new clothes and buying a house for them in the neighborhood. Right. This section concludes with a letter asking that Mr. Bennet pay off the creditors Wickham has in Meryton and stating that Lydia would like to come see her family after the wedding and before she and Wickham move up North with his new military regiment. However, Mr. Bennet makes one thing clear: his daughter will never, ever be welcomed in his house again. Cut to her arriving at Longbourn, but we’ll save that for our next episode.
Characterization:
This section has a couple of new characters, but mostly it’s about looking at characters again or seeing their growth.
First, we are finally introduced to Georgiana Darcy, about whom we’ve heard some differing accounts. Miss Bingley was always ready to compliment her, to suggest that she is absolutely perfect, the ideal wife for her brother. Mr. Wickham had said she was pompous and proud, like her brother. Even in the neighborhood, Elizabeth “had heard that Miss Darcy was exceedingly proud; but the observation of a very few minutes convinced her that she was only exceedingly shy,” yet again proving that rumors and gossip are often incorrect.
Miss Bingley is in her full jealousy mode again. She hardly greets Elizabeth when she visits Pemberley and makes no attempt at conversation, until Darcy arrives and she realizes she can seize on an opportunity to embarrass Lizzy, which of course backfires. And then, once Elizabeth has left, she tries again to insult her, reminding Darcy of her crass family and his own former prejudices. But again, this backfires. It almost seems as if being a jealous jerk does not make people like you. How strange!
We are again able to compare the Bennets and the Gardiners, and the difference is stark. We see that Mr. Bennet’s carelessness and lack of attentiveness to the affairs of his family along with Mrs. Bennet’s foolishness and spoiling of Lydia have led to her improper and thoughtless behavior. But of course that’s not how Mrs. Bennet sees it, instead “blaming everybody but the person to whose ill-judging indulgence the errors of her daughter must principally be owing,” herself. At least Mr. Bennet states that he has finally learned to be cautious, but his subsequent jokes that officers will never even be allowed into town and that Kitty will only be allowed to dance with her sisters begs the question: did he actually learn anything at all? The Gardiners, by contrast, do everything right. Mrs. Gardiner helps take care of the family while Mrs. Bennet has bed-ridden herself. Mr. Gardiner goes to London to help search for his niece, and Mr. Bennet even comes home after a few days, leaving his brother in law to continue the work for him. He even makes all the plans, arranges the wedding, and helps to plan Wickham’s future employment once the pair have been found. Then, when it first comes to light that Mr. Gardiner has likely spent a bunch of his own money to get Wickham to marry Lydia, Mrs. Bennet has no problems with this, saying, “it is all very right; who should do it but her own uncle? If he had not had a family of his own, I and my children must have had all his money, you know.” Clearly the Gardiners serve as foils to the Bennets, demonstrating all the parental care and compassion that Mr. and Mrs. Bennet lack.
Finally, it is when Elizabeth finally sees Pemberley that she also finally understands and gets to know Darcy. Exploring his home is almost like exploring his mind, giving her insight into who he really is, and his best qualities. Mrs. Reynolds, the housekeeper at Pemberley, has only the best things to say about him, saying he’s the best master, best landlord, best brother, best everything! Even as a child he was, “the sweetest-tempered, most generous-hearted boy in the world.” At first this seems strange to Elizabeth, but the more she sees of him, the more she begins to recognize its truth. He is exceedingly kind to her, despite the fact that she rejected and insulted him, and extends that kindness to her family, as well, showing a level of care and concern that Lizzy had never seen before. But of course, just when she, and we, want to get to know him better, Elizabeth is pulled away by Lydia’s recklessness.
Analysis:
In this section we continue to see the dissolution of both Pride and Prejudice. Even though Elizabeth no longer hates Mr. Darcy and knows that he had some reasons for his past behavior, “That he was not a good-tempered man had been her firmest opinion.” She is still completely shocked when Mrs. Reynolds praises him. She also assumes that her aunt and uncle would never even be allowed to be guests at Pemberley if she had married Darcy. She’s then necessarily surprised when he treats them with courtesy and kindness. Over the course of this section her prejudice dissolves completely and her opinion of Darcy changes with it, but we’ll get to that soon enough. Meanwhile, all of Darcy’s behavior makes it clear that he is no longer letting his pride control him. In fact, in meeting the Gardiners, he is “now seeking the acquaintance of some of those very people against whom his pride had revolted.” And he does more than just seek their acquaintance. His behavior, “was more than civil; it was really attentive.” He finds occasion after occasion to offer them help or kindness or entertainment, and all because Elizabeth made him realize he should be less proud! Well, that’s not the only reason why, but, again, we’ll come back to that.
Throughout much of the novel, Jane Austen has been critical of the Gender norms of her time. This is shown in part through the satirical character of Mrs. Bennet, who is an absolute cliche of what women were thought to be like. It’s shown through Charlotte Lucas’ choice to marry the quite stupid Mr. Collins just for an establishment. Through the entailment which makes Mr. Collins the future owner of the Bennet home simply because they only had daughters. We see it in the reaction of the townspeople, who are almost as glad to hear about Lydia’s marriage as they were to hear about her scandal. And now we see the most extreme example of this. Wickham is notorious, of course, for being a scoundrel who manipulates people and wastes his money, but Lydia, whose only fault is listening to and believing the guy she loves when he tells her he wants to marry her? Well, the ever tactful Mr. Collins advises the family that they should, “throw off your unworthy child from your affection for ever” since, “The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this.” Soooo… It would be better for her to be dead than to live with a man before they’re married? Dang, that’s harsh, Mr. Collins. Clearly, this is Austen pointing out how insane the expectations of women are, what standards of morality they are expected to maintain. However, it’s not as clear cut as all that. After all, Elizabeth, who generally is the most reasonable character, is completely shocked and appalled by her sister’s behavior and says that Lydia is “lost forever” because of her actions. So even though Collins’ response is a satirical take on the expectations and reactions of people at this time, it seems as if Austen herself still doesn’t condone the “immoral” behavior of Lydia.
Finally, let’s get back to the heart of this novel, Courtship. I need hardly mention Lydia and Wickham here, for though it’s clear that Lydia really did fancy herself to be in love, it is equally clear that Wickham’s “courtship” of her was first just for… companionship… as he ran away from his post, and then all about money. Even Mr. Bennet says that, “Wickham’s a fool if he takes her with a farthing less than ten thousand pounds.” So if theirs isn’t an authentic, or at least romantic, courtship, let’s move on to that of Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth. Even though at first Elizabeth thinks to herself, “It cannot be for me—it cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened… It is impossible that he should still love me” her aunt and uncle are not so easily convinced. In fact, to them “it was evident that he was very much in love with her.” His manners, attention, behavior, all signs point to love. But what about our dear Miss Elizabeth? Well, in this section we finally start to see evidence of Elizabeth’s interest in Mr. Darcy. At first, her feelings “could not be exactly defined. She respected, she esteemed, she was grateful to him, she felt a real interest in his welfare.” Unfortunately, just as quickly as their relationship begins to grow, it is dashed away by Lydia’s actions. In fact, it is not until after Lydia’s marriage that Lizzy “was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.” She realizes that he would have been a perfect partner for her, an ideal match, but apparently it was not to be. In classic Austen style, the speaker has some satirical commentary on love, comparing Elizabeth’s natural change of sentiment through gratitude and esteem to love that is “often described as arising on a first interview with its object, and even before two words have been exchanged.” In other words, Elizabeth’s love for Darcy is far more realistic, but perhaps less popular than love at first sight. Of course the speaker also snarkily adds that she gave that a chance with Wickham, and look where that got her, so maybe she was more willing to give in to the much more boring version of romance.
Food for Thought:
Lastly, I’d like to leave you with some food for thought.
First, have your opinions about Darcy fully shifted, as Elizabeth’s have? Why or why not?
Second, this section states that Darcy’s change in character is the result of his love. Does that seem realistic? Do people change as a result of love? And do we see evidence of that elsewhere in the book?
Third, what is Austen suggesting about society based on the townsfolk’s reactions to Lydia?
Fourth, were you surprised by Wickham’s or Lydia’s actions, given everything that we know about each? Why or why not?
Finally, what distinction does Austen make between characters of good rank and those of good morals? What is the difference between the qualities that define class and those that define character?
