Pride and Prejudice

Elizabeth can’t understand why Darcy visited if he was going to “be silent, grave, and indifferent” (314). She vows not to think about him again. Jane tries to convince her that she and Bingley are “indifferent” (315) to each other, making Elizabeth laugh.

Bingley and Darcy return a few days later for a dinner party at Longbourn. Elizabeth is dismayed when Darcy is seated far away from her at the table, but close to her mother, whose “ungraciousness [makes] the sense of what they [owe] him more painful to Elizabeth’s mind” (316). In the drawing room, circumstances prevent them from being near each other; the one time they are, they engage in brief, awkward conversation before separating again. They are placed at different tables at cards, and then Bingley and Darcy depart.

Mrs. Bennet is delighted by the success of the evening and is sure Jane will marry Bingley after all. Jane continues to insist she sees Bingley only “as an agreeable and sensible young man, without having a wish beyond it” (318). She begs Elizabeth to stop smiling at her and insisting she isn’t telling the truth.

Bingley visits several times, alone, as Darcy is in London. He and Mr. Bennet go shooting one morning. Mr. Bennet finds “nothing of presumption or folly in Bingley that could provoke his ridicule, or disgust him into silence” (321) and therefore is friendlier than Bingley has ever seen him.

That evening Bingley proposes to Jane, making Jane “the happiest creature in the world” (322). After requesting permission from Mr. Bennet, Bingley asks Elizabeth for her best wishes, which Elizabeth readily gives, believing they will be truly happy together because they have “excellent understanding,” “super-excellent disposition,” and “a general similarity of feeling and taste” (323).

After Bingley leaves, Mr. Bennet congratulates Jane and says she will be very happy, that she is “a good girl” (323),and that he has “great pleasure in thinking you will be so happily settled” (323). He says she and Bingley are both “so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on,” that “every servant will cheat” (323) them, and that they are “so generous” that they “will always exceed” their income (323). Mrs. Bennet says it’s impossible for them to exceed Mr. Bingley’s large income and that she has always known Jane “could not be so beautiful for nothing” (324). Jane now becomes her “favourite [sic] child” (324).

Bingley visits frequently. Jane is glad to learn he’d had no idea she was in London the previous spring and believes “[i]t must have been his sisters’ doing” (324). She says that once his sisters see he is so happy, they will “learn to be contented” (325). She tells Elizabeth that he still loved her when he went to London and stayed away only because he thought she didn’t love him. Elizabeth is happy to discover that Bingley hasn’t told Jane that Darcy was instrumental in keeping him away. Jane wants Elizabeth to be as happy as she is; Elizabeth says that “[t]ill I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness” (325).

News of the engagement travels quickly, and the Bennets are said to be “the luckiest family in the world,” even though only a few weeks before “they had been generally proved to be marked out for misfortune” (325).

One day, Lady Catherine visits Longbourn, shocking everyone. Mrs. Bennet is honored, offering Lady Catherine something to eat, which Lady Catherine refuses. Lady Catherine haughtily comments that their estate is “very small” and that their sitting room looks “most inconvenient” (327). She asks Elizabeth to walk with her outside.

Lady Catherine tells Elizabeth that she’s heard that Elizabeth and Darcy are to be married and that “it must be a scandalous falsehood” (328). Elizabeth replies that she doesn’t know why Lady Catherine would visit if she believed it to be a falsehood. Growing exasperated, Lady Catherine asks Elizabeth if it’s true; Elizabeth tells her that she chooses not to answer her questions.

Lady Catherine “insist[s] on being satisfied” and asks if Darcy has proposed to her, to which Elizabeth responds that Lady Catherine has “declared it to be impossible” (329). Lady Catherine reminds Elizabeth who she is, that she is not “accustomed to such language as this,” and that she’s “entitled” to know Darcy’s “dearest concerns” (329). Elizabeth responds that she is not entitled to know hers and that Lady Catherine’s rudeness makes her unlikely to answer. Lady Catherine says Darcy is engaged to her daughter; Elizabeth replies that if that’s true, Lady Catherine has no reason to fear he’s proposed to her. Lady Catherine warns that if she marries Darcy, she will “be censured, slighted, and despised, by every one connected with him” (330). She is happy when Elizabeth admits that she and Darcy are not engaged but is further angered when Elizabeth refuses to promise it won’t ever happen. Elizabeth tells Lady Catherine, “You have widely mistaken my character” (331), adding that Lady Catherine has “no right to concern” (332) herself in her life.

Lady Catherine says she’s aware of Lydia’s situation and that Darcy can’t be connected to her family, asking, “Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?” (332). Elizabeth tells Lady Catherine she has insulted her “in every possible method” (332) and that the conversation is over; Lady Catherine accuses her of being “[u]nfeeling” and “selfish” (332). Elizabeth promises only to make choices for her own happiness with no regard for Lady Catherine or anyone else.

Back at the house, Lady Catherine rudely takes her leave. Mrs. Bennet says Lady Catherine is “a very fine-looking woman” (333) and that it was “civil” (333) of her to call. She asks Elizabeth what they talked about, and Elizabeth concocts a lie.