Pride & Prejudice, ch. 9: Parents Just Don't Understand
I want to pause right there so we can contemplate that action. It’s a small detail that I always forget whenever I re-read Pride & Prejudice. I mean, Lizzy invites her mom over to Bingley’s place. Ma Bennet—the most embarrassing mom in all of the Austenverse. Lizzy has to know that her mom is going to say something silly or asinine in front of Bingley, who she’s low-key invested in as a potential brother-in-law. But Lizzy defers to Ma Bennet because that’s what a good daughter does.
And boy, does Mrs. Bennet deliver. Luckily, the doc agrees with her that Jane shouldn’t be moved. Mrs. Bennet hopes that the more time Jane spends at Netherfield, the quicker she’ll win over Bingley, a strategy that speaks to her stubborn, immature mindset. After she reveals that she cruelly compares her other daughters to Jane (thus recommending one woman by undervaluing others, one might argue), she tries to gauge whether Bingley might not wish to stay rather longer in the country. Everybody’s waiting for this guy to settle down.
Bingley gives her the answer she’s looking for, apparently missing the subtext. Lizzy jumps in to liven things up, poking fun at Bingley’s transparency (Ma Bennet’s ridiculous scolding is rightfully ignored). Lizzy reveals that she’s “a studier of character,” and when Darcy tries to throw cold water on the idea that she sees a variety of characters in the country, she retorts that people change often enough to keep her occupied. Surprisingly, it’s Ma Bennet who disrupts the conversation rather than Darcy, with her mistaking his observation for an insult. Like most narrow-minded people, she refuses to accept that she might have misunderstood and makes a fool of herself.
What’s most notable is that it’s Lizzy who attempts to explain his comment and not Darcy himself. This is a practical result of Darcy’s manners: it would be impolite of him to contradict a lady, especially one he barely knows, so he merely turns away. Lizzy’s attempt is rooted in politeness as well (and maybe habit—one can only wonder how many times she’s had to explain something to her pig-headed mom). But she’s also fulfilling a role that at least one of Darcy’s friends undertakes later, that of the Darcy Decoder. It looks like she has the capacity to understand Darcy even when they’re on opposing sides of an argument.
Gosh, I wonder how long that’s going to last.
Ma Bennet turns a hasty topic switch into another put-down directed at Darcy and tries to talk up Jane again, using poor Charlotte Lucas as a stark contrast. Lizzy cuts her mom off (yes!) by making a crack about poetry helping to dissolve crushes as often as it supports them. Darcy quotes Shakespeare at her (rather poetic of him) and she’s all, eh, don’t try it if there’s no “there” there. Which might be exactly what’s on Darcy’s mind. It’s on my mind, anyway. How do you find out if there’s anything there in the first place? “Everything nourishes what is strong already,” Lizzy declares. Maybe she’s thinking of Jane and Bingley. Maybe she’s talking about what she hopes love is like. Maybe Darcy is thinking the same thing.
Anyway, the (romantic?) tension in the room is so obvious that Ma Bennet decides she can go. Before she does, spoiled Valley Girl Lydia sashays into the spotlight. Lydia couldn’t be more different from her older sisters; if anything, her unearned “[self-] assurance” reminds me of the Bingley sisters’ entitled attitudes (Lydia’s self-esteem is buoyed by the attention she gets from boys, while the sisters’ stems from their status in society). Like her mom, she’s single-minded and ill-mannered, as shown when she abruptly reminds Bingley of his promise of hosting a ball. Your sister’s sick, kid. Read the room.
Bingley is once again far more polite and acquiescing than the situation calls for, though he probably really does want to throw a party to dance with Jane again.
After the Bennets disperse, Darcy and the Bingley sisters
Next chapter: Caroline Bingley wants to be included, a rumination on friendship, and Darcy tries to figure out what makes Lizzy tick.
You say, "It seems just a bit out of character for Darcy to join in Caroline’s and Mrs. Hurst’s dissing," but that is not so. Several times Austen tells us that he joins in these after-the-event critiques with enthusiasm. I think one of the things Darcy is surprised to realize about himself is that he has drifted into an intimacy with the Bingley family which is making him more like, not Charles Bingley, but Caroline Bingley and the Hursts. He has been treated as one of the family and has enjoyed it. Caroline Bingley's ambition to become mistress of Pemberley is not at all unwarranted. She is the only unmarried woman he feels a bit relaxed around. If he had not met Elizabeth he might well have drifted into a marriage with Caroline. It is only when he meets and is attracted to Elizabeth that he begins to realize that he has been turning into someone he doesn't like very much. We are given signals of this all the way through the book, but most people don't notice them.
ReplyDeleteHmm. I can't find any indication at all of Darcy's admiration of Caroline. The only indication we have so far of Darcy's direct interaction with her is at the end of ch. 6, at Sir William's party, when Caroline goads him about his liking of Lizzy's fine eyes, which results in:
ReplyDelete"He listened to her with perfect indifference while she chose to entertain herself in this manner; and as his composure convinced her that all was safe, her wit flowed long."
There are a couple of other references to Caroline and Darcy together, but they all resonate to me as Darcy being perfectly indifferent to her stroking. I think he puts up with her just to be able to continue his friendship with Bingley.
I don't think he does particularly admire her, except as a reasonably good looking young woman who entertains him with clever remarks on the people and places they visit. But that sort of propinquity can allow a clever woman to insinuate herself into a position which may lead to matrimony. (See Mrs. Clay.) I think most of us do not realize just how difficult Darcy finds it to make friends, let alone feel close enough to a woman to make love to her.
ReplyDelete