Pride & Prejudice, ch. 23: Engaging News

Lizzy doesn’t have to spill the beans about Charlotte and Mr. Collins thanks to Sir William, who visits the Bennets mostly to pat himself on the back for his daughter’s engagement. Lydia, unable to handle the fact that she’s been kept out of the loop, flat-out tells him that he’s wrong. Not to justify her rudeness, but it’s understandable that Mr. Collins’s switch from Lizzy to Charlotte would cause some whiplash. Lizzy finally admits to her family that she knows about it so that they can stop doubting Sir William.

Mrs. Bennet is too shocked to be catty in front of Sir William. But once he leaves, she melts into an angry puddle and wails that everyone has mistreated her (to be fair, Lady Lucas’s insistently visiting her to rub it in, while not abusive, is still rather vindictive). Mr. Bennet laughs the whole thing off, which is the intellectually appropriate response, if not exactly the morally appropriate one. Though it’s rather rich of him to compare Charlotte’s “foolish[ness]” to his wife’s. Charlotte is marrying Mr. Collins so that she can get out of her relatively low position. What did you marry Mrs. Bennet for, Mr. Bennet? Oh, because you were horny? And now your family is virtually poor? Then you don’t have much room to judge, do you?

Happily, Jane’s reaction is a better balance of genuine sincerity and surprise. No extra analysis here. Jane just brings me a lot of relief.

Come to think of it, Lizzy feels the same way about her sister. Fearing that the close bond she had with Charlotte is fraying, Lizzy becomes more involved with her big sister’s love trials. Jane’s reply to Miss Bingley has not been answered, and they finally hear via the latest Meryton gossip that Bingley is staying put in London. Lizzy surmises that the Bingley sisters plus Darcy plus Miss Darcy plus the novelty of London might outweigh his feelings for Jane, at least for the season. Jane is far too nervous to talk about any of this, and I can’t blame her.

Mrs. Bennet is doing most of the fretting on her eldest’s behalf, though it offers very little relief, especially when she mixes in her grousing about the Lucases, anxiety that Charlotte is counting down the days until she and Mr. Collins legally own Longbourn, and complaints that Mr. Collins chooses to keep staying with the Bennets rather than the Lucases now that he’s engaged (and unless there’s some rule I’m missing here, I’m inclined to agree with her on this last point). The dunderhead writes an overwhelming thank you note and accepts their vague invitation to visit again … two weeks later. Then he does. That is a lot of Collins to handle in the span of four or five weeks. One can assume he likes being there partly to show off to Lizzy that he got someone to agree to marry him.

Mr. Bennet is no help at all, though to be fair, there’s not much at this point that would help Mrs. Bennet (short of a therapist, or even a life coach). He jokes that maybe he’ll outlive her, then she won’t have to worry about seeing Longbourn pass over to the Collinses. They have fun [fake chuckle].

But mid-fret, Mrs. Bennet does bring up an interesting point: “Why should he have [the estate] more than anybody else?” I mean, the answer is because he’s part of the lineage, but that doesn’t mean he deserves what he’s getting. It certainly doesn’t mean that he deserves it over a family of women who will need a home once their father dies. As a “have” verging on a “have-not,” Mrs. Bennet (and indeed her husband, if he ever wants to join reality), has a unique perspective on wealth and, I daresay, the patriarchal structure of the Regency upper-class economy. Mr. Bennet elects to not engage in an actual discussion with his wife because she’s too wrapped up in her own victimhood, but that doesn’t mean her question is worthless. After all, if she lived in a society that didn’t put pressure on women to marry for the sake of their livelihood, Mrs. Bennet might be a completely different kind of mother. And I might not complain about Mr. Bennet so much.

And Volume 1 ends … here??? Okay, Austen.

Chapter the soon: News arrives that put a major dent in Jingley, Jane does her best to accept it, and Lizzy is a downer.