Pride & Prejudice, ch. 32: A Little More Conversation And A Little More Action, Please

Credit to AL-lamp on DeviantArt.

So … Darcy has no idea what he’s doing here, does he?

Listen. We can speculate about Darcy’s previous experience with single women, courting, and flirtation until we’re blue in our collective face. I am not here for what might have theoretically happened in a fictional character’s past (I learned a lesson with Charlotte). There is ample textual evidence that Darcy—a smart, mature, critical, high-ranking man—often finds himself thrown off course whenever he encounters Lizzy, even though half the time he seeks out those same encounters. This is one super-confused guy.

When he visits the Parsonage in this chapter, it is not one of those encounters. But what follows is an odd, awkward, winding conversation that shows Darcy grasping at straws trying to figure out what he wants and what to expect from Lizzy. Maybe that first thing more than the second thing. But both are definitely in play here.

Example #1: Elizabeth opens the conversation proper by remarking on the speediness in which Bingley et al left Netherfield for London. We know that our Regency-era gumshoe is looking for clues as to Bingley’s feelings about Jane, but Darcy isn’t sharing anything new. However, to a man who takes this woman’s interest in him for granted, this sounds rather like she’s remembering the last time they met. The way she continues to talk about Netherfield sounds like she is interested in Bingley—and by extension, Darcy—coming back to visit. Darcy gives another non-answer, perhaps because he doesn’t want to lead her on.

Example #2: The conversation turns to marriage pretty quickly. Lizzy gives her very honest opinion about Charlotte marrying Mr. Collins—“I am not certain that I consider her marrying Mr. Collins as the wisest thing she ever did … [but] it is certainly a very good match for her.” Though rather indelicate, I agree with David Shapard’s interpretation that she’s eager to show Darcy that she’s aware of her cousin’s idiocy. Her bluntness here is something that I believe Darcy would appreciate (even if it’s not polite). 

Here’s where the two characters really get out of sync. They start talking about the distance between families and the inconvenience thereof. Lizzy, blushing as she thinks about the prospect of Jingley, points out that money can make a big difference when it comes to travel (a perspective that Darcy, judging from his reply, has never thought about and that maybe serves to remind him of her meager fortune). Darcy’s “sort of smile”* throws Lizzy off just a little bit.

Then he moves closer to her (!) and claims that “[she] cannot have a right to such very strong local attachment. [She] cannot have been always at Longbourn.”

So a few chapters ago I mused that Lizzy, despite her prejudices against Darcy, showed that she nonetheless has his number. Darcy’s claim here holds up a mirror to that moment, I think. Though there’s something presumptuous about what he said (remember, he doesn’t know her as well as he thinks he does), he may be perceiving the recent disappointments she’s experienced. “The more I see of the world,” she sighed to Jane a few chapters ago, “the more I am dissatisfied with it.” He may also be taking into account her complicated feelings about Charlotte’s marriage. Finally, from his point of view, Lizzy has been just as lively and witty here in Hunsford as she has in Hertfordshire. The setting does not affect how she interacts with her environment; as far as he’s concerned, she doesn’t need the comfort of Longbourn.

Charlotte arrives after the two moved on to general chitchat, but her declaration that Darcy “must be in love with” Lizzy more or less matches up with the reader’s thoughts at this point. Charlotte has noticed his attention to Lizzy in a way that Lizzy hasn’t, though she admits that such attention doesn’t appear romantic in nature. Our sharp-eyed clergyman’s wife believes “that all her friend's dislike [of Darcy] would vanish, if she could suppose him to be in her power,” which rather parallels the time when Lizzy took for granted her own strong-held belief about who Charlotte would choose to marry and why, and look how that turned out. But there’s no doubt that Charlotte’s picking up on some vibes from Darcy, and after all, she’s been shipping them almost from the very beginning. She prefers Darcy over Col. Fitzwilliam, as the former has “considerable patronage in the church,” an advantage that she now recognizes as a clergyman’s wife who wants to see her husband go farther in his career. Shapard notes that this illustrates “Austen’s subtle appreciation of human psychology, and its complex mixture of generous and selfish impulses.” In other words, both Charlotte’s good intentions for Lizzy and her own ambitions are entangled, which is a reflection on her current position. If Mr. Collins gets a promotion, they would likely move to a larger parish. That would at least take care of getting away from Lady Catherine.

Soon to come: Col. Fitzwilliam offers an anti-proposal, Lizzy the gumshoe makes a horrible discovery, and we set the stage for the most famous confrontation of the book.

*Are we up to 4 now?