Pride & Prejudice, ch. 49: News, Everyone!

One of the frustrating things about this novel (or at least about writing about this novel) is that the reader isn’t always where the action is. This isn’t necessarily a capital-C critique, since this helps us sympathize and relate to Lizzy and her family all the more. We feel their helplessness, their frustration, their uncertainty about the future and their social standing. But there is a sense of urgency that I think a modern reader like myself expects to experience. After all, if Lydia is truly lost, as is any chance of the Bennet girls being able to marry, then what else am I, the reader, to expect from the remaining chapters of this novel?

Obviously, the story does not go down that particular road.

Austen, with her crack timing, throws Lizzy and us a big curve ball as an unexpected letter arrives for Mr. Bennet from Uncle G. The housekeeper anxiously asks Lizzy and Jane what the letter was about—they have no idea there even is a letter in the first place—so they literally run after Pa Bennet, who is “deliberately” walking across the lawn, away from the house. He asks Lizzy to read the letter out loud, so shocked is he by the contents that he needs to hear his favorite daughter’s voice to make sense of it.

Short version: Lydia and Wickham are not married, but a wedding is impending. Gardiner is taking care of all the arrangements and merely needs to confirm with Pa Bennet that Lydia will receive her “one hundred pounds per annum” (in 2020 terms: £7,158.76 or $9,267.01). Other surprising news: Wickham’s debts apparently aren’t that dire, suggesting that the couple will be able to live on their own once they’re married. The wedding will take place in London to avoid undue scandal.

(By the way, thanks to all who gave me feedback about Uncle Gardiner and his more likely motivation for asking Lizzy for help. I feel like I can go back to liking him now.)

Pa Bennet knows he needs to W.B.F., but needs to collect himself first. He’s convinced that Uncle G has either promised money to Lydia or essentially paid Wickham off in order to secure the marriage (I’m unsure what “laid down” means specifically). Lizzy agrees, probably remembering Wickham’s bad rep in Lambton, though even she’s uneasy at her father’s estimation of £10,000. She and Jane urge him to start writing his response.

Here, the two sisters differ on the specific amount that would motivate Wickham to marry Lydia after weeks of living in sin. Jane hovers between optimistic and reasonable, taking her uncle’s claim about Wickham’s small debts at face value and surmising that if they were wrong about the size of said debts, maybe they have also underestimated Wickham’s integrity (that Wickham’s “consenting to marry” Lydia proves that he’s “come to a right way of thinking”). She also doesn’t believe that Uncle G actually has £10,000 on hand to persuade Wickham. Lizzy is waiting for further information to reveal itself before coming to a conclusion. Either way, she’s definitely not happy that the only way for Lydia to be saved is to be married off to her abductor. 

Then they decide to let their mother in the loop, which results in a different-but-similar “parade” of “exuberance.” Ma Bennet’s reaction to this news puts her “in an irritation as violent from delight, as she had ever been fidgety from alarm and vexation.” That scoundrel Wickham is now “dear Wickham” to her, and she can fret about wedding clothes even more now. Always hedging her bets, that Mrs. Bennet, huh? Oh, and she feels no sense of guilt or gratitude about her brother possibly giving Wickham money enough to make a husband. I know I’ve speculated that Ma Bennet, were she a real person, shows symptoms of a mild or moderate anxiety disorder. But this callous attitude can’t be justified by a mental illness: this is why Mrs. Bennet, though in a sympathetic position, isn’t deserving of our full sympathy.

No word on Kitty’s or Mary’s reactions. I know it’s not necessary for the story, but I can’t help but wonder. I’d wager that Kitty is envious of Lydia and might start to feel self-conscious now that her little sister got married before her. And a part of me thinks that Mary’s just rolling her eyes and thinking about how Lydia always gets what she wants. 

Lizzy contemplates this unexpected development, trying to strike a balance between the upside and the downside. Though Lydia’s impending marriage is no guarantee of her future “happiness,” Lizzy recognizes “all the advantages of what [the Bennets] had gained.” Hmm. If I didn’t know better … and I think this whole blogging project has proved that I often don’t … I’d say that this episode has broad parallels to Charlotte’s marrying Mr. Collins. Didn’t Lizzy have similar thoughts about the “worldly prosperity” Charlotte was marrying for, and whether or not it’d be worth it in the end? Put simply, both examples include a single woman in a bad position who must marry in order to ease the burden it places on her family. Now that Lizzy’s directly benefiting from a bad match, maybe she has less room to be judgmental. However, I totally support her in her resentment for owing any gratitude to someone as scummy as Wickham.

Soon to come: A discussion of the Bennet family’s finances, Lizzy reflects on what she believes she has now lost, and we see the depth of Mr. Bennet’s anger over Lydia.