Pride & Prejudice, ch. 60: Period Of Engagement

Credit to Liz Parkes. I, for one, demand
more pictures of Darcy smiling when he
and Lizzy are together. 

I get why Jane Austen takes so much of the book getting to the engagement, rather than describing the typical trappings of courtship and the awkward time between an accepted proposal and the marriage day: Whenever she depicts Lizzy and Darcy as an engaged couple in public, it’s hella distressing. They must endure the “vulgarity” of Aunt Pittypat Philips and Mrs. Bennet. Lizzy is “anxious to keep [Darcy] to herself, and to those of her family with whom he might converse without mortification,” which you can probably count on one hand. What with the dodging of embarrassing relatives and neighbors and tolerating pointless mentions of St. James’s, “the uncomfortable feelings arising from all this took from the season of courtship much of its pleasure.”

But lest you come away thinking that Jane’s a downer, she absolutely delivers by giving us a look at Lizzy and Darcy’s new, angst-free dynamic. Lizzy playfully challenges him to calculate exactly when he started to fall for her, to which he truthfully (and perhaps wisely) admits that there was no specific starting point. He praises her “liveliness of mind,” though she characterizes this as “impertinence”—her disdain for his good opinion, while rudely expressed, marked her as different from women who fawned over him. That she is saying this in a half-joking manner saves this, at least in my mind, from being too close to Not Like Other Girls toxicity. Moreover, she surmises that Darcy was able to give her the benefit of the doubt due to his “noble and just” feelings. “Had you not been really amiable,” she reasons, “you would have hated me for it.”

When Lizzy claims that he was in love with her before she had exhibited any virtues, Darcy pushes back: “Was there no good in your affectionate behavior to Jane while she was ill at Netherfield?”* Personally, I think this justifies my critique of the Bingley sisters’ lack of affection for one another, as well as illustrates the kind of women Darcy was comparing Lizzy against. It’s a subtle point that supports Lizzy’s assertion that Darcy was “disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking for [his] approbation alone.” And, knowing now the depths of Darcy’s love and devotion to his own little sister, his taking notice of Lizzy’s concern for Jane hits differently.

They both admit that they were too “embarrassed” to speak up during his previous visit to Longbourn. There is something so indelibly Mr. Knightley about Darcy’s claim that “[a] man who had felt less, might [have spoken up],” though their flaws differ (Mr. Knightley chooses bluntness over diplomacy, while Darcy assumes silence is the same thing as diplomacy). Lizzy calls this a “reasonable” response, and really, who can blame her? She isn’t entirely happy with how they finally broke the ice—i.e., Lydia’s spillage of the beans: “[W]hat becomes of the moral, if our comfort springs from a breach of promise?”

They also have their two aunts to thank for their getting together—Aunt G’s nudge-nudge-wink-wink letter to Lizzy, and Lady Catherine’s The Producers-level matchmaking skills. Now that Lizzy’s safely engaged, she can write a cheerful letter of gratitude to her favorite aunt, who is tasked with “prais[ing] him a great deal more” and invited to Pemberley ASAP.

Tantalizingly, we are not told what Darcy decides to write to Lady Catherine but instead shown the effect of Lady Catherine’s meltdown, as the Collinses very quickly decide to pay the Lucases a visit. Man, when even your most loyal toady runs away from your tantrums … that has to hurt, right? Of course, this means that Mr. Collins inflicts his “parading and obsequious civility” on Darcy, who probably remembers the last time Mr. Collins approached him. Charlotte “I Told You So” Collins “rejoic[es] in the match” and appears to offer Lizzy some much-needed support. I’ve always wondered if Charlotte’s triumphant feeling is increased by Lady Catherine’s bitterness, as if Charlotte has been secretly waiting to see Lady C undermined in some way … this might just be my fanciful imagination, however.

Oh, look, more insincerity: Caroline Bingley has written Jane a letter of congratulations that’s so utterly fake that even Jane can see through it. Caroline also writes to her brother, though whether any of the other characters including Bingley realize that she’s lying through her teeth is harder to parse. Where the heck is Caroline, anyway? Couldn’t she think of a good enough excuse to prevent her brother from going back to Meryton? Please tell me that Bingley doesn’t trust her any more because Darcy told him that his sisters helped hide Jane from him.

In any case, Lizzy is done with Meryton and Longbourn. Figuratively and literally, she has been for a long time. Now “she looks forward with delight to the time when they should be removed … to all the comfort and elegance of their family party at Pemberley,” where an eager Georgiana waits, ready to be a good sister-in-law.

Chapter the last: We get our final impression of Lizzy and Darcy’s lives as a married couple. 

*The fact that Darcy is close enough in warmth and regard to call Jane by her first name is yet another indication of his strong heart and value for family.