by Jane Austen
The two sisters also furnish an important contrast of personality, one revealed in this very discussion: Jane is inclined to think well of everyone, to the point of naivety, and Elizabeth is more critical of others and far more sharp-tongued. Jane Austen often illuminates character through such contrasts; in a letter commenting on a niece's draft of a novel, she commends her niece for having created two characters (apparently sisters) whose dispositions are “very well opposed” (September 9, 1814).
5. This echoes a line in Jane Austen's letters, that a recent acquaintance “seems to like people rather too easily” (September 14, 1804). As the novel progresses the different outlooks of Elizabeth and Jane will illuminate important moral issues, and each will suffer problems from her respective tendency to judge too harshly or too leniently. Yet, consistent with the line from the letter, it will be Elizabeth's more critical perspective that proves wiser overall.
6. candour: innocence, generosity, or—especially—a favorable disposition toward others and tendency always to think well of them. Elizabeth's point is that while many affect, or pretend, to have this quality, Jane is unique in really being so candid.
One source for the observation given by the author to Elizabeth could have been a periodical written by Jane Austen's brother James, The Loiterer. In one of its essays he discusses the types of affectation to be found among different people, and identifies the most common type among women to be affectation of candour. He also declares the next most popular female affectation to be that of proclaiming fervent affection or friendship for others, an affectation that the very women under discussion here, Bingley's sisters, will display at several points.
7. manners: behavior; disposition toward others. The term had a broader meaning then, referring not just to matters of etiquette and courtesy.
8. keep his house: manage the household. This was a central function of upper-class women of the time. Most single men would try to have a female relative live with them to perform this function. Such an arrangement also served the woman's interests, for it was considered very improper for young unmarried women like Miss Bingley to live alone.
9. unassailed: unaffected.
10. private seminaries in town: London boarding schools for girls. Seminaries were the most prestigious type of female education; London ones had the extra advantage of helping students shed undesirable provincial accents.
11. of rank: of high rank. Excessive spending was a frequent habit among those at this level.
12. meanly: poorly, disdainfully. Jane Austen is clearly being ironic about their being entitled to this attitude.
13. Money from trade was not genteel in the way that money from land was.
14. His having almost five times the fortune of his sisters is typical for this society, in which men inherited most of the family wealth. It is this fortune that gives him four to five thousand pounds a year in income, for 5% was the most common annual rate of return on property or investments.
15. liberty of a manor: the right to kill game on the lands he is renting. Strict game laws in force at the time confined this right to the wealthy.
16. This is the critical requirement for attaining true gentility. The Bingley family presents a standard example of social climbing. Earlier generations have attained wealth through trade; this generation uses it to gain acceptance among the elite. The expensive schooling of Bingley's sisters, which Bingley probably had also, was a principal means for this, for it enabled its recipients to learn the habits of genteel people and to form friendships with them.
17. more fashion than fortune: more social status than wealth. People like that often married those, like the Bingleys, trying to rise in society. One side gained status, the other money—though in this case, even with Mrs. Hurst's 20,000 pounds, the Hursts are needy enough to prefer living off Bingley.
18. One came of age, and legally became an adult, at twenty-one. Hence Bingley, having done so less than two years ago, is twenty-two.
19. accidental: chance, fortuitous.
20. situation: position or location (especially in relation to its surroundings).
21. Bingley's hastiness and willingness to accept another's word are two of his main characteristics; they will play an important role in the later action, specifically in facilitating Darcy's interference in his affairs.
Bingley's interest in a house in Hertfordshire would be consistent with his position, for those trying to rise socially tended to prefer country houses near London, the main venue for social life and meeting with the elite.
22. No precise information is ever given on how Bingley and Darcy originally became friends. They would not have met at school, since Darcy is in fact six or seven years older. Since they both come from northern England, they presumably met at a social function or through a mutual acquaintance.
23. understanding: intelligence, judgment.
24. fastidious: disdainful, difficult to please.
25. This means Darcy's manners are polite, but also cold and distant.
26. Miss Bennet: Jane Bennet. “Miss + last name” always means the eldest daughter of a family, or at least the eldest unmarried one. For younger daughters a first name is also used; thus Elizabeth is called Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
27. not object to know more of: these words indicate their lack of any real interest in Jane.
Chapter Five
W ithin a short walk of Longbourn lived a family with whom the Bennets were particularly intimate. Sir William Lucas had been formerly in trade in Meryton,1 where he had made a tolerable fortune and risen to the honour of knighthood by an address to the King,2 during his mayoralty.3 The distinction had perhaps been felt too strongly. It had given him a disgust to his business and to his residence in a small market town; and quitting them both, he had removed with his family to a house about a mile from Meryton, denominated from that period Lucas Lodge,4 where he could think with pleasure of his own importance, and unshackled by business, occupy himself solely in being civil to all the world. For though elated5 by his rank, it did not render him supercilious; on the contrary, he was all attention to every body. By nature inoffensive, friendly and obliging, his presentation at St. James's6 had made him courteous.7
Lady Lucas was a very good kind of woman, not too clever to be a valuable neighbour to Mrs. Bennet. —They had several children. The eldest of them, a sensible, intelligent young woman, about twenty-seven, was Elizabeth's intimate friend.
That the Miss Lucases and the Miss Bennets should meet to talk over a ball was absolutely necessary; and the morning after the assembly brought the former to Longbourn to hear and to communicate.
“You began the evening well, Charlotte,” said Mrs. Bennet with civil self-command8 to Miss Lucas. “You were Mr. Bingley's first choice.”
“Yes; —but he seemed to like his second better.”9
“Oh!—you mean Jane, I suppose—because he danced with her twice. To be sure that did seem as if he admired her —indeed I rather believe he did —I heard something about it—but I hardly know what—something about Mr. Robinson.”
“Perhaps you mean what I overheard between him and Mr. Robinson; did not I mention it to you? Mr. Robinson's asking him how he liked our Meryton assemblies, and whether he did not think there were a great many pretty women in the room, and which he thought the prettiest? and his answering immediately to the last question —Oh! the eldest Miss Bennet beyond a doubt, there cannot be two opinions on that point.”10
“Upon my word! —Well, that was very decided indeed—that does seem as if—but however, it may all come to nothing you know.”
“My overhearings were more to the purpose than yours, Eliza,” said Charlotte. “Mr. Darcy is not so well worth listening to as his friend, is he? —Poor Eliza!—to be only just tolerable.”
“I beg you would not put it into Lizzy's head to be vexed by his ill-treatment; for he is such a disagreeable man that it would be quite a misfortune to be liked by him. Mrs. Long told me last night that he sat cl
ose to her for half an hour without once opening his lips.”
“Are you quite sure, Ma'am? —is not there a little mistake?” said Jane. —”I certainly saw Mr. Darcy speaking to her.”
“Aye—because she asked him at last how he liked Netherfield, and he could not help answering her; —but she said he seemed very angry at being spoke to.”
“Miss Bingley told me,” said Jane, “that he never speaks much unless among his intimate acquaintance. With them he is remarkably agreeable.”11
“I do not believe a word of it, my dear. If he had been so very agreeable he would have talked to Mrs. Long. But I can guess how it was; every body says that he is ate up with pride, and I dare say he had heard somehow that Mrs. Long does not keep a carriage, and had come to the ball in a hack chaise.”12
“I do not mind his not talking to Mrs. Long,” said Miss Lucas, “but I wish he had danced with Eliza.”
“Another time, Lizzy,” said her mother, “I would not dance with him, if I were you.”
“I believe, Ma'am, I may safely promise you never to dance with him.”
“His pride” said Miss Lucas, “does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, every thing in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.”13
“That is very true,” replied Elizabeth, “and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”14
“Pride,” observed Mary, who piqued15 herself upon the solidity of her reflections, “is a very common failing I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed, that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonimously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”16
“If I were as rich as Mr. Darcy,” cried a young Lucas who came with his sisters, “I should not care how proud I was. I would keep a pack of foxhounds,17 and drink a bottle of wine every day.”18
“Then you would drink a great deal more than you ought,” said Mrs. Bennet; “and if I were to see you at it I should take away your bottle directly.”19
The boy protested that she should not; she continued to declare that she would, and the argument ended only with the visit.20
1. Meryton: the main town in the area. The assembly would have been at Meryton.
2. the King: King George III, who reigned from 1760 to 1820, though in 1811 mental incapacity caused his son to become Regent and thus effectively the ruler.
3. The mayor was the head of the municipal corporation, the body that governed most towns at the time. The corporation was normally in the hands of the leading citizens of the town, who often would be merchants, so it would make sense for one of their number to be mayor. Knighthood is an honor conferred by the monarch for some meritorious service; an address to the monarch, which meant a formal speech of respect or thanks, was a frequent means then of attaining the honor. During the time when Jane Austen lived the number of new knighthoods increased significantly, with a particular flood in the years 1811-1815, the period when the novel was published.
4. Giving their home such a name is a sign of pretentiousness. The Ben-nets, who appear to be wealthier than the Lucases, seem not to have given a special name to their residence, though on occasion it is called Longbourn House by the narrator on account of the village where it is located.
5. elated: puffed up, raised in pride.
6. St. James's: the royal court. The ceremony of being knighted involved being presented there.
7. In some respects this course of action conformed to the current ideal of the gentleman, who was considered to be able to cultivate superior qualities, such as courtesy, precisely because he was free from the sordid tasks of making money and getting ahead. Sir William, however, represents a rather silly example of this ideal, for he is described here as being “solely” devoted to the one virtue of being civil, and in fact he never displays any other virtue over the course of the novel.
8. civil self-command: a polite willingness to compliment Charlotte Lucas rather than her own daughters. It takes very little to make Mrs. Bennet drop such self-command.
9. Once again a character's first lines are revealing. Here Charlotte, by willingly recalling Bingley's preference for Jane over herself, displays the matter of fact and unillusioned attitude that will characterize her throughout the novel.
10. This suggests the frequency of overhearings in a ball room, and thus shows that Darcy had good reason to expect that Elizabeth would hear his dismissive words about her.
11. Jane's defense of Darcy signals the possible limits of everyone else's negative verdict, especially since she provides an explanation for his behavior, discomfort with strangers, to supplement the obvious explanation of pride. At the same time, Jane's description of him as “remarkably agreeable” goes too far, based on what we will see of Darcy's behavior among his companions; it reflects Jane's own naive faith in everyone, as well as possibly, to the degree she derived this description from Miss Bingley, the latter's partiality for Darcy.
12. hack chaise: a hired, or rented, chaise. Mrs. Long had to use one because she does not keep her own carriage. A chaise was the most popular carriage for rental, and many, including those who were well off, hired them for long distance travel; Elizabeth does that later in the novel. Hiring one for local travel, however, indicates lower social status, and thus would be a reason for someone snobbish not to speak to her.
The term “hack” is an abbreviation of “hackney,” which started as a term for an ordinary, workaday horse, then was extended to mean a hired horse as well, and finally was applied to hired carriages. London at the time was full of hackney-coaches, which were essentially horse-drawn taxis—”hack” as slang for taxi derives from this usage.
13. Charlotte, whose pragmatic nature has already been shown, now reveals a strong regard for rank and fortune, something that will later influence her own marital choice.
14. A critical line, which indicates that the “pride” of the novel's title does not apply only to Darcy.
15. piqued: prided.
16. Mary's words here, as elsewhere, echo statements in books. One source could be Hugh Blair's influential Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles heitres, which is referred to by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. Blair, in discussing precise distinctions between various words, declares, “Pride, makes us esteem ourselves; Vanity, makes us desire the esteem of others. It is just to say, as Dean Swift has done, that a man is too proud to be vain.” Another source could be a frequently reprinted female conduct book of the day, Hester Chapone's Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, which has a passage making almost the identical point. Both are books that Mary, pedantic about both language and conduct, would have been likely to read.
It is not certain if Jane Austen intended to endorse this precise distinction between vanity and pride. She would, however, certainly agree with Mary's affirmation of the prevalence of pride in humanity, for that is a central point of the novel. This point is in fact underlined here, by the manner in which the person speaking is oblivious to the way that her own pride in her reflections demonstrates the very “self-complacency on the score of some quality or other” that she is discussing.
17. foxhounds: dogs for foxhunting, which had emerged in the preceding century as a leading rural sport.
18. In Nonhanger Abbey a foolish young man, John Thorpe, speaks of this as the desirable amount of liquor for a man to consume.
19. directly: immediately.
20. Mrs. Bennet reveals herself further by her willingness to persist in such a fruitless argument with a mere boy.
Chapter Six
T he ladies of L
ongbourn soon waited on1 those of Nether-field. The visit was returned in due form.2 Miss Bennet's pleasing manners grew on the good will of Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley; and though the mother was found to be intolerable and the younger sisters not worth speaking to, a wish of being better acquainted with them, was expressed towards the two eldest. By Jane this attention was received with the greatest pleasure; but Elizabeth still saw superciliousness in their treatment of every body, hardly excepting even her sister, and could not like them; though their kindness to Jane, such as it was, had a value as arising in all probability from the influence of their brother's admiration.3 It was generally evident whenever they met, that he did admire her; and to her it was equally evident that Jane was yielding to the preference which she had begun to entertain for him from the first, and was in a way to be very much in love; but she considered with pleasure that it was not likely to be discovered by the world in general, since Jane united with great strength of feeling, a composure of temper and a uniform cheerfulness of manner, which would guard her from the suspicions of the impertinent.4 She mentioned this to her friend Miss Lucas.5
“It may perhaps be pleasant,” replied Charlotte, “to be able to impose on the public in such a case; but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him;6 and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment,7 that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin freely—a slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.8 In nine cases out often, a woman had better shew more affection than she feels. Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on.”
“But she does help him on, as much as her nature will allow. If I can perceive her regard for him, he must be a simpleton indeed not to discover it too.”9