May 2023 meeting: Pride and prejudice, Vol. 3

Our May meeting saw us conclude our slow reading of Pride and prejudice, with a discussion of Volume 3 (Chapters 43 to the end). This volume starts with Elizabeth and the Gardiners visiting Pemberley and ends with, well, the ending!

Discussion

Some editions of P&P owned by JASACT members

Again, a wide range of “new” responses to the novel was shared, starting with a contribution from our remote member who made the observation that every reread of Jane Austen’s novels offers new insights into both her curiously complex characters and into our own. 

Characters

This observation proved true among our members, at least regarding our responses to Austen’s characters. There were new responses to Elizabeth, for example, with our remote member saying that in this read of volume 3 she finally came to appreciate and like Elizabeth, to admire her honesty and respect her ability to collect her thoughts and express them so instantly and lucidly. Another member noted that the usually confident Elizabeth is, at the beginning of this volume, quite discombobulated, and self-conscious. She’s uncertain of her feelings and of how to behave and react, such as in Ch, 45, where she “wisely resolved to be perfectly easy and unembarrassed; a resolution the more necessary to be made, but perhaps not the more easily kept”.

As another member said, all the characters in this volume show their individual characteristics, but only some change, Elizabeth and Mr Darcy being the two we all agreed on. Indeed, they themselves see that both have improved in civility.

Jane, for example, does not seem to change, though she’s not always as cloyingly sweet at she seems. She does see the truth of characters sometimes, such as when she writes to Elizabeth about Lydia’s disappearance, and says this about her mother, “Could she exert herself, it would be better; but this is not to be expected.”

An absent member sent in a detailed response focusing on Mr Bennet who had intrigued her from the beginning. He’s a gentleman, she wrote, but he lacks the finances to provide for five daughters. She saw him as an important catalyst in the novel for the plot, particularly regarding Lydia’s behaviour, which in turn gives Austen scope for social comment on a range of issues, including status, and the role of women.

Related to this issue of characters was one member’s reflections on the Bennets’ parenting. In the wake of hearing about Lydia’s running off, Elizabeth reflects on “the mischief of neglect [Mr Bennet] and mistaken indulgence [Mrs Bennet] towards such a girl”. She suggests to the Gardiners that Mr Bennet’s negligence might have encouraged Wickham to feel he could get away with his treatment of Lydia. Mr Collins, albeit tactlessly, makes valid points about “a faulty degree of indulgence” towards Lydia.

Eventually, Mr Bennet comes to see his own failures as a parent – in not being more attentive and in neglecting to make provisions for his daughters – and admits as much to Elizabeth. Mrs Bennet, on the other hand, learns nothing: “no sentiment of shame gave a damp to her triumph”, once the marriage is achieved.

Finally, one member observed that the plot is driven by thoughtless people, which must then be fixed by others, like Mr Darcy.

Style

Several of us talked about the style, and the various points we’d noted.

One, for example, saw that in the Pemberley scenes, the Gardiners who, although interested in Elizabeth, are not emotionally involved and are therefore more reliable in their assessment of Darcy and Wickham than is the emotionally-thrown Elizabeth.

Another talked about the dialogue, naming particularly the scenes in this volume between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine, and Elizabeth & Mr Darcy. Lady Catherine’s rudeness, she said, is extraordinary, and the scene shows Elizabeth’s resilience and presence of mind. The dialogue shows Austen’s sense of theatre. She loved Elizabeth’ statement to Lady Catherine that “He is a gentleman and I am a gentleman’s daughter”.

A few members commented on loving Austen’s language, particularly the quality of her sentences, and shared examples such as Lady Catherine to Elizabeth:

But your arts and allurements may, in a moment of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself and to all his family. You may have drawn him in.

We agreed that Austen draws us in!

One member also commented on how words change over time and how this can impact our reading. In Ch 45, Austen writes that Mrs Gardiner and Elizabeth “pitied” Georgiana for her shyness, but does Austen mean “pity” the way we use it now?

Some questions posed by members

Did Austen’s readers understand signs that we do not? Was Longbourn a rundown, previously wealthy estate that had once afforded a shrubbery (behind the house), an area variously referred to as a copse (with benches), a wilderness (with a hermit in the hermitage), and a small wood, to the side of the house. In the front of the house is a lawn that is also described as a paddock, which sounds like it has been neglected. Are we to understand that the state of the property is a reflection of Mr.Bennet’s hopelessness? 

Where did Lady Catherine get the idea that Elizabeth and Mr Darcy were (or were about to be) engaged? We tossed this around, with some suggesting Caroline Bingley as being the most likely source given her dislike of, and her jealousy towards Elizabeth .

However, one of us had researched this through close reading. She said that after Lady Catherine’s visit, E is at a complete loss to know how LC learned of the engagement. LC doesn’t say, and E doesn’t ask her, but p 340 explains the likely source of the gossip as being reports by the Lucas family to Charlotte and Mr Collins. Well, they (Maria??) are certainly more observant than Elizabeth’s father who is quite incredulous when he hears the news, in turn, in a letter from Mr Collins warning him of Lady Catherine’s strong disapproval of any such match. 

What is Georgiana’s role? Some of the ideas our member considered were that Miss Bingley sees her as match for her brother (Vol 1) providing plot tension; Darcy explains why he dislikes Wickham and Wickham’s predatory nature (Vol 2) which marks the begininning of Elizabeth’s changing attitude to Darcy; Elizabeth realises (Vol 3) that Georgiana is not haughty but shy (adding to the “first impressions” idea). The Georgiana story explains why Darcy goes so quickly to find Lydia. Darcy’s treatment of Georgiana enables Elizabeth to see Mr Darcy in a different light. Georgiana also exemplifies the idea that whether wealthy or poor, women have predators. She is easily manipulated by Wickham, in a different way to Lydia who flaunts.

What did Darcy tell his sister about Elizabeth? When they meet unexpectedly at Pemberley, Darcy tells Elizabeth that ‘There is also one other person in the party … who more particularly wishes to be known to you’. In other words, his sister Georgiana.

Elizabeth is surprised:

She immediately felt that whatever desire Miss Darcy might have of being acquainted with her, must be the work of her brother, and without looking further, it was satisfactory, it was gratifying to know that his resentment had not made him think really ill of her. 

So, what had Darcy said to his sister about Elizabeth, posed our member? That he has met a woman to whom he is attracted? That he proposed to her and she refused him? It’s hard to believe, suggested our member, that he would have told the (whole) truth about his proposal. Might his sister have given him some advice on how a woman likes to receive a proposal of marriage? Whatever occurred between them, Georgiana is evidently well disposed towards Elizabeth, although very shy when they meet.

We discussed this issue, with various ideas put forward, but Austen is quiet on this point, so we came to no resolution.

Our final thought was that everyone in the novel contributed to the final outcome, that it’s a perfect ensemble work.