Pride and Prejudice, Chapters 13-18

First, some background information. Entailment was the imposition of restrictions on an inheritance -- for example, leaving an estate to your son with restrictions preventing him from selling or mortgaging the land, or preventing him from leaving the estate to a female heir. When Mr Bennet inherited Longbourn, he inherited it with such a restriction -- he is legally prevented from leaving it to one of his daughters, and so Longbourn will pass to another male in the family: Mr Collins.

"Livings": Landowners were often entitled to choose the pastor of the parishes on their property. These pastor's positions were called "livings." A young man who wished to pursue a career in the Church of England would not receive an assignment from the bishop; he would have to find his own job. So he would be dependent on being granted a living. Landowners could fill their livings according to any criteria they wanted. They could give the living to a deserving clergyman they knew or that their friends knew, to a younger son who needed a job, or even sell the living if they needed to raise some cash. The living was generally tithes from the parish, plus the use of the parsonage and a little patch of land around it called the glebe. Some livings were very rich, but others were not. The clergyman could augment his income by farming the glebe or by taking in students for tutoring. Some clergymen had more than one living and would hire vicars to help them cover the work. A clergyman was considered a gentleman's profession, but it did not automatically confer an exalted social status, especially if the clergyman had a poor living and didn't have good social connections.

Marrying among one's kin -- no, it was not considered gross for first cousins to marry, much less people more distantly related. And before you go ewwwwwwwwww, remember that a study came out recently that showed that the risk of birth defects in the children of first cousins was so slight as to be insignificant. The laws agains first cousins marrying were not passed until the late 1800's, when eugenics started to become fashionable.

I also wanted to bring up the topic of literary irony. You can read more about irony here (basically, when Alannis asks, "Isn't it ironic?" the answer is "well, no".) Jane Austen is frequently described as an ironic writer. It will be helpful to keep in mind that we are benefitting from dramatic irony: we know that Darcy likes Elizabeth, but Elizabeth does not.

Quadrille is a dance often used to open balls. It is also a card game, getting a little old-fashioned at this time.

Chapter 13: This chapter is packed with funny. Gotta love the way Mr Bennet doesn't bother to tell his family that Mr Collins is coming until the very day of his arrival. (Perhaps it's in self-defense; could you imagine Mrs Bennet yacking about it for three weeks?) Mrs Bennet: "Why could he not keep quarreling with you, as his father did before him?"

Mr Collins's letter is just a scream, with its unctuous mixture of good will, misplaced priorities, servility, and self-flattery. He sticks his foot in his mouth at the end of the chapter, by asking which of his cousins cooked the meal (this in a society where any family with two shillings to rub together engaged a cook, much less a gentleman's family -- and did he not notice that he was chatting with all the sisters that afternoon?)

Chapter 14: Mr Bennet versus Mr Collins -- pull up a chair. What's your favorite line?

Chapter 15: I have always been struck by the swift background information on Mr Collins given at the beginning of this chapter. We have been chuckling at him for a while; we are briefly given a glimpse into why he is so stupid. His father is described as "illiterate", which here means poorly read and narrow-minded. So we have someone who's not naturally bright, who's been brought up without a sense of of the breadth of the world and with an unnatural focus on money. He goes to university and doesn't make any friends who can help broaden his horizons or introduce him to people who can help him improve himself. He's ordained, he's a gentleman, and suddenly he has a stroke of good luck and he gets the living of Hunsford from Lady Catherine. He has a gentleman's status without the education and breadth of mind, the generosity, that would mark a true gentleman.

So now Mr Collins has a house, and he's looking for a wife to carry over the threshold. What do you think about his motivations in looking for a wife among the Bennet girls? Is it motivated by genuine good-will -- helping to mend the feud between the two branches of the family? Anyway, it's worth noting how quickly and easily he switches his attention from Jane to Elizabeth. He wants a wife, it would be logical to choose one of the Bennet girls... any one will do...

So what do you make of that little interaction between Darcy and Wickham? What's that about? Who turned white, do you think, and who turned red? Interesting that for all her I-hate-Darcy resolve, Elizabeth finds it "impossible not to long to know."

We learn quite a bit about Mrs Philips, Mrs Bennet's sister, when we learn that she is "awed by [Mr Collins's] excess of good breeding." I don't remember where I saw this, but I think I remember reading somewhere that serving supper (in this context, a light meal; the main meal of the day was called dinner) was not a fashionable way to entertain. Mr Collins is showing his servile amazement again at the way normal people do things when he is so gratified by Mrs Philip's including him in the invitation.

Chapter 16: Wickham certainly is a charming fellow, isn't he? "The agreeable way in which he fell into conversation, though it was only on its being a wet night, and on the probability ofa rainy season, made [Elizabeth] feel that the commonest, dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting be the skilil of the speaker."

Eventually he starts talking about something besides the weather. Poor Wickham! So what do you think of his tale? Interesting that he is the one who brings the topic up, though Elizabeth certainly eggs him on.

Chapter 17: Jane and Elizabeth discuss Wickham's story.
Jane: "It is difficult indeed -- it is distressing. -- One does not know what to think.'' Elizabeth: 'I beg your pardon; -- one knows exactly what to think.''

What do you think?

I like Elizabeth's assessment of Mr Collin's purpose in singling her out: "she was selected from among her sisters as worthy of being the mistress of Hunsford Parsonage, and of assisting to form a quadrille table at Rosings, in the absence of more eligible visitors."

Chapter 18: Wickham was invited to the ball, but skips it to avoid Darcy. Seems like Darcy's not afraid of seeing him, or, if he were, that Bingley was not so cowed by Darcy as to omit Wickham. Is Elizabeth being fair to Darcy? Charlotte thinks Elizabeth is being foolish to let her preference for Wickham make her seem unpleasant to Darcy. Is Charlotte just being mercenary?

The talking during the dancing -- they are dancing contra-dances, where the couples form lines with the other dancers (men in one line facing the women in the other) and wait their turn as each couple executes the figures of the dance.

Later, Elizabeth hears that the Bingley sisters and Bingley himself do not have a high opinion of Wickham -- Bingley's opinion that Wickham is "by no means a respectable young man" is pretty strongly worded even for Bingley. Elizabeth chalks up their disapproval to Caroline's snobbery and Bingley's partiality to Mr Darcy and only hearing Mr Darcy's side.

Jane is bubbling -- she is sure Bingley likes her (and his preference has been noted by others, such as Sir William Lucas -- and Mr Darcy). The rest of the Bennets go on to make complete fools of themselves, Mrs Bennet by her careless yacking and gloating, Lydia and Kitty with their flirting, Mary Bennet by insisting on performing (she isn't very good at it), and even Mr Bennet's checking Mary with a loud put-down. Mr Collins going up and introducing himself to Mr Darcy is rude and foolishly presumptuous, as are his speeches. Mr Collins also monoplizes Elizabeth for the rest of the ball; her only consolation is that it keeps Darcy away. Finally it's time to go home (though, by a transparent ploy, Mrs Bennet is able to completely wear out their welcome)