The next Group Read will be next Monday, on Chapters 25-32.
This week, we’re discussing Chapters 19-24. We eagerly await your comments and discussion! (We are avoiding spoilers.)
Chapter 19: Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth. Elizabeth declines, but Mr Collins does not believe she is serious.
Chapter 20: Mrs Bennet tries to settle the situation — she takes Elizabeth’s refusal seriously, but hopes to persuade Elizabeth to accept Mr Collins. She appeals to Mr Bennet, who settles the question (in the inimitable Mr Bennet style) in favor of Elizabeth. Mrs Bennet keeps working on Elizabeth, while Mr Collins grows more and more grumpy. The house is in an uproar, when Charlotte Lucas comes to call.
Chapter 21: In spite of his disappointment and resentment, Mr Collins does not curtail his visit to Longbourn. The girls takes a stroll to Meryton, where they meet their acquaintances among the officers, including Mr Wickham. The officers walk the girls back to Meryton, and Elizabeth introduces Mr Wickham to her parents. Jane receives a letter from Netherfield — Caroline Bingley has written to tell her that the entire party has gone to London and will certainly stay there for the winter. Jane is particularly saddened by Caroline’s confiding her hopes that Bingley will propose to Mr Darcy’s sister Georgiana. Jane and Elizabeth differ in their interpretation of Caroline’s motive in sharing these hopes.
Chapter 22: The Bennets dine with the Lucas family, and once again Charlotte takes the brunt of conversation with Mr Collins upon herself. Elizabeth thinks Charlotte is doing her a favor, but not in the way she expects. Charlotte’s plan works better than she hopes — Mr Collins sneaks out early the very next morning and proposes. Charlotte accepts, but asks Mr Collins not to tell the Bennets. Mr Collins is about ready to pop with pride, but he keeps the secret. The next day, after Mr Collins has returned to Hunsford, Charlotte calls on the Bennets and breaks the news to Elizabeth in person. Elizabeth is shocked, as Charlotte knew she would be.
Chapter 23: That evening, Sir William Lucas shares his happy news with the rest of the astonished Bennet family. They each digest the news in their own way. Elizabeth is still stunned at Charlotte’s decision. The family receives Mr Collins’s thank-you letter, written with all the grace and delicacy they have come to expect from him. Meanwhile, Jane is saddened by Bingley’s continued absence. Elizabeth is suspicious of the Bingley sisters. Two weeks later, Mr Collins is back in town and stays with the Bennets, although he spends almost all his time with the Lucases.
Chapter 24: The news is confirmed: Bingley will not be returning at all for the winter. Jane concludes that Bingley had never really liked her, and consoles herself with the thought that she had not risked exposing her own feelings for Bingley. Jane and Elizabeth talk over human nature in general; Elizabeth confesses her growing cynicism, fueled in part by Charlotte’s marriage to Mr Collins. Mr Bennet shares his own sardonic take on the matter. Meanwhile they see a good bit of Mr Wickham, who cheers them all up. His tale of woe at the hands of Mr Darcy is now general knowledge in the community. Only Jane continues to insist that there must be some kind of extenuating circumstances somewhere.
Chapter 22: being presented at St James — being presented to the royal family. Sir William perhaps overestimates the value of his knighthood, which looms large in the small pond of Meryton but is guppy-sized compared to the rest of the nobility.
At the end of Chapter 24, the narrator speaks of Jane’s “mild and steady candour.” Candour here means not truthfulness, but generosity and good-will — the willingness to look for the good in others. Dr Johnson defined it as being “free from malice; not desirous to find faults.”
Chapter 19: Mr Collins’s lethal combination of vanity and density is on full display. Gotta love the way he takes pains to point out that if she hadn’t been so “modest” she would have lost points in his eyes. And doesn’t his laborious outline of his Reasons for Matrimony make you think that Mr Collins was truly ahead of his time — that this man was born for PowerPoint? I’m also tickled that Elizabeth’s earlier thought about making a fourth for quadrille at Rosings was proved absolutely correct.
Mr Collins’s proposal has a great deal to say about money, property and connections, but little to say on another topic usually connected with marriage. He is completely unconcerned with Elizabeth’s feelings, but he also has little to say about his own. He offers her nothing in his proposal except financial security.
Am I the only one, though, who thinks that his idea of seeing if there is a bride for him among the ladies of Longbourn has at least a glimmer of decency to it? Although that decency is completely lost in his approach.
It seems to me that Elizabeth permits herself only the faintest flick of teasing and otherwise is pretty gentle (though firm) with Mr Collins. But to no avail — that lethal combination prevents him from seeing that Elizabeth is perfectly serious in his refusal.
Chapter 20: I’m amused that even Mrs Bennet is surprised at Mr Collins’s ability to hear wedding bells in a flat refusal. Gotta love Mr Bennet’s approach to conflict resolution.
Chapter 21: Do you think that Jane is being too “candid” in how she reads the letter from Netherfield — too quick to attribute kind motives to Caroline? Or is Lizzy’s more distrustful analysis correct?
Chapter 22: Mr Collins certainly wasn’t long in moping around, was he? Charlotte’s reflections really struck me. She knows perfectly well what she’s doing and what she’s getting into. But to her, that hard part isn’t marrying Mr Collins, it’s facing Elizabeth, knowing that Elizabeth will despise her for her choice. And, when she tells Elizabeth, that is exactly what happens.
Chapter 23: Sir William calls to tell the Bennets the news: Good old Lydia! You can always count on her to mind her manners and say the right thing.
Even after she’s had time to digest Charlotte’s news, Elizabeth is still disappointed with her — so disappointed that it casts a shadow on her friendship, and Elizabeth turns to Jane as her confidante instead of Charlotte. Is Elizabeth being too hard on Charlotte?
Chapter 24: Jane and Elizabeth talk over their recent disappointments. Elizabeth admires Jane’s efforts to give others the benefit of the doubt, but she can’t quite do it herself: “There are few people whom I really love, and even fewer of whom I think well… (does this imply that there are those she loves but does not think well of?) The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense.”
This chapter strikes me as one where we really get to take a look at the contrasting outlooks of Elizabeth and Jane. Jane prefers to think that the Bingley sisters have good motives in wanting their brother to choose Miss Darcy — they’ve known her a long time, they like her; Elizabeth is less optimistic, and thinks they like Miss Darcy’s social position and wealth. Jane cannot believe that the Bingley sisters would act against their brother’s wishes and happiness; Elizabeth has no problem at all believing such a thing. I get the impression that Jane is making a conscious effort to choose the optimistic view, the most generous interpretation of others’ actions and motives. Is Jane just extending kindness in situation where one can’t know the truth? Is she just trying to protect her own mental health — trying not to eat her heart out over things she can’t know and can’t control? Or is she just being an ostrich? Is Elizabeth being too quick to judge, to read base motives into others’ actions?
I must say that chapter 20 is one of my favorite chapters in the whole book. It shows the characters for who they are in so many ways. Mr. Bennet’s settling of the matter is so wonderfully done, you need no other example in the whole book to show the family semantics.
Also, commenting on Charlotte’s behaviour during this whole scene: I find it hard to believe that she could be so sneaky about it. Obviously, she had set her cap out for Mr. Collins as soon as she got a chance ~ and he fell for it. How desperate she must have been to go for such a catch ~ and at the risk of losing Lizzie’s friendship too! I guess she was just looking out for number one, but still, I am never comfortable reading about her part in this whole thing.
I agree with you about Chapter 20. It also gives us a hint as to the differing hopes the Bennets have for their daughters (or, in Mr Bennet’s case, his hopes for Elizabeth at least.)
I got the impression that Charlotte herself was a little surprised at Mr Collins’s haste. He was probably the sneakiest — running out of the house at dawn before he was missed!
The thing that’s astonishing about Charlotte is her utter lack of belief in finding anything more than financial security in marriage — she views happiness in marriage as more a matter of chance than anything else. There’s not much need in Charlotte’s view for love, passion, nor even infatuation. For her, marriage is a business transaction, pure and simple, and if you’re happy in marriage that’s a nice little extra. Mr Collins didn’t think he needed to offer Elizabeth much besides respectability and property; obviously his “affections” don’t mean much, since they are transferred so easily. It never occurred to him that Elizabeth’s feelings for him would be a consideration. And what does Charlotte have to offer Mr Collins besides prudence and respectability? Since that’s all they have to offer each other, perhaps they are better suited than they look.
Yes, Mr. Collins is certainly not blameless in this whole situation. However, I think he is so senseless to anything going on about him that does not concern him directly that he would not think twice about offering a girl an offer of marriage so soon after asking another one. He has no clue. But Charlotte does! She may have an erroneous view on marriage, but one would hope that this would not extend to her view of friendship. It can be seen in how she gets Mr. Collins to not divulge the news (knowing full well how he will most likely mess that up!). She obviously cares enough for Lizzie as her best friend to want to break the news to her herself. However, the fact that there are news so soon after Lizzie turned Mr. Collins down ~ and that Charlotte can accept this foolish man as her spouse (when she has a perfect example of what a marriage without respect can deteriorate to in her next door neighbors) makes me wonder what she could possibly have been thinking of.
What could Charlotte be thinking of? “I’m twenty-seven, I’m not getting any younger, I’m on the shelf, I’m sick of living with my gossipy mother and foolish father, I want my own place, I don’t want to end up depending on my brothers’ charity, I’m not pretty, I don’t have a dowry. This man is respectable, he’s prosperous and has more property coming to him, and I bet he’s indifferent enough to make me an offer of marriage.”
Charlotte knows exactly what she’s getting into. She has no expectation at all of a happy marriage — she just I think it boils down to Charlotte’s skewed view of marriage — I get the impression that things can’t be all that great at the Lucas house, or perhaps Lord and Lady Lucas are too dull to notice. 🙂 But where Lizzy looks at unhappy marriages and thinks, There must be something more, I won’t settle for that, Charlotte thinks, That is all I can expect from marriage, I will just have to make the best of it — that’s our lot in life.
I think you’re right in that Charlotte’s view of friendship is not as skewed. But she isn’t able to make the connect — that one can seek friendship in marriage, that it’s worth holding out for. Charlotte also isn’t willing to risk her financial security on it.
Ultimately that’s driving the wedge between Charlotte and Lizzy. To Charlotte, marriage is something you just hold your nose and do. Chapter 22 (3rd para) tells us that while Charlotte did not think highly “of men or matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.”
For Elizabeth, being able to love and respect your spouse is so important that it’s a matter of personal integrity. So when Charlotte marries a fool for the sake of her financial security, Lizzy is terribly disappointed in her — she sees it as evidence of a lack of integrity, a lack of principle.
Here’s another thought. The Bennets have an unhappy marriage, true, because Mr Bennet is a clever (though imprudent) man who married a foolish though prudent) woman. But Elizabeth is a clever young woman who’s close to her father. Charlotte’s father, though, is dull, materialistic, and short-sighted. Perhaps Elizabeth and Charlotte’s views of marriage are affected by the examples they saw in their own fathers.
I can’t say I was surprised or bothered by Charlotte’s behavior. Settling for Mr. Collins is consistent with everything she has said about marriage. I don’t think that Mr. Collins “fell for” anything. He came looking for a wife, and he found one. I suppose it was dishonest of Charlotte to spend all that time talking to him when she probably planned to do it as little as possible after their marriage.
Peony, I like your point about looking at Charlotte’s and Elizabeth’s fathers. You might say each girl wanted to marry as well as her mother. (I like the idea of someone saying something like that to Elizabeth).
A few things I loved from these chapters:
–Mr. Bennet’s judgement (and his dismissal of Mrs. Bennet afterwards)
–Mr. Colins’s proposal. I don’t know how any woman could refuse a man who speculates about her father’s death twice during his proposal (with the interval shrinking from “many years” to “several years”).
–This fine bit of wisdom from Mr. Collins, “…for I have often observed that resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation.” Wouldn’t you love to listen to his sermons every Sunday?
Don — LOL at your characterization of Mr Collins (“He came looking for a wife, and he found one”) and Charlotte (“I suppose it was dishonest of Charlotte to spend all that time talking to him when she probably planned to do it as little as possible after their marriage.”)
What a catch on Mr Collins’s unseemly speculations on Mr Bennet’s life span! I hadn’t noticed the second time he said that.
I do not really have much to say, and I risk interjecting Republic of Pemberley fanaticism into this, but…
for Peony Moss,
It is Sir. William, not Lord Lucas. Sir Williams has only been elevated to the knighthood, which allows him to be addressed as “Sir William” and Mrs. Lucas to be “Lady Lucas.” “Lord” only applies once somebody entered the nobility, which a knighthood is not. Indeed, even if Sir Willaim were a baronet (he isn’t, c.f. Sir Walter Eliot of “Persuasion” fame) and therefore could pass the “Sir” onto his eldest son, he would still not be a nobleman. The ranks in ascending order of precedence, are as follows:
Knight
Baronet (hereditary knighthood)
Baron (nobility starts here)
Viscount
Earl
Marquis
Duke
King
(I may have mixed up the Viscount and Marquis–there are not that many)
I do not know what Lady Catherine is–my guess is that her husband was a Baronet (since Austen gives us no indication of anything higher c.f. Lady Dalrymple–a Viscountess in “Persuasion”).
Han,
Oh, I am always up for a little RoP attention to detail, I assure you! I knew there was a line between the baronetcy and the “real” titles, but was not expressing it well, and slipped when I referred to Sir William and “the rest of the nobility”. Thanks for the clarification.
So who gets to be presented at Court? Do knights and baronets get to go?