Synopsis:
\nChapter 7:<\/b>
\nA militia regiment has made Meryton its winter headquarters, and Catherine and Lydia are enjoying the society of the officers. The Bingley sisters invite Jane to dine at Netherfield; Jane gets caught in the rain on the way over, gets sick, and is forced to stay the night. Elizabeth walks over the next morning to see how she’s doing. Jane is still very ill, so Elizabeth remains at Netherfield to help care for her.
\nWe learn that Longbourn is entailed to a distant relation (more about entails in the notes) and learn about Mrs Bennet’s connections.
\nChapter 8:<\/b> The evening at Netherfield. A discussion of reading and “accomplishments.”
\nWe learn that Darcy has a younger sister, and that their house in Derbyshire is named Pemblerley.
\nChapter 9:<\/b> Mrs Bennet comes to check up on Jane.
\nChapter 10:<\/b> Elizabeth’s second evening at Netherfield. A discussion of handwriting leads to a discussion of character. Miss Bingley plays the piano-forte. Mr Darcy asks Elizabeth to dance but, with an arch joke, she declines.
\nChapter 11:<\/b> Jane is recovered enough to join the party that evening. Elizabeth and Darcy discuss character and temperament.
\nChapter 12:<\/b> Jane and Elizabeth leave Netherfield.<\/p>\n
\nNotes and comments from Peony:
\nChapter 7:<\/b> Entailments were legal restrictions placed on inherited property to keep it in the family. For example, an owner might be unable to sell or mortgage his property, or — in this case — leave it to a daughter. Since Mr Bennet has no sons, and since he inherited Longbourn with these “strings”, when he dies their distant relative will inherit Longbourn. (Keep in mind the implications for the financial security of his widow and his daughters.)
\nThe horses: Longbourn is part of an agricultural community — Mr Bennet farms his propery, and the horses are needed to help get the harvest in.
\nJane’s cold: When Jane takes to her bed, she is not being a drama queen. The people of that time didn’t always use the same words for illnesses that we do now, so a cold could mean anything from a drippy nose to a serious case of influenza (and Jane is described as being very feverish.) Disease was nothing to underestimate, as a bad cold could turn into a serious — even fatal — case of pneumonia. For all Bingley’s four thousand a year, he cannot even offer Jane a Tylenol for her headache. “Draughts” are medication.
\nChapter 8:<\/b> “Accomplishments” — last week we talked about how young ladies usually studied music. Here we see some of the other things they are usually expected to study, including art and handwork (Bingley talks about covering screens and netting purses), modern languages (usually French or Italian) and dancing. Some of these were very practical — for example, in an age before photographs, drawing was a very useful art to possess. (Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra painted Jane’s only surviving portrait.)
\nElizabeth and Darcy use “comprehend” in the sense of “encompass.”
\nAs soon as Elizabeth is out the door, Miss Bingley refers to her as “Eliza Bennet,” omitting her title and her full name. Given the formality of the time, and the fact that Miss Bingley and Elizabeth are not intimate friends and is speaking of her in front of others, including gentlemen…well, this shows us how superficial Miss Bingley’s manners are, even down to basic social skills.
\nCheapside is an unfashionable commercial neighborhood in London.
\n“Playing high” — loo is a gambling game. (It was common to wager when playing cards.)
\nPemberley is Mr Darcy’s home in the county of Derbyshire. From his own comments and the admiration of Bingley and his sisters, we can draw the conclusion that he is of an old and established family, and that Pemberley is quite a place.
\nChapter 9:<\/b> Mrs Bennet just makes a complete fool of herself. The spectacle would be even funnier if Elizabeth weren’t standing right there (and trying not to cringe too obviously.)
\nWe see that Lydia is not shy at all. “Stout, well-grown” here just means that she’s healthy and sturdy-looking, not that she’s fat (though emaciation was far from being the standard of feminine beauty that it is now.)
\nChapter 10:<\/b> The shrubbery — one of the large gardens in the path of the house. I always picture little gravel paths in a pattern, lined by cute little boxwoods.<\/p>\n
\n
In these chapters we get to see much more of Bingley, his sisters, and Darcy. We also get to measure our impressions against Elizabeth’s. For example, I think we would agree with Elizabeth that Bingley is a very kind and genuine fellow. We see he doesn’t care for conflict — when the discussion starts getting heated, he changes the subject — and he himself confirms our impression from Chapter One: that he’s prone to hurrying, and that his decisions are easily influenced.
\nThe Bingley sisters (particularly Caroline Bingley) are really pieces of work, aren’t they? Their ridiculing Elizabeth’s uncles for being “in trade” is particularly hypocritical, since their own father was in trade and their family’s fortune is so new that Bingley doesn’t even have an estate yet — they are hardly landed gentry. One wonders about Louisa Hurst’s choice of husband, as well — Mr Hurst was described as being a man of “more fashion than fortune” earlier, and when there is no loo to be had he just plops down for a nap on the sofa.
\nCaroline’s blatant (and catastrophic) attempts to win Darcy’s attention always make me chuckle, especially when she resorts to dragging Elizabeth with her on her little promenade around the room. It’s funny how every time she tries to attract Darcy’s attention, she ends up getting left behind while Darcy and Elizabeth get into a very involved conversation. Even when she plays the pianoforte, her display leads to Darcy asking Elizabeth to dance. (Poor Darcy. He just can’t win, can he?) By the way, this is now the third time an invitation to dance has been refused. I think this would qualify as a Recurring Theme, wouldn’t it?
\nI’d like to suggest that we take a close look at Darcy and Elizabeth’s conversations as part of this week’s discussion. Is Darcy being fair to Elizabeth? Is Elizabeth being fair to Darcy?
\n(Let’s keep in mind that, before Elizabeth’s stay at Netherfield, we’ve only seen two encounters between Elizabeth and Darcy. The first was at the Meryton ball, when Darcy wouldn’t dance with or talk to anyone (his flat refusal of Elizabeth was not meant for her to hear, and he almost certainly doesn’t know he was overheard); the second, at the Lucas party, when Darcy asked her to dance and was refused.)
\nAt the end of Chapter 12, Jane and Elizabeth are preparing to leave. Bingley is genuinely sorry to see them go. Miss Bingley is glad to be rid of them.
\nDarcy is also glad to see them go. In Chapter 11 we are told that Darcy believes that “the inferiority of her connections” (their relatives in trade) is what keeps him from being in “real danger” of falling in love with Elizabeth. (If he is really so invulnerable to her charm, why does he have to reassure himself of the fact?) I like this line in Chapter 12: “Elizabeth had been at Netherfield long enough. She attracted him more than he liked — and Miss Bingley was uncivil to her<\/i>, and more teazing than usual to himself.”<\/i> Even when he’s wishing her gone, part of the reason he’s wishing her gone is — he doesn’t like Miss Bingley’s being so mean to her!
\nSince Mr Darcy does not wish to fall in love with Elizabeth, he decides to make good and sure that she doesn’t get the wrong idea, so he ignores her through the last day of her visit. Is Mr Darcy being completely honest with himself? How will his action affect Elizabeth’s opinion of him?And how accurate is his perception of Elizabeth’s opinion of him?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Synopsis: Chapter 7: A militia regiment has made Meryton its winter headquarters, and Catherine and Lydia are enjoying the society of the officers. The Bingley sisters invite Jane to dine at Netherfield; Jane gets caught in the rain on the way over, gets sick, and is forced to stay the night. Elizabeth walks over the… Continue reading Discussion: P&P<\/i>, Chapters 7-12<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-read","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moss-place.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}