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Pride and Prejudice
Mountaineers · 10th–12th
Wickham says he cannot judge Darcy fairly, and then tells Elizabeth everything against him. Does she have good reason to believe him?
The tension Wickham says, “I will not trust myself on the subject” and that he “can hardly be just to him”, and swears he will never “defy or expose” the son of his godfather, yet he raises Darcy himself before Elizabeth dares to, and lays out the whole history of the lost living to a woman he met the day before; she “honoured him for such feelings, and thought him handsomer than ever as he expressed them.”
One evening at Mrs. Philips’s card tables, where a charming newcomer gives Elizabeth a full history of injury at Darcy’s hands, and she has no second account to set beside it.
Mr. Collins and his five cousins go by coach to Mrs. Philips’s, where Mr. Wickham is already in the house. Mr. Collins says the drawing-room reminds him of the small summer breakfast parlour at Rosings; Mrs. Philips is not pleased until she learns who owns Rosings and that one chimney-piece cost eight hundred pounds. She listens to his account of Lady Catherine’s grandeur, thinks more of him with all she hears, and means to repeat it to her neighbours. The gentlemen come in. To Elizabeth, Mr. Wickham is as far above the other officers as they are above stuffy uncle Philips. He sits beside her, and his talk of the wet night makes her feel that any topic can be made interesting by a skilful speaker. Mr. Collins sits down to whist with Mrs. Philips; Mr. Wickham joins Elizabeth and Lydia at the lottery-ticket table, where Lydia is soon lost in the game. Elizabeth longs to hear his history with Mr. Darcy but dares not ask. He raises the subject himself, hesitantly, and says he has been connected with the Darcy family from infancy. She tells him she finds Mr. Darcy very disagreeable, as all Hertfordshire does. He says he knows Mr. Darcy too long and too well to be a fair judge, and that he will not be driven away by him. The late Mr. Darcy, his godfather, left him the next presentation of a valuable living; when it fell vacant two years ago, the son gave it to another man. Asked why he did not go to law, he blames an informality in the bequest, and says Mr. Darcy claimed he had forfeited it by extravagance and imprudence; he can recall nothing worse than a warm temper. Elizabeth says Mr. Darcy deserves to be publicly disgraced; Mr. Wickham says it will never be by him, for his father’s sake, and she honours him and thinks him handsomer than ever. He puts it down to dislike and, he believes, jealousy. Elizabeth recalls Mr. Darcy boasting at Netherfield of his unforgiving temper. Mr. Wickham describes their shared childhood and his own father’s care of the Pemberley property, grants that Mr. Darcy’s pride often makes him generous and a careful guardian of his sister, whom he calls very, very proud, and says Mr. Darcy can please where he chooses, especially among the rich. When the whist ends, Mr. Collins, who has lost every point, says five shillings is nothing to him, thanks to Lady Catherine. Mr. Wickham tells Elizabeth that Lady Catherine is Mr. Darcy’s aunt and that it is believed Mr. Darcy and her daughter will unite the two estates; Elizabeth smiles to think of Miss Bingley. She suspects that Mr. Collins’s gratitude misleads him about Lady Catherine, and Mr. Wickham, who has not seen her for years, calls her dictatorial and insolent, which Elizabeth thinks very rational. At supper his manners recommend him to everybody. Elizabeth goes home thinking only of him, but cannot even mention his name in the carriage, where Lydia talks of lottery tickets and Mr. Collins of the evening’s civility, his losses and the supper dishes.
Start at the drawing-room door with Mr. Collins and Mrs. Philips, and let the comedy land: a compliment that pleases only once its price is known. Then read the long talk at the lottery table aloud, slowly, and keep a simple tally as you go: who raises Darcy each time, what Mr. Wickham claims, and what Elizabeth asks or adds. Keep to what the chapter gives. It gives only Mr. Wickham’s word; Darcy’s side is not heard here, so no answer may call the account true or false, and a student who knows the rest of the book should leave it outside this chapter. Jealousy is Mr. Wickham’s own guess (“I believe”), not a fact, and the match with Miss de Bourgh is only what “it is believed”. Elizabeth admires him, thinks him handsome and cannot stop thinking of him; the chapter does not say she is in love. A student who calls her simply gullible should be sent back to her own questions and to her own memory of Darcy, which does some of the believing. Mrs. Philips is not filler: she is the evening’s other listener. Whether Elizabeth has good reason to believe Mr. Wickham belongs to the last written question.
Retell The student retells the chapter in four movements: Mr. Collins and Mrs. Philips in the drawing-room; Mr. Wickham’s entrance and the talk of the wet night; the long conversation at the lottery table, from Netherfield to Lady Catherine; and supper and the ride home. Look for whether the retelling keeps track of who raises each subject, and reports Mr. Wickham’s account as his, not as fact.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes two short passages. The first follows the sentence about Mr. Collins: open on a long phrase that carries a second phrase before the subject and verb arrive, then, after a semicolon and “and”, bring in a listener and describe her in two relative clauses (“whose ...” and “who ...”). The second is a short spoken argument in the manner of Mr. Wickham’s: a concession set against a claim across a semicolon and “but”; a short sentence; a sentence with a condition; a comparison; and a last sentence that builds a list and holds back its final item behind “and, perhaps,”.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. One side argues that Elizabeth has good reason to believe Mr. Wickham, and gathers his particulars (a godfather, a living, a vacancy two years ago), his open admission that he cannot be impartial, and her own memory of Darcy’s boast of “the implacability of his resentments”. The other argues that she has little reason, and gathers the one-sidedness of the account, his promise never to “defy or expose” Darcy set beside everything he has just told her, her verdict on Darcy given before the story began, and her suspicion that Mr. Collins’s gratitude misleads him, a test she does not turn on Mr. Wickham. Each side must answer the other’s best line. Neither may say whether the account is true, or bring in what later chapters tell.
Purpose Close on the chapter’s shape. Austen sets one long, grave conversation between two comic ones: Mr. Collins winning Mrs. Philips with a chimney-piece at the start, and Mr. Collins and Lydia filling the carriage at the end, so that Elizabeth cannot even say Mr. Wickham’s name. Ask why the chapter ends with her silent and her head full of him, and what it means that the reader leaves Meryton knowing exactly as much as she does.
Easier Read aloud the drawing-room compliment, the talk of the living and the ride home. As the lottery-table talk goes on, make three columns: what Mr. Wickham says, what Elizabeth asks or adds, and what she could check for herself. Talk through the questions on who raises Darcy and on what to ask next, then answer the last written question aloud before writing it.
On level Talk through all four discussion questions in order, then write both written questions as a thesis, the strongest objection and a revised thesis, each with lines from the chapter.
Harder Ask for one argued essay on how Austen makes a one-sided account persuasive: Mr. Wickham’s claims of restraint, the names and sums he offers, his praise of Darcy’s virtues, and the narrator’s note that Elizabeth thought him “handsomer than ever” as he spoke. The essay should meet the objection that Elizabeth questions him sharply, and it must not say whether the account is true or bring in later chapters.
1. Elizabeth does not dare to say Darcy’s name, but Wickham brings him up himself, “in a hesitating manner.” Who wants this talk more, he or she?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to follow one subject through the evening and decide who keeps it alive. At the lottery table, Mr. Wickham “was therefore at leisure to talk to Elizabeth, and she was very willing to hear him, though what she chiefly wished to hear she could not hope to be told, the history of his acquaintance with Mr. Darcy. She dared not even mention that gentleman. Her curiosity, however, was unexpectedly relieved. Mr. Wickham began the subject himself. He inquired how far Netherfield was from Meryton; and, after receiving her answer, asked in a hesitating manner how long Mr. Darcy had been staying there.” Elizabeth answers “About a month”, and then, “unwilling to let the subject drop”, adds that he is a man of very large property in Derbyshire. The student decides who wants the talk more. The card must not call Mr. Wickham’s hesitation false or true: the chapter gives only his manner and his words.
He does. He says the name first, after a question about Netherfield that leads straight to it. He asks how well she knows Darcy before he gives any opinion of him. He comes back to Darcy on his own (“whether he is likely to be in this country much longer”), and after a turn to general topics he steers back again, to the living he lost “had it pleased the gentleman we were speaking of just now.” A hesitating manner does not stop him from raising Darcy three times.
Mr. Wickham began the subject himself.
I should at this time have been in possession of a most valuable living, had it pleased the gentleman we were speaking of just now.
She does. The history with Darcy is what she “chiefly wished to hear”. Given a short opening, she will not let it close, and offers the Derbyshire estate herself. She gives her own verdict, “very disagreeable”, before he has said anything against Darcy. And late in the evening, after many pauses, she is the one who brings Darcy back. He hesitates; she does not.
and then, unwilling to let the subject drop,
After many pauses and many trials of other subjects, Elizabeth could not help reverting once more to the first,
A strong answer A strong response follows the subject through the whole evening. One reader finds Mr. Wickham leading: he names Darcy, asks how well she knows him before giving any opinion, and returns to him on his own more than once. Another finds Elizabeth leading: she longs for the story, keeps it open when he offers it, gives her dislike before he gives any, and brings Darcy back after many pauses. The best answers notice that the talk needs both, a speaker who offers the subject and a listener who will not let it drop, and weigh which of the two the narrator lets us see more clearly.
2. Elizabeth asks why Wickham did not take Darcy to court. He blames a flaw in the wording of the will. If you were in her chair, what would you ask next?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to question the story as Elizabeth might have. Mr. Wickham says: “the late Mr. Darcy bequeathed me the next presentation of the best living in his gift. He was my godfather, and excessively attached to me. I cannot do justice to his kindness. He meant to provide for me amply, and thought he had done it; but when the living fell, it was given elsewhere.” A living is a church post with its income; the next presentation is the right to be given it when it next falls vacant. Elizabeth cries, “How could his will be disregarded? Why did not you seek legal redress?” Redress is a remedy at law. He answers: “There was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest as to give me no hope from law. A man of honour could not have doubted the intention, but Mr. Darcy chose to doubt it--or to treat it as a merely conditional recommendation, and to assert that I had forfeited all claim to it by extravagance, imprudence, in short, anything or nothing.” An informality is a flaw in how something was written. The student decides what to ask next, and why that question matters. The card must not say whether his account is true or false: the chapter gives only his word, and the other side is not heard here.
Ask about the will. What exactly was the flaw? Elizabeth asked a question about law, and the answer moves to honour: “A man of honour could not have doubted the intention.” He grants that the wording left him “no hope from law”, and he reports that Darcy read it “as a merely conditional recommendation”. A listener in her chair would want the words of the bequest, because the whole wrong turns on what they said.
There was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest as to give me no hope from law.
or to treat it as a merely conditional recommendation,
Ask about the charge. By Mr. Wickham’s own account, Darcy gave a reason: that he had forfeited the living “by extravagance, imprudence”. Mr. Wickham names the charge and sweeps it away as “anything or nothing”, and says only that he can recall nothing worse than speaking too freely. The next question is the one he passes over: what did Darcy say you had done?
and to assert that I had forfeited all claim to it by extravagance, imprudence, in short, anything or nothing.
I can recall nothing worse.
A strong answer A strong response chooses one question and says why it matters most. One reader would press on the will: the flaw that left “no hope from law” is never named, and the answer to a legal question comes back as a point of honour. Another would press on the charge Mr. Wickham himself reports, “extravagance, imprudence”, which he names and then waves away. The best answers notice that Elizabeth’s own next question is why Darcy behaved so cruelly, not what happened, and weigh what that choice shows about where she already stands.
3. Elizabeth could have added that Wickham is a young man whose very face “may vouch” for him. She keeps that line to herself, but Austen lets us hear it. What does it tell us that her spoken line does not?Author's choice
What it asks It asks the student to weigh a line that is never spoken aloud. “Elizabeth was again deep in thought, and after a time exclaimed, “To treat in such a manner the godson, the friend, the favourite of his father!” She could have added, “A young man, too, like _you_, whose very countenance may vouch for your being amiable.” But she contented herself with--“And one, too, who had probably been his own companion from childhood, connected together, as I think you said, in the closest manner.”” Countenance means face; to vouch for something is to stand as proof of it; amiable here means good-natured and worthy of liking. The student sets the unspoken line beside the spoken one and decides what the reader learns from hearing both. The card must not say that Elizabeth is in love with Mr. Wickham, or that his face misleads her: the chapter does not settle whether his account is true.
It shows how much of her judgment rests on his face. The line comes to her while she is weighing his story, and in it the face is offered as proof: it “may vouch” for him. Mr. Wickham never hears it, but the reader does, and so the reader knows something about how the case against Darcy is being weighed that the speaker does not.
She could have added, “A young man, too, like you, whose very countenance may vouch for your being amiable.”
It shows her holding back. She checks the compliment and says something plainer and safer, a point about their childhood that she draws from what he told her (“as I think you said”). The reader sees a woman who still minds what she says aloud and reaches for his facts rather than his looks. The unsaid line marks where her trust stops, as well as where it comes from.
But she contented herself with--“And one, too, who had probably been his own companion from childhood, connected together, as I think you said, in the closest manner.”
A strong answer A strong response says what the unspoken line gives the reader that the spoken one does not. One reader finds that it shows how far her judgment leans on his face: she is weighing a grave charge, and his looks come to mind as proof. Another finds that it shows restraint: she checks the compliment and reaches back to the facts he gave her. The best answers notice that only the reader hears both lines, and so only the reader can set the face beside the story.
4. Wickham says Darcy helps his tenants and the poor, and takes good care of his sister. He says all of it comes from pride. After that, can any good thing Darcy does count in his favour?Character
What it asks It asks the student to look at how Mr. Wickham’s praise of Darcy is built. Elizabeth wonders that Darcy’s pride has not made him just. “It _is_ wonderful,” replied Wickham; “for almost all his actions may be traced to pride; and pride has often been his best friend. It has connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling. But we are none of us consistent; and in his behaviour to me there were stronger impulses even than pride.” Asked “Can such abominable pride as his have ever done him good?”, he lists the good: Darcy is “liberal and generous”, gives freely, assists his tenants, relieves the poor, and is “a very kind and careful guardian of his sister”, each from family, filial or brotherly pride; and he adds that she “will hear him generally cried up” as the best of brothers. To be cried up is to be loudly praised. The student decides whether any of Darcy’s good deeds can still count for him once each is traced to pride. The card must keep these as Mr. Wickham’s claims about Darcy’s motives, not the narrator’s, must not say whether they are true, and must say nothing of Miss Darcy beyond his own words.
Hardly any. Mr. Wickham traces “almost all his actions” to pride. Elizabeth asks whether pride has ever done Darcy good, and every good deed she hears of comes back as pride: the giving, the hospitality, the tenants, the poor, the sister. He even names the motive, “Not to appear to disgrace his family”. And he tells her in advance that she “will hear him generally cried up” as a fine brother, so that praise of Darcy, when she meets it, already has its explanation. Nothing good she hears of Darcy can now count against the story.
for almost all his actions may be traced to pride;
and you will hear him generally cried up as the most attentive and best of brothers.
Some still do. Mr. Wickham himself grants that pride “has connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling”, and that “we are none of us consistent”. Whatever the motive, the tenants are helped and the poor relieved; a reader can count the deeds without taking his word for why they were done. And a speaker who grants his enemy this much sounds fair, not like a man who only wants to blacken a name.
It has connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling.
to give his money freely, to display hospitality, to assist his tenants, and relieve the poor.
A strong answer A strong response looks at how the praise is built. One reader finds that it leaves Darcy almost no way to count in his favour: every deed, even the care of his sister, is traced to pride, and Mr. Wickham tells Elizabeth in advance how to hear the praise she may meet. Another holds that the deeds still count: the tenants are helped and the poor relieved whatever the motive, Mr. Wickham himself says pride has brought Darcy “nearer with virtue”, and granting this much makes him sound fair. The best answers notice that both can be true at once, and that a listener with only one account has no way to test the motive he gives.
1. Mrs. Philips thinks more of Mr. Collins with every grand thing he tells her about Rosings. Is Elizabeth any different with Wickham?
What it asks It asks the student to build a thesis that sets the chapter’s two listeners side by side. Before the officers arrive, Mr. Collins describes “to her all the grandeur of Lady Catherine and her mansion, with occasional digressions in praise of his own humble abode, and the improvements it was receiving”, and finds in Mrs. Philips “a very attentive listener, whose opinion of his consequence increased with what she heard, and who was resolving to retail it all among her neighbours as soon as she could.” Consequence here means importance; to retail is to pass news on. At whist: “I know little of the game at present,” said he, “but I shall be glad to improve myself; for in my situation of life----” and “Mrs. Philips was very thankful for his compliance, but could not wait for his reason.” Then Mr. Wickham talks at the other table, of Pemberley, a godfather, a lost living and a clear ten thousand a year. The student builds a thesis on how far Elizabeth listens as her aunt does, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say that Mr. Wickham’s account is true or false, or that Elizabeth is in love with him.
Not very different. Each man wins his listener with great houses and great people: Rosings and Lady Catherine for one, Pemberley and the late Mr. Darcy for the other. Each even names a sum. Each listener’s opinion of the man rises with what she hears, and each carries the talk away with her: Mrs. Philips to retail it to the neighbours, Elizabeth home, thinking of nothing else.
whose opinion of his consequence increased with what she heard,
A clear ten thousand per annum.
Very different. Mrs. Philips cannot wait for Mr. Collins’s reason; Elizabeth waits for all of Mr. Wickham’s and asks for more. She presses on what she hears, pauses over it, and asks what Darcy’s motive could be. Mrs. Philips is moved by the price of a chimney-piece; Elizabeth is moved by what she takes for an injustice. One listener enjoys grandeur; the other weighs a charge.
Mrs. Philips was very thankful for his compliance, but could not wait for his reason.
“But what,” said she, after a pause, “can have been his motive?
A strong answer A strong thesis says how alike the two listeners are, and in what. A student might argue that Elizabeth listens much as her aunt does: both men bring great houses, great names and a sum of money, and both women’s opinions rise with what they hear and go home with them. The strongest objection is that Elizabeth works at the story where Mrs. Philips only enjoys it: her aunt cannot wait for Mr. Collins’s reason, while Elizabeth pauses, presses and asks for Darcy’s motive. A good revision might hold that the two are alike in what moves them and unlike in effort, which leaves open whether Elizabeth’s effort brings her to firmer ground than her aunt’s, the question the chapter keeps for last.
2. Wickham says he cannot judge Darcy fairly, and then tells Elizabeth everything against him. Does she have good reason to believe him?
What it asks It asks the student to judge Elizabeth’s reasons, not Mr. Wickham’s truth. Early on: “I have no right to give _my_ opinion,” said Wickham, “as to his being agreeable or otherwise. I am not qualified to form one. I have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge. It is impossible for _me_ to be impartial.” He goes on to tell her of the lost living, and when she says Darcy deserves to be publicly disgraced, he answers: “Some time or other he _will_ be--but it shall not be by _me_. Till I can forget his father, I can never defy or expose _him_.” “Elizabeth honoured him for such feelings, and thought him handsomer than ever as he expressed them.” Later he says, “I will not trust myself on the subject”. Elizabeth brings evidence of her own: a memory of Darcy boasting at Netherfield “of the implacability of his resentments”. Near the end of the evening she says of Mr. Collins, “I suspect his gratitude misleads him”. The student builds a thesis on whether she has good reason to believe Mr. Wickham, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say that his account is true or false: the chapter gives only his word, and the other side is not heard until much later. Jealousy is his own guess (“I believe”), not a fact. Later chapters may not be used as evidence.
Some good reason. His story is full of particulars a listener could check: a godfather, a living, a vacancy “two years ago”, a man it was given to. He owns his bias openly, which a schemer might not. And Elizabeth does not believe on his word alone: she has her own memory of Darcy boasting of “the implacability of his resentments”, and the whole neighbourhood’s dislike of his pride. Two witnesses seem to agree.
Certain it is that the living became vacant two years ago, exactly as I was of an age to hold it,
I do remember his boasting one day, at Netherfield, of the implacability of his resentments,
Little reason. Every particular comes from one side, told by a man she met only yesterday, who says himself that he “can hardly be just” to Darcy and who, having sworn never to “expose” him, has just told her the whole history. She honours him for his restraint in the same breath, and the narrator notes that she finds him “handsomer than ever” as he speaks. She can see a man’s feelings bend his account in Mr. Collins, but she does not turn that test on Mr. Wickham’s grievance.
“I will not trust myself on the subject,” replied Wickham; “I can hardly be just to him.”
I suspect his gratitude misleads him;
A strong answer A strong thesis judges her reasons, not his truth. A student might argue that she has some good reason: the story is full of particulars, he admits his own bias, and her memory of Darcy’s boast of “the implacability of his resentments” seems to bear him out. The strongest objection is that every particular comes from one side, from a man who says he “can hardly be just”, and that Elizabeth honours his promise never to “expose” Darcy just after he has laid the whole case before her; she can see gratitude mislead Mr. Collins but does not ask whether a grievance might mislead Mr. Wickham. A good revision might hold that she has reason to wonder and not enough to be sure, and that her own dislike of Darcy, more than the weight of the evidence, turns wondering into certainty by the time she calls his disposition “dreadful”. The chapter itself does not say whether Mr. Wickham’s account is true.
In describing to her all the grandeur of Lady Catherine and her mansion, with occasional digressions in praise of his own humble abode, and the improvements it was receiving, he was happily employed until the gentlemen joined them; and he found in Mrs. Philips a very attentive listener, whose opinion of his consequence increased with what she heard, and who was resolving to retail it all among her neighbours as soon as she could.Turns away from the main subject to speak of something else (from Latin digredi, to step aside: dis-, apart, and gradi, to step, the root of grade and progress). Mr. Collins’s main subject is Lady Catherine’s grandeur, and his digressions are all “in praise of his own humble abode”: each step aside leads back to himself. The narrator’s plural makes the habit sound regular.
There was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest as to give me no hope from law.Something left to a person in a will (from bequeath, to leave by will; its old root means to say or declare, the same root as quoth). Mr. Wickham says the late Mr. Darcy “bequeathed” him the next presentation of a living, and that a flaw in the bequest’s wording left him “no hope from law.” The word puts a dead father’s wish in legal terms, and his whole grievance turns on whether that wish was binding.
I do remember his boasting one day, at Netherfield, of the implacability of his resentments, of his having an unforgiving temper.The quality of being impossible to calm or appease (Latin in-, not, and placare, to soothe, the root of placate). It is the word Elizabeth uses for what she remembers Darcy boasting of: resentments that nothing will soothe. She brings it to Mr. Wickham’s story from her own memory, and the long, formal noun makes a remark at Netherfield sound like a fixed trait.
Family pride, and filial pride, for he is very proud of what his father was, have done this.Having to do with a son or daughter, and the duty and feeling a son or daughter owes a father or mother (Latin filius, son, and filia, daughter). Mr. Wickham glosses it himself: Darcy is “very proud of what his father was.” He stresses the word, and it sits oddly in his story: the son he accuses of “disgracing the memory of his father” is, by his own account, proud of that father.
He can be a conversible companion if he thinks it worth his while.Easy and pleasant to talk with (from converse, to talk; the older form of conversable). Mr. Wickham grants Darcy this, but only “if he thinks it worth his while”: a real gift, kept for chosen company. A reader may set the word beside the man who grants it, whose own ease in talk the evening shows from the wet night on.