Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 18

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

This part of his intelligence, though unheard by Lydia, was caught by Elizabeth; and, as it assured her that Darcy was not less answerable for Wickham’s absence than if her first surmise had been just, every feeling of displeasure against the former was so sharpened by immediate disappointment, that she could hardly reply with tolerable civility to the polite inquiries which he directly afterwards approached to make. Attention, forbearance, patience with Darcy, was injury to Wickham. She was resolved against any sort of conversation with him, and turned away with a degree of ill-humour which she could not wholly surmount even in speaking to Mr. Bingley, whose blind partiality provoked her.

Elizabeth blushed and blushed again with shame and vexation. She could not help frequently glancing her eye at Mr. Darcy, though every glance convinced her of what she dreaded; for though he was not always looking at her mother, she was convinced that his attention was invariably fixed by her. The expression of his face changed gradually from indignant contempt to a composed and steady gravity.

Read both passages aloud. Which sentences give us Elizabeth’s view, and which give us the narrator’s?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences: Elizabeth’s mood just after she hears Denny’s hint about why Mr. Wickham is absent, which opens the evening, and Elizabeth at supper, watching Darcy while her mother talks. The first sentence is two main clauses joined by a semicolon and “and”. The first is short: the remark “was caught by Elizabeth”. The second holds back its subject behind a long “as” clause, and inside that clause sits a comparison with a condition contrary to fact: Darcy was “not less answerable” for the absence “than if her first surmise had been just”. A surmise is a guess, and “the former” is Darcy. Only then does the subject arrive, “every feeling of displeasure”, and “so sharpened” carries it through to its result, “that she could hardly reply”. The second sentence is short after a long one: three nouns with no “and” between them (“Attention, forbearance, patience”) share one singular verb, “was”, as if they were a single thing. The narrator speaks here in Elizabeth’s own logic without saying so. The third sentence ends on “whose blind partiality provoked her”: partiality means favouring one side. The second passage opens on a short sentence that repeats its verb, “blushed and blushed again”, and pairs two nouns, “shame and vexation”. The next sentence turns on two “though” clauses and a repeated word: “every glance convinced her”, and then “she was convinced”, the second time about something she cannot see, since he “was not always looking at her mother”. The semicolon and “for” give the reason for the first half. The last sentence moves slowly on purpose, with “gradually” and the long phrase “from indignant contempt to a composed and steady gravity”, ending on its quietest word. For mechanics, notice the semicolons, the comma before the first “though”, the hyphen in “ill-humour”, and the British spellings. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who hears Elizabeth’s view where nothing marks it: “Attention, forbearance, patience with Darcy, was injury to Wickham” is her reasoning in the narrator’s voice, “as it assured her” reports what convinced her rather than what was so, and “blind partiality” is her word for Bingley, not the narrator’s; one who finds the view marked openly in the second passage (“every glance convinced her”, “she was convinced”), where it rests on glances; and one who asks whether the last sentence, on Darcy’s changing face, is the narrator’s report or still Elizabeth watching. Let a student who gets there notice that in the first passage it is Elizabeth who calls someone else’s partiality blind. No answer may say whether Mr. Wickham’s account of Darcy is true, or treat Darcy’s gravity as a decision about Jane and Bingley.

Discussion

Narration Tell back the evening in order, from Elizabeth looking for Wickham among the red coats to Mrs. Bennet’s happy plans as she leaves Netherfield.

The narrator says Elizabeth’s first guess about why Wickham is missing was “not exactly the case.” Should that make her slower to believe Denny’s hint? Inference
Darcy doubts that Wickham can keep his friends, and Elizabeth replies that he has lost Darcy’s friendship in a way he will “suffer from all his life.” Has she answered what Darcy said? Tone
Asked if he is careful not to let resentment start, Darcy firmly says “I am.” Asked if prejudice ever blinds him, he says only “I hope not.” Why is he sure of the first and only hopeful about the second? Character
Darcy fears her sketch of him “would reflect no credit on either.” How could a picture of him make her look bad? Theme
Elizabeth says she is “determined to hate” Darcy. So why does it upset her to watch Mr. Collins “expose himself to such a man”? Character
At supper Mrs. Bennet asks, “What is Mr. Darcy to me, pray, that I should be afraid of him?” How far is that from the way Elizabeth treated him earlier that night? Moral reasoning

Make a Connection Think of a time someone you love embarrassed you in front of a person whose opinion mattered. Who made you angrier, the one you love or the one watching?

Vocabulary

forbearance: Attention, forbearance, patience with Darcy, was injury to Wickham. Patient self-control; holding back from anger or from a sharp reply (from forbear, to hold back from, built on bear, to endure). In Elizabeth’s list it stands between attention and patience: three kinds of courtesy she will not give Darcy, because being patient with him feels to her like a wrong done to Mr. Wickham.
taciturn: We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, Saying very little by habit; reserved in speech (from Latin tacitus, silent, the root of tacit). Elizabeth pins the word on both of them as a joke, though she has done nearly all the talking in the dance. Darcy answers that it is no likeness of her, and will not say how near it comes to him.
unappeasable: that your resentment, once created, was unappeasable. Impossible to calm or satisfy (un-, not, with appease, to calm, from Old French apaisier, to bring to peace). Elizabeth repeats a remark she once heard Darcy make about himself. A resentment that can never be calmed is the reason she asks whether he is careful about letting one begin.
implicit: Let me recommend you, however, as a friend, not to give implicit confidence to all his assertions; Complete and unquestioning, said of trust or belief (from Latin implicitus, folded in). Today the word usually means implied rather than stated, and that sense does not fit here: Miss Bingley warns Elizabeth against trusting Mr. Wickham’s every word without question. Her warning names exactly what she thinks Elizabeth has given him.
solicitude: and, at that moment, solicitude for Wickham, resentment against his enemies, and everything else, gave way before the hope of Jane’s being in the fairest way for happiness. Anxious care for someone’s welfare (from Latin sollicitus, troubled, anxious). The narrator lists Elizabeth’s feelings for both men in one breath: care for Mr. Wickham, and resentment against “his enemies”, a plural that takes in Darcy. Both give way at once when she sees Jane happy.
vexation: Elizabeth blushed and blushed again with shame and vexation. Annoyance mixed with distress; the feeling of being troubled by something you cannot stop (from Latin vexare, to shake or harass). The word and its family run through the second half of the chapter: Elizabeth is “vexed” to see Mr. Collins approach Darcy, “vexed” to hear her mother talk of Jane’s match, and feels “inexpressible vexation” when Darcy overhears. Here, paired with shame, it is what she feels while he watches.

Critical thinking

Elizabeth has “not a doubt of Mr. Bingley’s sincerity,” yet his defence of Darcy leaves her where she was. What would Bingley have had to say to change her mind?
At supper Darcy’s face changes “from indignant contempt to a composed and steady gravity,” yet afterwards Elizabeth thinks of “the silent contempt of the gentleman.” Is she right to call it contempt?
Elizabeth tells Darcy that a person who never changes an opinion had better judge well the first time. Does her own conduct at the ball meet that standard?