Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 21

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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“If we thought alike of Miss Bingley,” replied Jane, “your representation of all this might make me quite easy. But I know the foundation is unjust. Caroline is incapable of wilfully deceiving anyone; and all that I can hope in this case is, that she is deceived herself.”

She represented to her sister, as forcibly as possible, what she felt on the subject, and had soon the pleasure of seeing its happy effect. Jane’s temper was not desponding; and she was gradually led to hope, though the diffidence of affection sometimes overcame the hope, that Bingley would return to Netherfield, and answer every wish of her heart.

Read both passages aloud, the first as Jane and the second as the narrator. How should the narrator sound when Elizabeth has “the pleasure of seeing its happy effect”?

For the educator Two passages, five sentences: Jane’s answer to Elizabeth’s reading of the letter, and the narrator’s report, near the end of the chapter, of how Elizabeth’s arguments work on her. Jane’s first sentence is broken by its dialogue tag: the “If” clause closes with a comma inside the quotation marks, the tag is inverted (“replied Jane”), and the main clause picks up in lower case. The word “representation” means Elizabeth’s account of the matter, and “easy” has its older sense, free from worry. The second sentence is short and flat after the long one; “foundation” is the ground Elizabeth builds on, her low opinion of Caroline. The third joins two clauses with a semicolon and turns on one verb used twice, “deceiving” and “deceived”: Caroline cannot deceive on purpose, so the only hope left is that she is wrong herself. Note the older comma in “all that I can hope in this case is, that”. In the narrator’s first sentence, “represented” means set out or argued, and “as forcibly as possible” is set off by commas between the verb and its object; the sentence ends on the result, “its happy effect”. The second opens on a short clause about Jane’s nature, then after the semicolon holds its main verb’s object back: “led to hope” is followed by a “though” clause set off by commas, and only then by what she hopes, “that Bingley would return”. The interruption does in the grammar what the doubt does in Jane, coming between her and the hope. For mechanics, notice the comma inside the closing quotation mark, the closing mark after “herself.”, the apostrophe in “Jane’s” and the British spelling “wilfully”. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who reads the line straight: Elizabeth’s case has worked, and the narrator shares her pleasure in Jane’s hope; one who hears a smile at Elizabeth, whose “pleasure” is in the effect of her own case, pressed “as forcibly as possible”, while the very next sentence lets “the diffidence of affection” overcome the hope at times; and one who hears “represented” answer Jane’s “representation”: Jane said Elizabeth’s account could ease her only “If we thought alike of Miss Bingley”, and the narrator never says they come to. No answer may say why Bingley stays in London or whether he will return.

Discussion

Narration Tell back the chapter in order, from Mr. Collins’s “resentful silence” to Mrs. Bennet’s “two full courses”. Then pick the one sentence that matters most, and say why.

Wickham gives Elizabeth two reasons for staying away from the ball, and she “highly approved his forbearance”. What exactly is she praising him for? Character
Elizabeth hears the start of Caroline’s letter “with all the insensibility of distrust”, before a word about Miss Darcy. Where does her distrust come from? Inference
Jane is sure the passage about Miss Darcy “expressly” says Caroline does not want her for a sister. How close do Caroline’s own words come to saying that? Inference
Jane says Bingley “is his own master”, and Elizabeth thinks he is “so totally independent of everyone”. So what are they disagreeing about? Character
Elizabeth teases Jane: if displeasing his sisters matters more than marrying him, she should refuse him “by all means”. What does that joke get from Jane that Elizabeth’s long argument did not? Tone

Make a Connection Think of a time, in your own life or in a story, when someone believed one person easily and doubted another. What made the difference?

Vocabulary

wilfully: Caroline is incapable of wilfully deceiving anyone; On purpose, knowing what one is doing (from will, with -ful). Jane’s whole reading hangs on this word: Caroline cannot deceive wilfully, so if the letter is wrong, Caroline must be “deceived herself”. The word lets Jane keep her friend and still allow that the letter may not be true.
disobliging: the misery of disobliging his two sisters Displeasing someone by not doing what they want (dis-, not, with oblige, to do someone a favour). Elizabeth’s mock sum sets the misery of disobliging his sisters against the happiness of being his wife, and the small, polite word makes the sisters’ wishes sound as slight as she thinks they are.
desponding: Jane’s temper was not desponding; Losing hope, sinking into low spirits (from Latin despondere, to give up). The narrator says Jane is not by nature desponding, so Elizabeth’s arguments can lead her back to hope; but “the diffidence of affection”, her doubt that she is loved, keeps pulling against it.
abatement: The morrow produced no abatement of Mrs. Bennet’s ill humour A lessening; a drop in force or amount (from Old French abatre, to beat down). The day after the proposal, nothing in the house has eased: Mrs. Bennet is as cross as before and Mr. Collins as proud. The calm word makes the sulking sound like weather that will not clear.
peevish: and occasionally from some peevish allusion of her mother. Cross and complaining in a small, fretful way (from Middle English pevish, of unknown origin). With the quarrel over the offer nearly at an end, Mrs. Bennet’s displeasure comes out in peevish remarks now and then. The word catches a temper that has sunk from open anger into small, sour asides.

Critical thinking

Wickham’s reason for missing the ball and Caroline’s hopes for Miss Darcy both come unasked, yet Elizabeth trusts him and suspects her. What difference between them, if any, could justify that?
Jane cannot believe Caroline would deceive anyone on purpose, so she hopes Caroline is “deceived herself”. If that is so, what is Jane free to believe about Bingley?
Jane believes what Caroline’s letter says, and Elizabeth finds a plot under its words. Whose reading of the letter is more convincing?