Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 39

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however incapable of such coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other than her own breast had formerly harboured and fancied liberal!

In the afternoon Lydia was urgent with the rest of the girls to walk to Meryton, and see how everybody went on; but Elizabeth steadily opposed the scheme. It should not be said, that the Miss Bennets could not be at home half a day before they were in pursuit of the officers. There was another reason, too, for her opposition. She dreaded seeing Wickham again, and was resolved to avoid it as long as possible. The comfort to her, of the regiment’s approaching removal, was indeed beyond expression.

The first passage gives Elizabeth credit before it gives her the blame. Try saying it the other way round, blame first. Which order is harder on her?

For the educator Two passages, both about what Elizabeth does not say. The first is one long exclamation from the inn, and the chapter turns on it. It opens on the shock, “Elizabeth was shocked to think that”, and then, before the main clause, sets a concession between commas: “however incapable of such coarseness of _expression_ herself”. Only after that credit does the blow come: “the coarseness of the _sentiment_ was little other than her own breast had formerly harboured and fancied liberal!” The two words in italics are set against each other, and “coarseness” is said twice, once for each, so the ear hears the pair. Here “coarseness” means crudeness, “expression” means the way a thing is said, “sentiment” means the feeling or opinion behind it, “little other than” means hardly different from, “breast” means heart, “harboured” means held, as a harbour holds a ship, and “fancied liberal” means imagined to be generous and broad-minded. The sentence ends on “liberal” and an exclamation mark, as if Elizabeth catches herself in mid-thought. The second passage comes from the afternoon at Longbourn and has five sentences. The first sets out the quarrel with a semicolon and a “but”. The second gives Elizabeth’s public reason in the narrator’s voice but close to her own words: “It should not be said”. The third is short and turns the paragraph: “There was another reason, too, for her opposition.” The fourth gives the private reason plainly. The fifth puts “_her_” in italics, setting Elizabeth’s comfort against Lydia’s gloom at the same news, and ends on “beyond expression”, which picks up the word from the first passage: what Elizabeth feels most, she does not say. Here “urgent” means pressing hard, “in pursuit of” means chasing, “dreaded” means feared, and “removal” means going away. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who hears the credit as a cushion that softens the blow. Another may hear it as a set-up: the higher she stands on her better manners, the further she falls. A strong student may try the other order aloud, blame first and credit after, and notice that the sentence would then end on an excuse rather than on “liberal!”

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in order. Start at the inn, with Kitty and Lydia at the upstairs window. End at Longbourn, with Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and the Brighton scheme. Then choose the one sentence that matters most, and say what Austen is doing with it.

In her head, Elizabeth calls Brighton a danger “to us, who have been overset already by one poor regiment of militia.” It is Lydia’s plan. Why does Elizabeth count herself in? Inference
Lydia laughs when Jane and Elizabeth send the waiter out: “as if he cared!” Who are they really protecting? Moral reasoning
Lydia cheers that “Wickham is safe.” Elizabeth turns it round: “And Mary King is safe!” Is she standing up for Mary King, or taking a quiet shot at Wickham? Character
At dinner Mary gives Lydia a very serious answer, and Lydia hears “not a word” of it. So what is Mary’s answer for? Character
Elizabeth opposes the walk to Meryton for the family’s good name. Then the narrator gives “another reason, too.” Which reason decides it? Inference
Elizabeth sees that her father has no intention of giving in about Brighton. But his answers are so vague that her mother keeps hoping. What would a plain no have cost him? Character

Make a Connection Think of a time, in a book or in your own life, when someone said out loud a harsh thing you had only thought. What did hearing it do to the thought?

Vocabulary

overset: Brighton and a whole campful of soldiers, to us, who have been overset already by one poor regiment of militia, and the monthly balls of Meryton! Upset; thrown off balance, tipped over, as a cart is overset on a rough road (an older word, set over). Elizabeth thinks the family has been “overset already” by one regiment and the Meryton balls. The word makes the officers sound like a jolt that tipped the whole household over, and it is why a whole camp of them frightens her.
harboured: Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however incapable of such coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other than her own breast had formerly harboured and fancied liberal! Held and kept a thought or feeling, usually a hidden one, the way a harbour shelters a ship (the British spelling of harbored). Elizabeth’s heart “had formerly harboured” the feeling Lydia now says aloud. The word makes her old opinion something sheltered in private and never spoken, which is just what the last written question weighs.
fancied: Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however incapable of such coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other than her own breast had formerly harboured and fancied liberal! Imagined or believed, often wrongly (from fancy, in its old sense of the mind’s picture of things). Elizabeth once “fancied” her opinion “liberal”, which in Austen’s sense means generous and broad-minded. The word carries the blow of the sentence: she did not only hold the feeling, she flattered herself that it was a fine one.

Critical thinking

At the inn, “the elder ones paid” for lunch. At dinner Lydia tells Mary that “we treated the other three.” Austen never says a word about it. What does she gain by keeping quiet?
Lydia says out loud the kind of thing Elizabeth once only thought about Wickham and Mary King. Which is worse, the unkind thought kept quiet or the unkind thought spoken?