Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 42

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

Elizabeth, however, had never been blind to the impropriety of her father’s behaviour as a husband. She had always seen it with pain; but respecting his abilities, and grateful for his affectionate treatment of herself, she endeavoured to forget what she could not overlook, and to banish from her thoughts that continual breach of conjugal obligation and decorum which, in exposing his wife to the contempt of her own children, was so highly reprehensible. But she had never felt so strongly as now the disadvantages which must attend the children of so unsuitable a marriage, nor ever been so fully aware of the evils arising from so ill-judged a direction of talents--talents which, rightly used, might at least have preserved the respectability of his daughters, even if incapable of enlarging the mind of his wife.

“But it is fortunate,” thought she, “that I have something to wish for. Were the whole arrangement complete, my disappointment would be certain. But here, by carrying with me one ceaseless source of regret in my sister’s absence, I may reasonably hope to have all my expectations of pleasure realized. A scheme of which every part promises delight can never be successful; and general disappointment is only warded off by the defence of some little peculiar vexation.”

In the first passage, the word “talents” comes twice, with a dash between. What does the sentence do when the word comes back?

For the educator Two passages, two ways of living with a disappointment: the narrator’s account of what Elizabeth has always seen in her father, and Elizabeth’s own reasoning about her summer tour, a few paragraphs later. The first passage opens on a short sentence that turns on “however”: Elizabeth “had never been blind”. The second sentence is periodic. It gives her reasons first (“respecting his abilities, and grateful for his affectionate treatment of herself”), then what she did (“endeavoured to forget what she could not overlook”, an antithesis: she could not fail to see it, so she tried not to remember it), and it holds its hardest word, “reprehensible”, to the very end. The third sentence balances two clauses, “never felt so strongly as now” and “nor ever been so fully aware”, then catches up the word “talents” across a dash and turns to what might have been: “rightly used”, “might at least have preserved”, “even if incapable”. Here “impropriety” means wrong or unfitting conduct, “endeavoured” means tried hard, “overlook” means fail to see, “banish” means drive out, “breach” means a breaking, “conjugal obligation” means a husband’s duty to his wife, “decorum” means fitting behaviour, “reprehensible” means deserving blame, “ill-judged a direction of talents” means gifts aimed the wrong way, and “respectability” means good name. The second passage is Elizabeth’s thought, set in quotation marks. It opens on a paradox, that it is “fortunate” to have something still to wish for, then argues it in three steps: a conditional turned around (“Were the whole arrangement complete”), a long sentence that sets “one ceaseless source of regret” against “all my expectations of pleasure”, and a closing maxim that states her private plan as a general law, with a military figure in “warded off by the defence”. Here “ceaseless” means never-ending, “realized” means made real, “scheme” means plan, and “peculiar” means particular, her own. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who hears the repeated word as a turn: the sentence stops blaming and begins to imagine the father Mr. Bennet might have been. Another may hear it as weight, a pause that makes the waste felt before the sentence says what was wasted. A sharp student may notice that the repeat gives Mr. Bennet credit, since a man without talents could not have wasted them, and that this credit sits inside the chapter’s hardest judgment of him. A strong student may set the narrator’s “never been blind” beside the last written question, which asks about a kind of blindness, without settling it.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in a few sentences. Start with the narrator’s account of the Bennets’ marriage, and end with the plan to go to Pemberley. Then pick the one sentence that matters most, and say why.

Mr. Bennet gets little from his wife except a laugh at her foolishness. The narrator calls that the way of “the true philosopher”. How much praise is in that title? Tone
Elizabeth blames her father for exposing his wife “to the contempt” of her own daughters. She is one of those daughters. What does she feel about her mother? Character
Elizabeth says she can enter Darcy’s county and “rob it of a few petrified spars, without his perceiving me.” Why does she picture herself as a thief? Inference
When the travellers set off, the narrator lists what makes Elizabeth and the Gardiners good company. Which thing on that list did the Bennets’ marriage lack most? Theme
Elizabeth asks the chambermaid whether Pemberley is a fine place and who owns it. She already knows both answers. What does she gain by saving her real question for last? Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone made the best of a disappointment they could not undo. When does making the best of a thing become a way of giving up on it?

Vocabulary

conjugal: Had Elizabeth’s opinion been all drawn from her own family, she could not have formed a very pleasing picture of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort. Having to do with marriage, and with what a husband and wife owe each other (from Latin con-, together, and jugum, a yoke: two joined under one yoke). The chapter uses it twice: first in “conjugal felicity”, the happiness Elizabeth could not have learned at home, then in “conjugal obligation”, the duty her father breaks. Between the two uses, the word moves from what a marriage gives to what it asks.
illiberal: Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good-humour which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her. Narrow and ungenerous in mind; small in outlook and in sympathy (from Latin liberalis, fit for a free person, as in a liberal education). Mrs. Bennet’s “weak understanding and illiberal mind” is the narrator’s whole case against her in one phrase: “weak” names what she cannot grasp, “illiberal” the narrowness of what she cares about. In Austen the word has nothing to do with politics.
decorum: She had always seen it with pain; but respecting his abilities, and grateful for his affectionate treatment of herself, she endeavoured to forget what she could not overlook, and to banish from her thoughts that continual breach of conjugal obligation and decorum which, in exposing his wife to the contempt of her own children, was so highly reprehensible. Behaviour that is fitting and proper to one’s place and to the occasion (from Latin decorus, seemly). Elizabeth counts her father’s treatment of his wife a “breach of conjugal obligation and decorum”. Obligation is what a husband owes; decorum is how his conduct looks to others, here his own daughters.
felicity: It was consequently necessary to name some other period for the commencement of actual felicity; to have some other point on which her wishes and hopes might be fixed, and by again enjoying the pleasure of anticipation, console herself for the present, and prepare for another disappointment. Great happiness, especially the settled happiness of a home (from Latin felix, happy, lucky). The narrator uses it for the “conjugal felicity” the Bennets lack and then, with a smile, for the “actual felicity” Elizabeth keeps putting off to a later date. A grand word set beside such small, careful plans is part of the narrator’s gentle joke.
querulous: Mrs. Bennet was restored to her usual querulous serenity; and by the middle of June Kitty was so much recovered as to be able to enter Meryton without tears,--an event of such happy promise as to make Elizabeth hope, that by the following Christmas she might be so tolerably reasonable as not to mention an officer above once a day, unless, by some cruel and malicious arrangement at the War Office, another regiment should be quartered in Meryton. Complaining in a peevish, whining way (from Latin queri, to complain). Mrs. Bennet is “restored to her usual querulous serenity”: two words that should not fit together, since serenity is calm. Her calm, it seems, is a steady low complaint. The phrase is the narrator’s whole picture of the home the marriage made.
disinclination: She felt that she had no business at Pemberley, and was obliged to assume a disinclination for seeing it. A mild unwillingness; a leaning away from something (the opposite of inclination). Elizabeth is “obliged to assume a disinclination for seeing it”: to “assume” here is to put on, as one puts on a costume. Her real reason is the feeling that she has “no business at Pemberley”, which she cannot say aloud, so she puts on another: she is tired of great houses. The chapter ends with her putting on a second show, “a proper air of indifference”.

Critical thinking

Elizabeth thinks one small regret, missing Jane, will protect her trip from a bigger disappointment. Then she loses the Lakes, and “all was soon right again.” What set things right?
Elizabeth has always looked away from her father's faults because he is kind to her. Is that loyalty, or a kind of blindness?