Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 43

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

They gradually ascended for half a mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of the valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills; and in front a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste.

She was overpowered by shame and vexation. Her coming there was the most unfortunate, the most ill-judged thing in the world! How strange must it appear to him! In what a disgraceful light might it not strike so vain a man! It might seem as if she had purposely thrown herself in his way again!

The second passage starts in the narrator’s voice and slides into Elizabeth’s own. At which sentence do you first hear her?

For the educator Two passages, one on each side of Darcy’s arrival. The first is Elizabeth’s first view of Pemberley, and it judges a place the way one might judge a person. Its opening sentence is long and moves like the carriage: a slow climb (“gradually ascended”), a pause at the top where “the wood ceased,” and then the house, which catches the eye “instantly” from across the valley. The second sentence describes the house and then the stream, and turns on “but”: the stream was made larger, “but without any artificial appearance.” The third is an antithesis: the banks are “neither formal nor falsely adorned,” two faults named only to be denied. The fourth is three words long, and its shortness is the point: after the long survey, “Elizabeth was delighted.” The fifth balances two clauses on “or,” one put positively (“for which nature had done more”) and one negatively (“so little counteracted by an awkward taste”), so that the praise falls on the restraint of whoever shaped the land. Here “eminence” means a rise of high ground, “abruptness” means steepness, “of some natural importance” means fairly large by nature, “formal” means laid out stiffly, “adorned” means decorated, and “counteracted” means undone or worked against. The second passage comes minutes after the meeting on the lawn. Its first sentence is the narrator’s report. The rest is free indirect speech: the narrator’s grammar (“she,” “him,” the past tense) carrying Elizabeth’s own exclamations. It repeats a frame, “the most unfortunate, the most ill-judged,” and climbs through three exclamations, each imagining how she looks to him. Here “vexation” means fretting annoyance, “ill-judged” means badly decided, and “purposely” means on purpose. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who hears Elizabeth from the second sentence, in the superlatives no narrator would use so freely; another may wait for “How strange must it appear to him!”, the first sentence that only she could exclaim. A sharp student may notice “so vain a man”: after all the housekeeper’s praise, and after a meeting in which he was civil, her old judgment of him is still the one her panic reaches for. That bears on the last written question without settling it.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in a few sentences, from the first sight of Pemberley across the valley to the drive back to Lambton. Then pick the one sentence that matters most, and say what it shows about Austen’s purpose.

Elizabeth finds his rooms “neither gaudy nor uselessly fine,” with less show than Rosings. Is that the taste of a humble man or a proud one? Inference
The portrait shows the smile Elizabeth remembers seeing “when he looked at her.” Yet it was painted in his father’s lifetime. What does it tell her about the looks she remembers? Character
A memory in the house was “lucky” for Elizabeth, but by the river her memories are “unlucky.” What has changed between the two? Character
As she names her uncle and aunt, Elizabeth steals “a sly look” at Darcy, half expecting him to run. What is she hoping to see? Character
When her uncle won’t take Darcy at his word about fishing, Elizabeth feels they have “entirely mistaken his character.” Why does she keep quiet just then? Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when you came to know someone better through the people around them. Which do you trust more: your first sight of a person, or the word of people who have known them for years?

Vocabulary

vexation: She was overpowered by shame and vexation. A hot, fretting annoyance at something that has gone wrong and cannot be undone (from Latin vexare, to shake or trouble). After the first meeting Elizabeth is “overpowered by shame and vexation,” and the two words split the work: shame looks at how she must appear to him, “so vain a man,” while vexation frets at the bad luck of it, “Had they been only ten minutes sooner.” The chapter says she “blushed again and again over the perverseness of the meeting”; vexation is that feeling turned against chance.
sedateness: Nor did he seem much more at ease; when he spoke, his accent had none of its usual sedateness; and he repeated his inquiries as to the time of her having left Longbourn, and of her stay in Derbyshire, so often, and in so hurried a way, as plainly spoke the distraction of his thoughts. A calm, slow, serious steadiness of manner (from Latin sedare, to settle or calm, as in sedative). The weight falls on “usual”: Elizabeth knows his ordinary way of speaking as sedate, and she measures the hurried voice on the lawn against it. Here “accent” means tone of voice, not a regional way of speaking.
splendour: The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of their proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine,--with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings. Grand, dazzling display, especially of wealth (from Latin splendere, to shine). Austen sets it against “real elegance”: splendour is meant to be seen, elegance is simply good. Elizabeth finds “less of splendour” at Pemberley than at Rosings and counts that in the owner’s favour, so the word becomes part of her case about his character before anyone has praised him.
communicativeness: Mr. Gardiner, whose manners were easy and pleasant, encouraged her communicativeness by his questions and remarks: Mrs. Reynolds, either from pride or attachment, had evidently great pleasure in talking of her master and his sister. A readiness to talk and tell what one knows (from Latin communicare, to share). Mrs. Reynolds’s communicativeness is what makes her the chapter’s chief witness, and the same sentence gives the reason to weigh her: she talks “either from pride or attachment.” Mr. Gardiner draws her out on purpose, which is why Elizabeth hears more than she would dare to ask.
eminence: They gradually ascended for half a mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of the valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. A piece of high ground; and, in its other sense, high rank or standing (from Latin eminere, to stand out). Here it is the hill from which Elizabeth first sees the house across the valley. The other sense is never far off in this chapter, which is about how a man of eminence looks from below, to his servants, and up close, to her.

Critical thinking

Mrs. Reynolds says Wickham has turned out “very wild.” Does that make her praise of Darcy easier to trust?
Elizabeth keeps asking, “Why is he so altered?” Has Darcy changed, or is she only now seeing who he always was?