Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 45

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

Had Miss Bingley known what pain she was then giving her beloved friend, she undoubtedly would have refrained from the hint; but she had merely intended to discompose Elizabeth, by bringing forward the idea of a man to whom she believed her partial, to make her betray a sensibility which might injure her in Darcy’s opinion, and, perhaps, to remind the latter of all the follies and absurdities by which some part of her family were connected with that corps. Not a syllable had ever reached her of Miss Darcy’s meditated elopement.

Her face is too thin; her complexion has no brilliancy; and her features are not at all handsome. Her nose wants character; there is nothing marked in its lines. Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of the common way; and as for her eyes, which have sometimes been called so fine, I never could perceive anything extraordinary in them. They have a sharp, shrewish look, which I do not like at all; and in her air altogether, there is a self-sufficiency without fashion, which is intolerable.

Read Miss Bingley’s list aloud the way she says it to Darcy. Where does her voice give her away?

For the educator Two passages, both about Miss Bingley’s attacks: the first is the narrator’s account of the militia question, the second is Miss Bingley’s own list of Elizabeth’s faults. The first is one long sentence and one short one. The long one opens with a condition turned around, “Had Miss Bingley known” where plain speech would begin with if, turns on “but”, and then lays out her aims in a row: “to discompose”, “to make her betray”, and, hedged by a “perhaps” set off in commas, “to remind”. Then the short sentence lands, twelve words of what she did not know against eighty of what she meant. The second passage is a catalogue in a character’s voice. It marches down Elizabeth’s face, complexion, features, nose, teeth and eyes to her whole “air”, every sentence built on a semicolon, and the verdicts climb from “too thin” to “intolerable”. One clause breaks the march: the aside about her eyes, “which have sometimes been called so fine”, where Miss Bingley answers praise someone else has given. For the talk prompt, let students try the list in her voice, cool and then less cool, and listen for where the poise slips; many will hear it at the eyes, or at “intolerable”. Leave alone how Darcy answers the list; the last written question asks whether his reply is more a defence of Elizabeth or a rebuke to Miss Bingley.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in a few sentences, from the cool saloon to the ride home. Then pick the one sentence that matters most, and say what it shows about Austen’s purpose.

Elizabeth thinks she wants Darcy to come more than she fears it, until he walks in and she begins “to regret that he came.” What is she afraid of, now that he is here? Character
The narrator says Miss Bingley “merely intended” to unsettle Elizabeth. How much does that “merely” excuse her? Tone
Georgiana is afraid to meet her brother’s eye, yet his thoughts seem fixed on Elizabeth “more and more cheerfully.” Should we think less of him for that? Moral reasoning
Georgiana, who once planned to elope, now lets her brother’s word settle what she thinks of Elizabeth. What has she learned from that mistake? Character
Miss Bingley pushes Darcy until he speaks, but Mrs. Gardiner waits all the way home for Elizabeth to raise the subject. Who comes away knowing more, Miss Bingley or Mrs. Gardiner? Theme

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone ran another person down in front of a listener whose good opinion they both wanted. How did the listener take it?

Vocabulary

discompose: Had Miss Bingley known what pain she was then giving her beloved friend, she undoubtedly would have refrained from the hint; but she had merely intended to discompose Elizabeth, by bringing forward the idea of a man to whom she believed her partial, to make her betray a sensibility which might injure her in Darcy’s opinion, and, perhaps, to remind the latter of all the follies and absurdities by which some part of her family were connected with that corps. To upset someone’s calm on purpose; to fluster them or throw them off balance (dis-, undoing, plus compose, to put in order, from Latin componere, to put together). Miss Bingley “merely intended to discompose Elizabeth,” to make her lose her calm in front of Darcy. The word names an attack on composure, and the chapter answers it with Elizabeth’s “collected behaviour”: she stays composed, and the attack misses.
well-bred: It was first broken by Mrs. Annesley, a genteel, agreeable-looking woman, whose endeavour to introduce some kind of discourse proved her to be more truly well-bred than either of the others; and between her and Mrs. Gardiner, with occasional help from Elizabeth, the conversation was carried on. Having good manners that come from a good upbringing; knowing how to put others at ease. In Austen’s time the word also suggested good family. The narrator gives it to Mrs. Annesley, Georgiana’s companion, who breaks an awkward silence, and calls her “more truly well-bred” than Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley, who greet the visitors “only by a courtesy”. The word “truly” marks the line the chapter draws between manners that serve others and manners that only show rank.
self-sufficiency: They have a sharp, shrewish look, which I do not like at all; and in her air altogether, there is a self-sufficiency without fashion, which is intolerable. Needing no one else; being content in oneself, sometimes so much that one seems not to care for others’ approval (self plus sufficient, from Latin sufficere, to be enough). The word can praise independence or blame smugness. Miss Bingley means it as blame: Elizabeth seems satisfied with herself “without fashion,” without the polish and standing Miss Bingley prizes. Whether the charge fits, and whether it is a fault, is the first written question.

Critical thinking

Miss Bingley’s last charge against Elizabeth is “a self-sufficiency without fashion, which is intolerable.” How fair is it?
Darcy stays silent through Miss Bingley's list of Elizabeth's faults, then answers at last. Is his reply more a defence of Elizabeth or a rebuke to Miss Bingley?