Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 55

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

“You are a good girl,” he replied, “and I have great pleasure in thinking you will be so happily settled. I have not a doubt of your doing very well together. Your tempers are by no means unlike. You are each of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income.”

This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence, and the little value he put on his own good qualities. Elizabeth was pleased to find that he had not betrayed the interference of his friend; for, though Jane had the most generous and forgiving heart in the world, she knew it was a circumstance which must prejudice her against him.

Austen does not just say that Jane praised Bingley; she calls it “a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence.” What does that grand word do to the moment?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences, both about how Jane and Bingley’s good tempers look to the people who love them: first to her father, then to Elizabeth. The first passage climbs from plain blessing to joke. Three short sentences say what any father might say, and the third, “Your tempers are by no means unlike”, is a mild double negative that sounds like praise and sets up the turn. The last sentence is a triple parallel: three clauses that each pair “so” with “that”, “so complying”, “so easy”, “so generous”, and each takes a good quality and finds a comic danger in it. The three are set off by semicolons, and the longest comes last. The second passage moves from comedy to quiet judgment. The word “panegyric” means a formal public oration, spent on a girl praising her lover in private, and what she praises is his low opinion of himself. The last sentence is built on a concession: “though” grants Jane the most forgiving heart in the world before “she knew” takes back part of the grant. For mechanics, students practise the semicolon between long parallel clauses, the comma before a consequence clause (“so easy, that”), a dialogue tag breaking into a quoted sentence (“You are a good girl,” he replied, “and I have”), and the commas that set off “though” inside a clause. For the talk prompt, students may hear the grand word as gentle mockery of a lover’s talk; as Austen’s way of showing how large Bingley’s modesty looms for Jane; or as a hint that Jane is praising the very trait that, in Elizabeth’s account, kept him away. Leave the question of whether the likeness is a strength alone here; the last written question asks it.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in a few sentences, from Bingley’s early arrival to Meryton’s new verdict on the Bennets. Then choose the one moment that matters most, and say what Austen uses it to show.

Elizabeth slips back into the room on the first night, so the pair are not left alone; on the second she leaves to write a letter, and Bingley proposes. Which night does she do more for Jane? Plot structure
The night before, Jane’s look showed distress at her mother’s “premeditation,” but after the proposal she hurries to that same mother and speaks of her “affectionate solicitude.” Has happiness made Jane see her mother more truly, or less? Character
Left alone, Elizabeth says out loud that this is “the happiest, wisest, and most reasonable end!” Whose victory is she cheering? Tone
Elizabeth says “Good girl!” when Jane turns cool toward Bingley’s sisters, yet she is glad Jane has not heard of Darcy’s “interference.” How far does Elizabeth trust Jane’s forgiving heart? Moral reasoning

Make a Connection Think of a time when a town, a school or a group of friends changed its story about someone almost overnight. What made the new story so easy to believe?

Vocabulary

forbearance: His ease and cheerfulness rendered him a most agreeable addition to their evening party; and he bore with the ill-judged officiousness of the mother, and heard all her silly remarks with a forbearance and command of countenance particularly grateful to the daughter. Patient self-control; holding back from showing an annoyance one has every right to feel (from forbear: for-, away, and bear). Bingley hears Mrs. Bennet’s “silly remarks” with a forbearance Jane is grateful for. It is his easy temper at its best, the same easiness Mr. Bennet will joke about that night.
solicitude: I would not on any account trifle with her affectionate solicitude, or allow her to hear it from anyone but myself. Anxious, caring concern for someone’s welfare (from Latin sollicitus, troubled or anxious). Jane speaks of her mother’s “affectionate solicitude”, a generous name for the plotting that distressed her the night before, and a sign of how kindly Jane’s temper reads other people.
circumspection: “And this,” said she, “is the end of all his friend’s anxious circumspection! of all his sister’s falsehood and contrivance! the happiest, wisest, and most reasonable end!” Caution; looking all around before acting (from Latin circum, around, and specere, to look, the root of inspect and spectator). Elizabeth mocks Darcy’s “anxious circumspection” and calls the quick engagement its defeat. The word sets careful looking against easy trusting, the very choice the chapter leaves open.
panegyric: This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence, and the little value he put on his own good qualities. A speech or piece of writing full of high praise (from Greek panegyris, a public festival where such speeches were made: pan-, all, and agyris, gathering). Austen gives a grand public word to Jane’s private praise of Bingley, and the joke is in what she praises: his “diffidence, and the little value he put on his own good qualities.”
diffidence: This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence, and the little value he put on his own good qualities. Shyness that comes from doubting oneself (from Latin dis-, not, and fidere, to trust, the root of confidence). Jane praises Bingley’s diffidence, and Elizabeth puts his long absence down to “his modesty”. In Elizabeth’s account, the same self-doubt that Jane loves in him is what kept him away, so the word can be praise or a warning.
felicity: They shook hands with great cordiality; and then, till her sister came down, she had to listen to all he had to say of his own happiness, and of Jane’s perfections; and in spite of his being a lover, Elizabeth really believed all his expectations of felicity to be rationally founded, because they had for basis the excellent understanding and super-excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself. Great and settled happiness (from Latin felicitas, which meant both happiness and good luck). Elizabeth believes Bingley’s “expectations of felicity” are “rationally founded” on character. The word’s old double sense fits the chapter, which ends with Meryton putting all of it down to luck.

Critical thinking

Jane answers only one of her father’s three warnings about their good tempers: the one about money. Why might she answer that one, and not the other two?
Jane says she does not deserve her happiness, Elizabeth says it comes from Jane’s “goodness,” and Meryton calls the Bennets “the luckiest family in the world.” Who comes closest to the truth?
Mr. Bennet jokes that Jane and Bingley are so alike that every servant will cheat them. Is their likeness a strength or a weakness?