Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 58

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

I cannot be so easily reconciled to myself. The recollection of what I then said, of my conduct, my manners, my expressions during the whole of it, is now, and has been many months, inexpressibly painful to me.

I cannot give you credit for any philosophy of the kind. Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the contentment arising from them is not of philosophy, but, what is much better, of ignorance. But with me, it is not so. Painful recollections will intrude, which cannot, which ought not to be repelled.

Read both passages aloud. Again and again Darcy stops to add to his own words or correct them, as in “which cannot, which ought not.” Find the other places he does it. Which one sounds hardest for him to say?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences, both Darcy’s and both about memory. The first comes when Elizabeth offers to share the blame for the April evening; the second is his answer to her rule, “Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.” The first passage opens with a short refusal and then gives one long periodic sentence. Its subject, “The recollection,” is held open by a list that grows as it goes, “of my conduct, my manners, my expressions,” and the verb is stretched by a correction, “is now, and has been many months,” before the sentence lands on “inexpressibly painful to me.” There is a quiet irony in a man calling his “expressions” painful “inexpressibly” and then expressing it at length. The second passage begins by turning her word “philosophy” back on her. The next sentence sets “_Your_” against the “_me_” of the sentence after it, and inside it the antithesis “not of philosophy, but … of ignorance” is broken by an aside, “what is much better,” that makes the charge sound like praise. The last sentence corrects itself in mid-flight, “which cannot, which ought not to be repelled,” moving from what memory does to what is right about it, and holding the verb the two clauses share until the end. For mechanics, students practise the edition’s underscores in “_Your_” and “_me_,” which they copy as underlining or italics; the commas that set off each item and each added phrase in the long sentence; the comma pair around the aside “what is much better”; the comma before a “which” clause; and the repeated “which” with no joining word. For the talk prompt, students usually find “of my conduct, my manners, my expressions,” “is now, and has been many months,” and “but, what is much better, of ignorance.” Some choose the growing list, because each item is a fresh admission; some choose “is now, and has been many months,” because it confesses how long the pain has lasted; some choose the aside, because it is the one place he softens. Leave it open. The words “inexpressibly” and “retrospections” are taught in the vocabulary. Leave whether any pride is left in his self-blame to the first written question, who humbled him to the second, and which of them is wiser about the past to the last.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in a few sentences. Begin with five people setting out on a walk, and end in the hall where Elizabeth and Darcy part. Then choose the one sentence the whole chapter turns on, and say why you chose it.

Before she thanks him, Elizabeth calls herself “a very selfish creature.” What is selfish about saying thank you? Inference
We hear Darcy ask in his own words, but the narrator only reports Elizabeth’s yes. What would be lost if Austen had let her say it herself? Author's choice
Darcy hopes Elizabeth has destroyed his letter, but he says he will never forget her words to him in April. Why get rid of his own hard words and keep hers? Character
Elizabeth once said harsh things to Darcy’s face, yet now she keeps a joke about Bingley to herself. Has she changed, or is she only waiting for a better time? Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, from a book or from life, in which hard words changed the person who heard them. What did it take for the words to work?

Vocabulary

contrariwise: But, unluckily for her Ladyship, its effect had been exactly contrariwise. In the opposite way; the reverse of what was meant (contrary, with the old ending -wise, “in the manner of,” as in clockwise). Lady Catherine repeated Elizabeth’s defiance to make her nephew give her up. The narrator’s old-fashioned, faintly comic word marks how completely the plan turned round: the report “taught me to hope.”
abhorrence: I cannot think of it without abhorrence. A deep, shuddering disgust (from Latin abhorrere, to shrink back from, the root shared with horror). Darcy turns the word on his own behaviour in April, not on anyone else’s. It is the strongest word he uses against himself in the chapter, and it comes just after he has called her charges “ill-founded.”
inexpressibly: The recollection of what I then said, of my conduct, my manners, my expressions during the whole of it, is now, and has been many months, inexpressibly painful to me. So much that words cannot say it (in-, not, with expressible, able to be put into words). Darcy uses it of his memory of the April evening, in the same sentence where he lists his “expressions” among his faults. A man who says his pain is beyond words then goes on to put it into many words, and the strain shows how much the memory still costs him.
retrospections: Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the contentment arising from them is not of philosophy, but, what is much better, of ignorance. Looks back over the past; acts of remembering what one has done (Latin retro, backward, with specere, to look, as in inspect). Darcy’s word for Elizabeth’s memories. He uses it to turn her cheerful rule into something less flattering: her calm comes not from wisdom, he says, but from having nothing to regret.
diffidence: His diffidence had prevented his depending on his own judgment in so anxious a case, but his reliance on mine made everything easy. Shyness that comes from doubting yourself; a lack of trust in your own judgment (from Latin diffidere, to distrust, the opposite of confidence). Darcy says it kindly of Bingley, as the reason his friend leaned on him. Elizabeth’s private name for the same trait is “so easily guided.”

Critical thinking

Darcy will not let Elizabeth share the blame for that evening in April. How much pride is left in a man who insists the fault was mostly his?
“By you, I was properly humbled,” Darcy tells Elizabeth. Who did the humbling?
Elizabeth says to remember the past only as it gives pleasure, but Darcy says painful memories ought not to be pushed away. Which of them is wiser about the past?