Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 59

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

She could not determine how her mother would take it; sometimes doubting whether all his wealth and grandeur would be enough to overcome her abhorrence of the man; but whether she were violently set against the match, or violently delighted with it, it was certain that her manner would be equally ill adapted to do credit to her sense; and she could no more bear that Mr. Darcy should hear the first raptures of her joy, than the first vehemence of her disapprobation.

I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband, unless you looked up to him as a superior. Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage. You could scarcely escape discredit and misery. My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life.

Read both passages aloud. Elizabeth’s worry runs on in one long sentence, and her father’s comes in shorter ones. What does the shape of each passage tell you about the person who is worried?

For the educator Two passages, five sentences. The first is Elizabeth’s thought on the morning walk, when she keeps the telling of her mother for herself; the second is Mr. Bennet in the library, the most serious speech he makes in the chapter. The first passage is one long sentence held together by semicolons and built from pairs. It opens on a doubt (“She could not determine”), weighs “wealth and grandeur” against “abhorrence,” then balances “violently set against the match” with “violently delighted with it,” and settles the doubt with “it was certain”: either way the result is the same. It closes on a full antithesis in matching halves, “the first raptures of her joy” against “the first vehemence of her disapprobation,” so that the sentence ends on the word for anger. Mr. Bennet’s speech moves from reasoning to plea. His first sentence pairs “neither happy nor respectable” and then repeats “unless” to stack two conditions, the second stronger than the first. The next two sentences name the danger and its result, “discredit and misery,” in plain, heavy words. The last turns to direct address and stresses “_you_.” For mechanics, students practise semicolons between long clauses, the comma pair around “or violently delighted with it,” the comma before each “unless” clause, the comma after a term of address, and the edition’s underscores, which they copy as underlining or italics. For the talk prompt, the two passages are both worry, shaped differently. Elizabeth’s sentence turns every case over before it can say “it was certain”; some students hear a mind that plans for everything and trusts no outcome, others a fair mind that weighs both sides before judging. Her father’s speech reasons in its first sentence, then shortens to “You could scarcely escape discredit and misery” and turns to plead with her directly; some students hear a father laying down the law, others a man whose usual irony gives way under real fear. Leave it open. The words “abhorrence” and “vehemence” are taught in the vocabulary. Keep why her mother’s joy would be hard to bear for the third discussion question, and whether his test of a marriage is fair for the first written question.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in a few sentences. Begin at the dinner table, where no one guesses, and end with Mr. Bennet’s joke about his three sons-in-law. Then choose the one sentence that matters most, and say why the chapter needs it.

Jane asks Elizabeth how long she has loved him, and the answer is a joke about his “beautiful grounds at Pemberley.” Why would she joke just when she most needs Jane to believe her? Tone
Elizabeth can hardly help laughing when her mother sends her out walking with “that disagreeable man,” but the word itself vexes her. Why can she laugh at the plan and not at the word? Character
Elizabeth dreads Darcy hearing her mother’s “first raptures” as much as her mother’s anger. What would be so bad about the joy? Inference
When her father asks, “Have not you always hated him?”, Elizabeth wishes her old opinions had been “more reasonable” and her words “more moderate.” Which of the two is costing her more now? Character
Elizabeth tells her father that Darcy “has no improper pride,” not that he has none. What kind of pride would she still allow him? Theme

Make a Connection Think of a story, from a book or from life, in which someone had to take back something harsh they had once said about another person. Who found the change harder to accept, the speaker or the people who had heard them?

Vocabulary

abhorrence: She could not determine how her mother would take it; sometimes doubting whether all his wealth and grandeur would be enough to overcome her abhorrence of the man; but whether she were violently set against the match, or violently delighted with it, it was certain that her manner would be equally ill adapted to do credit to her sense; and she could no more bear that Mr. Darcy should hear the first raptures of her joy, than the first vehemence of her disapprobation. A deep, shuddering dislike (Latin abhorrere, to shrink back from, the root shared with horror). It is Elizabeth’s word, in her own thoughts, for what her mother feels for Darcy, and she wonders whether “all his wealth and grandeur” can outweigh it. The word measures how far the family’s opinion has to travel.
vehemence: She could not determine how her mother would take it; sometimes doubting whether all his wealth and grandeur would be enough to overcome her abhorrence of the man; but whether she were violently set against the match, or violently delighted with it, it was certain that her manner would be equally ill adapted to do credit to her sense; and she could no more bear that Mr. Darcy should hear the first raptures of her joy, than the first vehemence of her disapprobation. Force and heat of feeling, especially in speech (Latin vehemens, violent, eager). Elizabeth pairs “the first vehemence of her disapprobation” with “the first raptures of her joy”: she expects her mother to be loud either way, and the word sets anger and delight on the same scale.
epithet: Elizabeth could hardly help laughing at so convenient a proposal; yet was really vexed that her mother should be always giving him such an epithet. A word or short phrase attached to a person to describe them, often an unkind one (Greek epitheton, something added on). Mrs. Bennet’s epithet for Darcy is “disagreeable,” which she uses twice that morning. Elizabeth can laugh at her mother’s plan but not at the label.
approbation: This was enough to prove that her approbation need not be doubted; and Elizabeth, rejoicing that such an effusion was heard only by herself, soon went away. Approval, especially formal approval of a plan or a match (Latin approbare, to approve). Its opposite, “disapprobation,” is what Elizabeth half expected from her mother on the walk. There she weighed which of the two she would meet; here the narrator gives the answer, and it brings its own embarrassment.
voluntarily: To complete the favourable impression, she then told him what Mr. Darcy had voluntarily done for Lydia. By one’s own free choice, without being asked or obliged (Latin voluntas, will). The word is the heart of the story Elizabeth tells her father: no one asked Darcy to help Lydia, and her father expects him to refuse to be repaid. It is what makes the deed a proof of character.

Critical thinking

Mr. Bennet tells Elizabeth she could not be happy unless she looked up to her husband “as a superior.” How fair a test of a good marriage is that?
Elizabeth tells her father what Darcy did for Lydia only after she has won him over. Would her case have been stronger if she had begun with Lydia?
No one at Longbourn believes Elizabeth when she says she loves Darcy. Is their disbelief her own doing, or his?