Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 7

Jane Austen · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

She did at last extort from her father an acknowledgment that the horses were engaged; Jane was therefore obliged to go on horseback, and her mother attended her to the door with many cheerful prognostics of a bad day.

“I admire the activity of your benevolence,” observed Mary, “but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion, exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.” “We will go as far as Meryton with you,” said Catherine and Lydia. Elizabeth accepted their company, and the three young ladies set off together. “If we make haste,” said Lydia, as they walked along, “perhaps we may see something of Captain Carter, before he goes.” In Meryton they parted: the two youngest repaired to the lodgings of one of the officers’ wives, and Elizabeth continued her walk alone, crossing field after field at a quick pace, jumping over stiles and springing over puddles, with impatient activity, and finding herself at last within view of the house, with weary ancles, dirty stockings, and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise.

Read both passages aloud. The first sends Jane off in one sentence. The second ends with one long sentence that carries Elizabeth across the fields. What does that long sentence let you feel that a short one could not?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences: the two journeys to Netherfield. The first is one sentence in two halves joined by a semicolon. The first half is the negotiation (“extort from her father an acknowledgment”), the second its result, hinged on “therefore obliged”; it ends on the chapter’s neatest irony, “many cheerful prognostics of a bad day”, where the mood and the forecast point opposite ways. The second passage sets three motives side by side. Mary speaks in a balanced maxim, two clauses joined by a semicolon, each a rule (“should be guided by reason”, “should always be in proportion”). Kitty and Lydia answer with an offer that has its own motive, and Lydia names it: “something of Captain Carter”. Then comes one long cumulative sentence. A colon divides the parting from the walk, and a chain of participles (“crossing”, “jumping”, “springing”, “finding”) keeps Elizabeth moving until the house comes into view. The sentence ends on a list of three that runs from cost to beauty: “weary ancles, dirty stockings, and a face glowing”. For mechanics, notice the dialogue punctuation where a speech is split by its tag (“with you,” said; “If we make haste,” said Lydia, as they walked along, “perhaps”), the colon after “parted”, and the edition’s spelling “ancles”, which the student copies as printed. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who feels the speed and the impatience in the run of participles, one who notices that the sentence will not let her arrive until she is muddy, and one who sets the long walk against the short first passage, where Jane is sent and has no say.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in a few sentences, from the Bennets’ money to the servant sent home for Elizabeth’s clothes.

Mrs. Bennet promises that when the girls are her age they will not think about officers “any more than we do”, and in the next breath admits that she still likes a red coat. What does she expect them to grow out of? Character
While her mother argues for the horseback plan, Elizabeth points out its weak spot, then tells her father that “my mother’s purpose will be answered.” Is she against the plan, or does she just enjoy seeing through it? Character
The narrator uses the word “felicity” twice: first for the girls’ joy in the officers, then, the next morning, for the news that Jane is sick at Netherfield. What does using the word twice say about Mrs. Bennet? Tone
After Jane’s note arrives, Mrs. Bennet says “People do not die of little trifling colds”, but Elizabeth is “really anxious”. Which of them reads Jane’s note better? Inference
Elizabeth says, “The distance is nothing, when one has a motive”. How well does that line fit her mother, who sent Jane off with a motive of her own? Theme
At Netherfield, Elizabeth is “convinced” that the sisters hold her in contempt, though they receive her “very politely”. What makes her so sure? Inference
Elizabeth set out promising, “I shall be back by dinner”, and the chapter ends with a servant sent to Longbourn for her clothes. Whose wishes has the day served? Plot structure

Make a Connection Think of a time, in your own life or in a story, when people saw the same thing and judged it very differently. What made them see it so differently?

Vocabulary

prognostics: She did at last extort from her father an acknowledgment that the horses were engaged; Jane was therefore obliged to go on horseback, and her mother attended her to the door with many cheerful prognostics of a bad day. Forecasts: signs or sayings that tell what is coming (from a Greek word for knowing beforehand, the root of prognosis, a doctor’s forecast). Mrs. Bennet sees Jane off “with many cheerful prognostics of a bad day.” The phrase is a small joke: the forecast is bad weather and the mood is cheerful, because rain is just what her plan needs.
benevolence: “I admire the activity of your benevolence,” observed Mary, “but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion, exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.” Goodwill; the wish to do good to others (from Latin bene, well, and volens, wishing, as in benefit and benevolent). Mary admires “the activity of your benevolence”, then warns that feeling should be “guided by reason”. Her grand word praises Elizabeth’s kindness and holds it at a distance in the same breath. The narrator picks up her other word, “activity”, a few lines later, when Elizabeth crosses the fields “with impatient activity”.
imputed: I find myself very unwell this morning, which, I suppose, is to be imputed to my getting wet through yesterday. Laid to a cause; credited or blamed to someone or something (from Latin imputare, to reckon in). Jane writes that her illness “is to be imputed to my getting wet through yesterday.” She names the rain and stops: the word gives a cause and no blame. Her father, a few lines later, names a person: “under your orders.”
solicitude: When breakfast was over, they were joined by the sisters; and Elizabeth began to like them herself, when she saw how much affection and solicitude they showed for Jane. Anxious, attentive care for someone’s comfort or health (from Latin sollicitus, troubled, the root of solicitous). Elizabeth begins to like the Bingley sisters “when she saw how much affection and solicitude they showed for Jane.” The word names care that is busy and watchful, and it is what changes Elizabeth’s mind about women she had been “convinced” held her in contempt.

Critical thinking

The chapter opens on money: Mr. Bennet’s estate will go to a distant relation, not to his daughters, and his wife’s fortune cannot make up for it. Does that opening change how you judge Mrs. Bennet’s plan to send Jane on horseback, hoping for rain?
Mr. Bennet jokes that if Jane died, it would be “all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley, and under your orders”, yet he himself agreed that the horses were needed on the farm. How fair is his joke?
Elizabeth walks three miles alone through the mud and arrives with dirty stockings and a glowing face. Was she right to go that way, knowing how it would look at Netherfield?