Pride & Prejudice notes: Chapters 43 – 48

Ch. 43

They visit Pemberly

E’s first views are perfect: she sees the perfect combination of nature and landscaping outdoors, and of elegance and taste indoors (not like Rosings)

Why is this important?

• The picturesque
• Darcy’s kingdom: his lands and his subjects (people)
• Housekeeper loves him, good to his sister, good to the poor, tenants and servants all give him a good name (166)
• If your employees say really good things about you, you’re a good leader, if they complain about you, something isn’t working right
• Noblesse oblige

The housekeeper has nothing but the best to say about her master 165

“I have never heard a cross word from him in my life and I’ve known him since he was 4 years old.” 166

167 “What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people’s happiness were in his guardianship!—How much of pleasure or pain it was in his power to bestow!” Darcy as hero, as a leader prepared for “right rule”

And then at this very moment, Mr. Darcy arrives!

Awkward! But quite civil and a different manner already

He returns to find them on their walk a little later—E tries to be friendly and kind too “but she had not got beyond the words “delightful” and “charming” when some unlucky recollections obtruded, and she fancied that praise of Pemberly from her, might be mischievously construed. Her color changed and she said no more.” 170

Darcy asks to be introduced to “some of those very people, against whom his pride had revolted, in his offer to herself. . . . he takes them now as people of fashion.”

Why does Darcy go so far out of his way to be kind to her and her previously scorned “Cheapside” relations?

Ch. 44

How is Darcy different? Why has he changed? 176

177 – E feels this gratitude towards Darcy for not hating her after her “petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection.” Why is she so surprised? She believes he does this all because he has changed and is now eager to please and not so caught up in his on pride and disdain for those below him. “Such a change in a man of so much pride, excited not only astonishment but gratitude.” Who has changed? E or D?

Ch. 45

Eliza and Mrs. G call on Miss Darcy

Uncomfortable, Miss Bingley is rude

Miscalculates with her militia comment: Why is Miss Darcy so upset by the comment?

Timed writing on the Miss Bingley passage

Discuss a few bits in class

Ch. 46

The two letters from Jane describing Lydia’s elopement, or more terribly, not elopement, but escapade.

“we are now anxious to be assured it has taken place” 183

“She has no money, no connections, nothing that can tempt him to—she is lost forever.” 185

E on Darcy “and never had she so honestly felt that she could have loved him, as now, when all love must be in vain.”

Darcy so kind and compassionate, but what can he do to help

Ch. 47

188 – Mr. Gardiner on Wickham “Could he expect to be noticed again by the regiment, after such an affront to Colonel Forster? His temptation is not adequate to the risk.”

189 – Mrs. G “But can you think that Lydia is so lost to every thing but love of him, as to consent to live with him on any other terms than marriage?”

E: “But she is very young; she has never been taught to think on serious subjects; and for the last half year, nay, for a twelvemonth, she had been given up to nothing but amusement and vanity.” E and Mrs. G discussing the situation? Discussion of how much this matters in the early 19thC . . . What does this do to Lydia’s sisters? What is the social impact of a wayward sister? Why must E’s love for Darcy be in vain?

192 – Mrs. Bennet still has no sense, bedridden but somehow worried about all the wrong things “and if they are not married already, make them marry. And as for wedding clothes, do not let them wait for that, but tell Lydia she shall have as much money as she chuses, to buy them, after they are married . . . tell my dear Lydia, not to give any directions about her clothes, till she has seen me, for she does not know which are the best warhouses.” Why is Lydia Mrs. Bennet’s favorite? (similarity in judgment, character, looks, superficiality, etc.)

195 – Lydia’s incredible letter

Ch. 48

Mr. Collin’s incredible letter 198

Mr. Bennet finally sees his own faults and contribution to this terrible situation

“Who should suffer but myself? It has been my own doing, and I ought to feel it.”

“You must not be too severe upon yourself,” replied Elizabeth.

“You may well warn me against such an evil. Human nature is so prone to fall into it! No, Lizzy, let me once in my life feel how much I have been to blame. I am not afraid of being overpowered by the impression. It will pass away soon enough.”