English Study Buddy

Elizabeth Bennet is a country gentleman’s daughter in early 19th Century England around the time of the Napoleonic War if we are to judge from the amount of soldiers and troop movements which are mentioned throughout the novel.

Elizabeth is the second of five daughters, a plight that her father bears as best he can with common sense and a general disinterest in what he deems the silliness of all his daughters except the two eldest.

Elizabeth is his favorite because of her level-headed approach to life and love. She is not absurdly romantic or impetuous. Jane, Elizabeth’s eldest sister, commonly referred to as Miss Bennett throughout the novel, is nearly as sensible and practical as Elizabeth, but Jane is also the beauty of the family, and therefore, Mrs. Bennet’s highest hope for a good match. And once Jane makes a good match, it is hoped that their society will be widened enough that she can try to find good husbands for all her girls.

It is essential she do so, for Mr. Bennet’s property has been ‘entailed’ to a male cousin, since people in that period of time felt women would be unable to manage an estate or business affairs. When they father dies, their future will be very uncertain unless they are married.

So when Mr. Bingley, a wealthy young gentleman of London, takes a country estate near to the Bennet’s home, Mrs. Bennet begins her match-making schemes without any trace of subtlety or dignity. And with all the strategy of a master general, throwing Jane and Bingley together from the outset.

Despite Mrs. Bennet’s embarassing interference, Mr. Bingley and Jane become fond of one another.

However, this budding love affair is interfered with by Mr. Darcy, who has accompanied Bingley to the country. He begins his acquaintance with Elizabeth, her family, and their neighbors with a smug condescension and proud distaste for the all of the country people. He is inflexible and insulting, and by the time he starts taking an interest in the people around him as human beings, his pride is plain for all to see and will prove a difficult obstacle for everyone to overcome.

Elizabeth, seeing his pride and hating being slighted, makes it a point to match his seeming disgust with everyone in Hertfordshire with her own prejudice against him. She also hears from new soldier in the regiment, Mr. Wickham, that Darcy has misused him dreadfully, basically cheating him out of an inheritance that Darcy’s father had intended for him

This story seems to match Darcy’s arrogance and conceit, and so she draws closer to Wickham, even though they would both be poor as church mice if they ever dared marry.

Without thinking through the story or checking her facts, Elizabeth immediately seizes upon it as another, more concrete reason to hate Mr. Darcy and abuse him to her sister Jane. She contradicts and argues with Mr. Darcy each time they meet, but somewhere along the way he begins to like Elizabeth.

When Bingley leaves the countryside suddenly and makes no attempts to contact Jane anymore, Jane is heartbroken. Elizabeth, who had thought well of Bingley, believes that there is something amiss in the way that he left Jane in the lurch. She knows it is partly to do with Mr Bingley’s superior sisters, Miss Caroline, and Mrs. Hurst, but she feels sure it is something to do with Darcy as well, and how he always seems to sneer at her and her family.

His sneering is actually fondness for her and being tongue-tied, but at a ball that Bingley’s give in Netherfield, her family act as if the couple is already married, even though they hardly know each other. Her father’s sarcasm and carelessness and her mother’s mercenary and outspoken nature have embarrassed Elizabeth, but family pride forces her to side with them even though she is ashamed and wishes in particular that her sister, Lydia, the youngest at only 15, would not chase after every man in a uniform.

Adding to the embarrassing family debacle is a visit from Mr. Collins, their pompous cousin who will inherit the estate one day simply by virtue of being male. He is a contrast to Darcy’s pride, for he will not make a move without the express permission of his benefactor, Lady Catherine De Bourgh, Darcy’s own aunt.

He comes to marry a cousin so the family will not be thrown out on the father’s death—also very presumptuous of him. Mrs Bennet tells him Jane is spoken for with Bingley, but he can have Lizzie, though it is clear from the outset their lives would be miserable. Far better to give him to dowdy, bookish Puritan sister Mary, but Mr Collins persists in his embarrassing attentions until Lizze must reject his proposal with less that a polite manner.

Mr Collins is determined to go back to Lady Catherine with a wife, so he lights on Lizzie’s best friend, Charlotte Lucas, and she accepts. Elizabeth is stunned, but her friend is resigned to making the best marriage she can considering she is old and plain, wealthy enough, but her father only a tradesman.

She makes Lizzie promise to come visit her in Kent. Thus we see in this first part of the novel that despite all of the excitement at the beginning, none of the girls are married, and none look to be. Jane has lost Bingley, Lizzie has lost Mr. Wickham because he is chasing after wealthy heiress Mary King, and Mr Collins has chosen one of the Lucas girls and so Mrs Bennet is even more desperate to get them married off. She does not realize that her actions have and will have fateful consequences. She partly chased off Mr Bingley, and Mr Collins—after all, who would want her as a mother in law living in the same house?

She decides to let Lydia go off with the regiment with no sister for protection, only the Colonel’s worldly wife, and Jane goes off the London to try to see the Bingleys and figure out what went wrong. Lizzie is sure it is the sisters doing and once Bingley knows she is in Town and can see her without the Bennet clan all interfering, all will be well. Lizzie heads for her own adventures in Kent.

(Click here for Part II)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 12:26 am and is filed under Jane Austen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.