“...I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
We start the chapter checking back in with the Lucases, where we learn that Sir William has a powerful desire to climb the social ladder : after he was knighted while mayor of Merryton, he fled his humble business and home in favour of Lucas Lodge, a short walk away from Bennet residence. Despite these grandiose aspirations, Austen is quick to assure us that he remains “inoffensive, friendly and obliging”. I feel it’s prudent here to point out that Lucas is the only man in this book so far to have a first name, and seems to be one of the nicest men in the book so far.
Next, we learn about the rest of the family. His wife, Lady Lucas is “very good” but not clever enough to be of any use to Mrs Bennet. Together, they have spawned many children, chief among them is an as-yet unnamed 27-year-old, who’s good friends with our 20-year-old protagonist, Lizzy. Naturally, these firm friends and their families meet up to talk about the ball. For another chapter.
There are 68 Chapters in this book. So far, it’s been 2 chapters building up to a party and then two chapters unpacking the party. At this rate, about 12 more chapters are going to have actual plot development and the rest will have people talking about it.
Anyway.
In Mrs Bennet’s opinion, Bingley gravitated towards Charlotte and one of the Ms Lucases (The 27 year old?), but seemed to like Jane the best, “because he danced with her twice”, and apparently told someone called Mr Robinson (A friend? The person who owned the venue?) that he found the oldest Bennet girl the prettiest. This is coming from her mother, so I’m choosing to take it with a dashing of sodium chloride, as I don’t believe I’ve come across Mr Robinson prior to this. (Feel free to chime in with any corrections if I’m mistaken).
She goes on to berate poor Mr Darcy behind his back. That poor (possibly) introverted gentleman! “He seemed very angry at being spoken to” and “he never speaks much unless amongst his intimate acquaintance” are said with such scathing disdain by the Bennet matriarch and her favourite (for now) child, but do nothing but fan the flames of my theory. Yet again, they accuse Darcy of being “ate up with Pride” to the point where they speculate if he heard a rumour that one of the guests dared to use an inferior, less decadent mode of transport to arrive. These people have excellent priorities and don’t come across like Prom Queens trapped in an endless cycle of parties and their aftermath. No, not at all.
Ms Lucas steps in to defend Mr Darcy. No, she doesn’t refute the accusations of him being proud, instead deciding that he has every right to be proud, being rich and all “with family fortune, every thing in his favour”. From here they all weigh in on their thoughts on pride, apparently oblivious to how proud they are themselves. Only bit of interest here is that we discover the Lucas family has a young man in their ranks, who wishes to “drink a bottle of wine every night” if he ever gets as rich as Mr Darcy and then argues with Mrs Bennet about it for the rest of their visit. Seeing as he’s a “boy”, I’m imagining that he’s maybe 10 years old and aspiring to conform to the ‘Lord of the Manor’ mold his slice of society expects of him. Probably never drank a drop in his life, outside of communion wine, maybe.
Thoughts
- Austen is really laying the theme of “pride” on thick in this chapter
- Poor Mr Darcy
