Chapter Fifty-six

Originally published 7/29/2007.

This is a really fun chapter: the confrontation between Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lizzy. Lizzy wins. Indeed, as Lizzy points out, Lady Catherine de Bourgh's logic is exceedingly flawed.

One morning, about a week after Bingley's engagement with Jane had been formed, as he and the females of the family were sitting together in the dining room, their attention was suddenly drawn to the window, by the sound of a carriage; and they perceived a chaise and four driving up the lawn. It was too early in the morning for visitors, and besides, the equipage did not answer to that of any of their neighbours. The horses were post; and neither the carriage, nor the livery of the servant who preceded it, were familiar to them. As it was certain, however, that somebody was coming, Bingley instantly prevailed on Miss Bennet to avoid the confinement of such an intrusion, and walk away with him into the shrubbery...

Typical lover: wants to be with his beloved and no one else.

...They both set off, and the conjectures of the remaining three continued, though with little satisfaction, till the door was thrown open and their visitor entered. It was Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

They were of course all intending to be surprised; but their astonishment was beyond their expectation; and on the part of Mrs. Bennet and Kitty, though she was perfectly unknown to them, even inferior to what Elizabeth felt.

She entered the room with an air more than usually ungracious, made no other reply to Elizabeth's salutation than a slight inclination of the head, and sat down without saying a word...

I should think that in Regency England this would be exceedingly rude behavior. Indeed, I think that Austen intends to point this out by mentioning it in the first place.

...Elizabeth had mentioned her name to her mother on her ladyship's entrance, though no request of introduction had been made.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh does not want to be friends with the Bennets at this point, though she was willing enough to "converse" with Lizzy before.

Mrs. Bennet, all amazement, though flattered by having a guest of such high importance, received her with the utmost politeness...

Interesting juxtaposition of words there. Austen means to imply that, in general, flattery for Mrs. Bennet would usually result in her being impolite (perhaps overly forward or some such thing). Since impoliteness (discourtesy) is certainly viewed as wrong by Austen, it follows that Austen is here disapproving of flattery.

...After sitting for a moment in silence, she said very stiffly to Elizabeth,

"I hope you are well, Miss Bennet. That lady, I suppose, is your mother."

The movie versions all seem to do this well. Lady Catherine utters this sentence in rather a dismissive manner.

Elizabeth replied very concisely that she was.

"And that I suppose is one of your sisters."

Lady Catherine again, see above.

"Yes, madam," said Mrs. Bennet, delighted to speak to a Lady Catherine. "She is my youngest girl but one. My youngest of all is lately married, and my eldest is somewhere about the grounds, walking with a young man who, I believe, will soon become a part of the family."

I don't suppose there is anything particularly objectionable about what Mrs. Bennet says here, for once.

"You have a very small park here," returned Lady Catherine after a short silence.

"It is nothing in comparison of Rosings, my lady, I dare say; but I assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas's."

Mrs. Bennet, anxious to assert her location in the totem pole.

"This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening, in summer; the windows are full west."

Lady Catherine, who appears unable to say much of anything without criticism. Not constructive in this case, since there isn't a whole lot to be done about it.

Mrs. Bennet assured her that they never sat there after dinner, and then added,

"May I take the liberty of asking your ladyship whether you left Mr. and Mrs. Collins well."

A textual critical note here: the Project Gutenberg and Barnes and Noble editions both have periods, but my Everyman's Library has a question mark at the end, which to me definitely seems the better choice. I'd be interested in any other editions and what they have.

"Yes, very well. I saw them the night before last."

Lady Catherine.

Elizabeth now expected that she would produce a letter for her from Charlotte, as it seemed the only probable motive for her calling. But no letter appeared, and she was completely puzzled.

Mrs. Bennet, with great civility, begged her ladyship to take some refreshment;...

I don't think Austen is being sarcastic here.

...but Lady Catherine very resolutely, and not very politely, declined eating any thing;...

In some cultures, there is no polite way to refuse to eat, or at least there didn't used to be. Lady Catherine is too angry to show any politeness to the Bennet family.

...and then, rising up, said to Elizabeth,

"Miss Bennet, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn. I should be glad to take a turn in it, if you will favour me with your company."

"Go, my dear," cried her mother, "and shew her ladyship about the different walks. I think she will be pleased with the hermitage."

Elizabeth obeyed, and running into her own room for her parasol, attended her noble guest down stairs. As they passed through the hall, Lady Catherine opened the doors into the dining-parlour and drawing-room, and pronouncing them, after a short survey, to be decent looking rooms, walked on.

This can't be very polite, either. She's evaluating the Bennets based on money alone, pretty much. She does mention Lydia's botched marriage, and the sin regarding that fiasco. However, she remains entirely blind to her own sins of prejudice. Indeed, I am not sure but what Lady Catherine is really one of the most evil characters in the book. Consider that pride is the chief of all sins, the causal sin for all other sins. Lady Catherine is positively dripping with it.

Her carriage remained at the door, and Elizabeth saw that her waiting-woman was in it...

I think Austen included this fact to tell us that Lady Catherine did not intend to stay long. If there is another interpretation, I'd be happy to hear it.

...They proceeded in silence along the gravel walk that led to the copse; Elizabeth was determined to make no effort for conversation with a woman who was now more than usually insolent and disagreeable.

This does not seem unreasonable to me. Lady Catherine has the initiative anyway, since she paid an unsolicited call.

"How could I ever think her like her nephew?" said she, as she looked in her face.

As soon as they entered the copse, Lady Catherine began in the following manner: --

"You can be at no loss, Miss Bennet, to understand the reason of my journey hither. Your own heart, your own conscience, must tell you why I come."

See this post for some ideas concerning statements along these lines. Lady Catherine is saying, "Aren't you stupid if you don't know why I'm here?" In saying this she is attempting to take the moral high ground by default. Such a tactic is not likely to make anyone conciliatory. So Lady Catherine is being rather short-sighted.

Elizabeth looked with unaffected astonishment.

"Indeed, you are mistaken, Madam. I have not been at all able to account for the honour of seeing you here."

Lizzy.

"Miss Bennet," replied her ladyship, in an angry tone, "you ought to know, that I am not to be trifled with. But however insincere you may choose to be, you shall not find me so. My character has ever been celebrated for its sincerity and frankness, and in a cause of such moment as this, I shall certainly not depart from it...

Sincerity and frankness. Surely good qualities to have. But as Lewis said in Screwtape Letters, in effect, any virtue is less dangerous (to Satan) if the one who has the virtue is made aware of the fact that he has it. This allows pride to kick in.

...A report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago. I was told that not only your sister was on the point of being most advantageously married, but that you, that Miss Elizabeth Bennet, would, in all likelihood, be soon afterwards united to my nephew, my own nephew, Mr. Darcy. Though I know it must be a scandalous falsehood, though I would not injure him so much as to suppose the truth of it possible, I instantly resolved on setting off for this place, that I might make my sentiments known to you."

Where to begin? Lady Catherine is not rejoicing with those who rejoice. She wishes ill of her neighbors, the Bennets, for surely after meeting Lizzy in the way she has, we may call the Bennets her neighbors. Wishing ill of someone is a direct violation of God's law; it is sin. Most directly, it is a violation of the commandment against murder. Lady Catherine is being proud, in supposing that Lizzy isn't "good enough" for Darcy. Lady Catherine is not in a position of authority over Darcy, as is made quite clear by the fact that Darcy goes against her wishes and proposes to Lizzy a second time two chapters from now. Therefore, Lady Catherine is speaking out of turn. In short, Lady Catherine is doing nothing right here.

"If you believed it impossible to be true," said Elizabeth, colouring with astonishment and disdain, "I wonder you took the trouble of coming so far. What could your ladyship propose by it?"

Lizzy does not like Lady Catherine. She, however, hides her dislike under statements that certainly can, on the face of them, be interpreted in a good way. Of course, we do not know the tone Austen intends Lizzy to have to Lady Catherine. Certainly, Lizzy is reacting internally in a very negative way. I'd be interested in comments as to whether Lizzy reacts in as charitable a way as she could.

"At once to insist upon having such a report universally contradicted."

Lady Catherine.

"Your coming to Longbourn, to see me and my family," said Elizabeth coolly, "will be rather a confirmation of it; if, indeed, such a report is in existence."

"If! Do you then pretend to be ignorant of it? Has it not been industriously circulated by yourselves? Do you not know that such a report is spread abroad?"

Lady Catherine.

"I never heard that it was."

Lizzy.

"And can you likewise declare, that there is no foundation for it?"

Lady Catherine.

"I do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your ladyship. You may ask questions which I shall not choose to answer."

I think Lizzy does well here. To acknowledge the exact relationship she has with Darcy would surely only infuriate Lady Catherine more. Lizzy has to play defence here, and try to be as good a peacemaker as Lady Catherine will allow. For Lizzy to allow herself the moral low ground of not possessing "equal frankness" is also not a bad idea. It's humility.

"This is not to be borne. Miss Bennet, I insist on being satisfied. Has he, has my nephew, made you an offer of marriage?"

Lady Catherine, with quite an unreasonable demand. It is not reasonable to demand that someone tell you everything about your life. As William Forrester said in the movie Finding Forrester, "You could learn a little something about... holding back."

"Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible."

Lizzy. A cute way of dodging the question. She rightly guesses that Lady Catherine will not press that exact question again.

"It ought to be so; it must be so, while he retains the use of his reason. But your arts and allurements may, in a moment of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself and to all his family. You may have drawn him in."

You can't help but laugh at this, knowing the history of Lizzy and Darcy. Quite the opposite has happened: Lizzy, while perhaps not openly shunning him, certainly did not pursue him in the slightest. While this may have, as Lady Catherine says, "drawn him in," as Lizzy herself explains later, such was most certainly not her intention.

"If I have, I shall be the last person to confess it."

Lizzy. I'm not quite sure what she means by this. Any ideas?

"Miss Bennet, do you know who I am? I have not been accustomed to such language as this. I am almost the nearest relation he has in the world, and am entitled to know all his dearest concerns."

Maybe. Maybe not. My reaction would be a bored, "So what?"

"But you are not entitled to know mine; nor will such behaviour as this, ever induce me to be explicit."

Lizzy, quite treating Lady Catherine more as an equal than as a superior. Indeed, it is quite clear in this whole conversation that Lizzy is wiping the floor with Lady Catherine.

"Let me be rightly understood. This match, to which you have the presumption to aspire, can never take place. No, never. Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter. Now what have you to say?"

Lady Catherine. Now we have the real reason Lady Catherine is so against the match: it would be bad for her daughter. This is not altruistic motive for her nephew.

"Only this; that if he is so, you can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me."

Lizzy again, artfully dodging the question again.

Lady Catherine hesitated for a moment, and then replied,

"The engagement between them is of a peculiar kind. From their infancy, they have been intended for each other. It was the favourite wish of his mother, as well as of her's. While in their cradles, we planned the union: and now, at the moment when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished in their marriage, to be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth, of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the family!...

Not only is this not engagement, it is no reason at all to prevent a marriage. Marriage should be based on mutual regard, a similar direction in life, theological common ground, and loads of other factors wholly unconnected with money. This statement merely says how incredibly worldly Lady Catherine is.

...Do you pay no regard to the wishes of his friends? To his tacit engagement with Miss De Bourgh? Are you lost to every feeling of propriety and delicacy? Have you not heard me say that from his earliest hours he was destined for his cousin?"

"Yes, and I had heard it before. But what is that to me? If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss De Bourgh...

I rather think Lizzy is talking in absolute terms. It would indeed be unkind not to take into account the wishes of Darcy's family. However, such is no absolute rule.

...You both did as much as you could in planning the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If Mr. Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?"

"Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid it...

Actually, none of the above, unless you define interest the way Lady Catherine does. Lady Catherine is really being incredibly self-centered here. She thinks of nobody's happiness but her own. She doesn't even consider whether Anne de Bourgh wants to marry Darcy! Though, really, happiness is not the best reason to enter into marriage. A better reason is holiness by the grace of God.

...Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all...

This is false indeed, as we know that Georgiana already likes Lizzy.

...You will be censured, slighted, and despised, by every one connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us."

"These are heavy misfortunes," replied Elizabeth...

The BBC version makes Lizzy out to be quite sarcastic here, a point which Lady Catherine evidently misses.

..."But the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine."

Thus Lizzy gives Lady Catherine the information that she does indeed think it worth her while to marry Darcy.

"Obstinate, headstrong girl! I am ashamed of you! Is this your gratitude for my attentions to you last spring? Is nothing due to me on that score? Let us sit down. You are to understand, Miss Bennet, that I came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose; nor will I be dissuaded from it. I have not been used to submit to any person's whims. I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment."

If only Lady Catherine could have read How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie! She would certainly be shown, in light of that book, to be grossly uncharitable. Incidentally, I think in that valuable book that Carnegie means that the way to win friends and influence people is to actually care about other people. You have to care enough about them to listen to them. If that's the case, then you are not manipulating them, you are trying to do what is best for them, which is to love them in a Christlike way.

"That will make your ladyship's situation at present more pitiable; but it will have no effect on me."

A rather cold answer on Lizzy's part, but Lady Catherine is quickly removing options from Lizzy's book.

"I will not be interrupted. Hear me in silence. My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other. They are descended, on the maternal side, from the same noble line; and, on the father's, from respectable, honourable, and ancient -- though untitled -- families. Their fortune on both sides is splendid. They are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their respective houses;...

Except possibly Georgiana's.

...and what is to divide them? The upstart pretensions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune. Is this to be endured!...

I suppose, technically, that this is a question. However, it has an exclamation point in every edition I own. I'd be interested if any edition my readers have has a question mark instead.

...But it must not, shall not be. If you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere in which you have been brought up."

This last statement is correct. However, it is misapplied.

"In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal."

Lizzy, pointing out the misapplication.

"True. You are a gentleman's daughter. But who was your mother? Who are your uncles and aunts? Do not imagine me ignorant of their condition."

Lady Catherine speaks of the uncles and aunts as if they had a disease.

"Whatever my connections may be," said Elizabeth, "if your nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to you."

"Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?"

Lady Catherine.

Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question, she could not but say, after a moment's deliberation,

"I am not."

Lady Catherine seemed pleased.

"And will you promise me, never to enter into such an engagement?"

Lady Catherine.

"I will make no promise of the kind."

Lizzy.

"Miss Bennet I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find a more reasonable young woman. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away till you have given me the assurance I require."

Lady Catherine.

"And I certainly never shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the wished-for promise make their marriage at all more probable? Supposing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin? Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill-judged. You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine...

Certainly not in so unloving a manner as Lady Catherine is using.

...I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject."

Lizzy.

"Not so hasty, if you please. I have by no means done. To all the objections I have already urged, I have still another to add. I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister's infamous elopement. I know it all;...

As is immediately disproved by the next statement or two:

...that the young man's marrying her was a patched-up business, at the expence of your father and uncles...

Indeed, ignorance of Darcy's involvement with Lydia's marriage puts Lady Catherine at such a severe disadvantage. Indeed, it gives the lie to her claim to act on her nephew's account, and to be entitled "to know all his dearest concerns." She does not know them all.

...And is such a girl to be my nephew's sister? Is her husband, is the son of his late father's steward, to be his brother? Heaven and earth! -- of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"

Lady Catherine shows zero grace here. Since when are people guilty for the sins of their relations?

"You can now have nothing farther to say," she...

Meaning Lizzy.

...resentfully answered. "You have insulted me in every possible method. I must beg to return to the house."

And she rose as she spoke. Lady Catherine rose also, and they turned back. Her ladyship was highly incensed.

"You have no regard, then, for the honour and credit of my nephew! Unfeeling, selfish girl!...

Ah, the irony. It is Lady Catherine who has no regard for the honour and credit of her nephew. It is she who is unfeeling and selfish.

...Do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody?"

"Lady Catherine, I have nothing farther...

In today's lingo, it should be "further."

...to say. You know my sentiments."

Lizzy.

"You are then resolved to have him?"

Lady Catherine.

"I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me."

This is what the Austrian economists call "the law of human action."

"It is well. You refuse, then, to oblige me. You refuse to obey the claims of duty, honour, and gratitude. You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends, and make him the contempt of the world."

"Neither duty, nor honour, nor gratitude," replied Elizabeth, "have any possible claim on me, in the present instance. No principle of either would be violated by my marriage with Mr. Darcy. And with regard to the resentment of his family, or the indignation of the world, if the former were excited by his marrying me, it would not give me one moment's concern -- and the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn."

A direct contradiction of what Lady Catherine just said.

"And this is your real opinion! This is your final resolve! Very well. I shall now know how to act. Do not imagine, Miss Bennet, that your ambition will ever be gratified. I came to try you. I hoped to find you reasonable; but, depend upon it, I will carry my point."

Lady Catherine.

In this manner Lady Catherine talked on, till they were at the door of the carriage, when, turning hastily round, she added, "I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased."

Duh. Rather obvious, if you ask me.

Elizabeth made no answer; and without attempting to persuade her ladyship to return into the house, walked quietly into it herself. She heard the carriage drive away as she proceeded up stairs. Her mother impatiently met her at the door of the dressing-room, to ask why Lady Catherine would not come in again and rest herself.

"She did not choose it," said her daughter, "she would go."

"She is a very fine-looking woman! and her calling here was prodigiously civil!...

Right on.

...for she only came, I suppose, to tell us the Collinses were well. She is on her road somewhere, I dare say, and so, passing through Meryton, thought she might as well call on you. I suppose she had nothing particular to say to you, Lizzy?"

Elizabeth was forced to give into a little falsehood here; for to acknowledge the substance of their conversation was impossible.

An interesting situation here. I am not convinced that it is ever permissible to lie. It is certainly permissible to conceal truth where appropriate, but that is different. Of course, we don't know exactly what Lizzy said, so we don't know if she lied outright (though that seems probable) or merely evaded the question.

Next week: Mr. Bennet gets a letter from Mr. Collins and Lizzy is uncomfortable with his reactions to it.