Yesterday I noticed a recent
thread in another Austen online discussion of P&P, which reminded me of an
important interpretive question, which, as far as I can recall, has never been
discussed in these groups: i.e., do you
find Lizzy to have been justified in her rationale for deciding NOT to tell Jane
about Darcy’s interference in dividing Jane from Bingley? And there is also the
closely related question, did JA herself and/or the narrator approve of Lizzy’s
decision? I think this will make an
excellent topic for discussion.
Here’s my take. I’ve just revisited
all the textual evidence, which can be found in bits and pieces spread across a
half dozen chapters scattered throughout the second half of P&P, and my conclusion
is that Lizzy very definitely rationalizes away her clear moral duty to tell
Jane—she rationalizes it away when it matters most, i.e., before Darcy gives Bingley the green light to “go to it” (that great line in Davies’s P&P2, delivered
with such brio by Colin Firth), and Lizzy
continues to rationalize it away even when it is largely moot, i.e., after Jane and Bingley are already engaged.
And despite all the
tortured logic she tosses around in her mind, the simplest explanation for her
decision, the one that best conforms to Occam’s Razor, is that Lizzy is simply
afraid that Jane will not forgive Darcy for his devastating meddling—i.e., after
Darcy has proposed to her, and then written her The Letter, Lizzy is simply
more concerned for Darcy’s feelings and reputation than Lizzy is for Jane’s
feelings and romantic future. Of course, Lizzy does not see it this way,
but then, that is JA’s genius, as she
subtly draws the reader into Lizzy’s self-deluding thought processes, and “sells”
it to us so well that most Janeites tend to uncritically accept Lizzy’s
thinking as what the narrator (and JA) thinks is best, and also what we the
reader ought to think is best.
One key to my thinking is
that it is not true that there was (as Lizzy tells herself, in various ways)
nothing that could have been done to at least try to bring Jane and Bingley
together long before Darcy’s corrective action late in the novel. After all, the
Bennet family goes to extreme lengths to try to put the fire out when Lydia runs
off with Wickham, including Mr. Bennet traipsing off to London in desperate,
futile search of the missing couple.
So, why would it not have
been desirable and possible, several chapters earlier, as soon as Lizzy returns
to Longbourn from Hunsford, and before she leaves on her tour with the
Gardiners, for Mr. Bennet to go to London and pay a visit to Bingley and set
the young man straight about Jane’s strong love for him? Why exactly would that
have been inappropriate? And there would
be a kind of poetic justice in such an action, since we’d instantly be reminded
of Mr. Bennet’s secret mission early in the novel when he pays a visit to
Netherfield to check in with Mr. Bingley and, as he drily jokes, “offer” one of his daughters as a wife.
And…I think such a
discreet diplomatic mission would have had a high probability of success, given
that Mr. Bennet was no slouch in the realm of rhetoric and persuasion, and
Bingley was so easily persuaded by male authority figures.
Lizzy also concludes that
Jane would suffer more knowing Bingley loved her but was not going to marry
her, than Jane’s believing Bingley had forgotten her. I think that is a HIGHLY
dubious conclusion on Lizzy’s part, but even if I concede it for argument’s
sake, it is nonetheless a red herring, because Lizzy could have imparted this
crucial intelligence privately to her father, so that he could make his attempt
without telling Jane, so that Jane’s hopes would not be prematurely revived, in
case the mission failed.
Not even to try was a
guarantee of Jane and Bingley never getting together, based on all that Lizzy
knew after receiving Darcy’s letter. After all, Darcy’s letter gave Lizzy zero
hope that Darcy himself would undo the effects of his interference--Darcy
remained emphatic and resolute in the correctness and good morality of his
interference, as far as Lizzy knew.
So, I expect there to be
some disagreement with one or more of my points, anyone else care to chime in?
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on Twitter
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