Austen August: A Pride and Prejudice Read-A-Long discussion

While the others dine at Rosings, Lizzie takes the time to re-read Jane's letters since she arrived in Kent at the start of the year. She finds herself thinking that Janes sounds more pained in her letters than she had originally thought, and can't wait to return to Jane in the next two weeks.

While happy Darcy would be leaving Kent, she was unhappy Colonel Fitzwilliam would be going to, but it was clear the colonel had no intentions towards her, so she wasn't going to begrudge him it. The doorbell rings, and she hopes it is Colonel Fitzwilliam, she hopes he has come to ask about her health after hearing she is unwell, but it is not Colonel Fitzwilliam- it is Darcy.



He immediately asks about her health and after a few minutes silence, we get the infamous lines:-

“In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed.
You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

...I can't help but feel it somehow sounds more like a bank letter than a declaration of love, but hey ho.

He takes her silence for something else entirely and continues to discuss all the reasons he fought against his initial liking of her, mainly to do with “her inferiority” due to her family connections and wealth or lack thereof.... smooth, Darcy.

Initially, Lizzie feels bad for the pain she is about to give Darcy, but then she remembers how angry she is at him for his treatment of Jane, and then the comments about her “inferiority” don't really help to win her over- he finished his speech by talking about how despite all of her flaws, he can't ignore his attachment to her clearly expecting a positive answer from her- wow, he's in for a shock.

She tells him that while normally even if the feelings were unrequited, the person receiving these “compliments” would normally thank the other for them- but she “has never desired your good opinion and you have bestowed it most unwillingly.”

Darcy is embarrassed and angry at this refusal, and wants to know exactly why he has been turned down. She replies that she might as well ask “why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and against your character?” while this was enough to allow her to be “uncivil” towards him in her reply, she tells him she has greater reasons for being annoyed at him, because he has ruined any future happiness her beloved sister may have had.

He calmly states that he doesn't deny doing everything he could to separate “my friend from your sister”. When she brings up the fact what set her opinion about him already was a conversation with Wickham, now that really does make him uneasy- the fact that she actually listened to whatever Wickham has said.

She “explains” that he has fully ruined Wickham into a life of poverty and deprived him of what was rightly his. He is annoyed that this is what has apparently cemented her opinion of him and asks whether he was supposed to be happy that he liked her despite her family and background connections.

She tells him that the only way his declaration had an affect on her, is that it spared her any concern she had for him in her refusal “had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner”

*meow! *

She goes on to say that basically, he could be the last man on earth and she still wouldn't marry him. He is mortified and astonished, wishes her good health and walks out of the house. Lizzie is reeling from the thought that Darcy has apparently been in love with her for months. In love enough to want to marry her despite his own circumstances mirroring the exact same case which made him seperate Bingley and Jane. Hypocrisy all around!

So when Darcy was asking whether Lizzie had thought if the Collins' would be truly happy together, he was actually asking if she thought *they * might be happy together, as Jane and Bingley would have been!



(NB: I've somehow read exactly 1000 pages for Austen August so far, wait whut!! Not bad for 16 days in!)

Oh Darcy, you must write a book: How Not to Propose to a Woman. Chapters will include: Don't Insult Her Family, Keep Mum About Her Inferiority, and That Sounded Different in My Head.

haha that line from The swan princess "How to insult women in ten syllables or less". I love how he actually thought she would say yes after he had insulted everything about her family and background

I believe he thought himself overlooking all these things was a virtue on his part. Darcy's pride keeps him from seeing other people's perspectives. First with Jane and Bingley and now with Elizabeth. Ironically, Lizzy's prejudice keeps her from seeing the whole picture as well.

I see what Austen did there ;3

Darcy made my eyes hurt:
"In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed..."
Why on Earth would you start a proposal like that?!

What the heck, Darcy?! *facepalm*

hahahaah "How to insult a girl in thirty syllables or less"