In our relations is everything. They inform us of ourselves and secure or forever deny us our peace.

So deeply does Mr. Bennet feel his lack of felicity that he searches here for its mimetic correction. Elizabeth, though, has been a student of her family. The diffidence it inspired in her first repelled Darcy. She has gone through a process inspired by her father, in part, to which he was ignorant.

This meeting of blind, amiable ignorance and beleaguered intel, or even regret, and for Elizabeth to face this circumstance through her father, is moving.

Darcy’s reserve at coffee is what opens up the way for the bombast of the ending scene. It is difficult for a writer to have a3rd party be the primary mover of an event that concerns the main characters in the book. A writer should look to have 3rd parties intrude in the action wherever possible, especially when that 3rd party is motivated by some character flaw. Ina faulty effort of reducing the overwhelming complexity of a book’s various actions, the novice writer will try to bottle up the dynamic so that it only ever takes place between the parties that are primarily concerned in it.

All the shot in the county would not kill so many birds.

Civility is a powerful engine of invention.

Of course Mr Collins immediately spoils the beans to Lady Catherine.

> I shall think you a simpleton… 😂

Whereas a writer like Dickens would likely follow the action and present scenes between Wickham and Lydia while they lamb it, the restraint shown in making this incident a crisis of the same sitting rooms and characters heretofore described approves Austen, although either strategy could be artfully carried out. By not going to the scenes that are maliciously concealed from her family, the reader feels more the anxiety of Lydia’s absence.

The reader knows that the Intel on Wickham was not divulged, but it helps to have Elizabeth thoroughly articulate why it was not. We observe two perspectives on this major point of the plot; one, that it happened, and another in what it meant.

A fortuitous encounter occurs when information that is cause for anxiety is hot on the mind and am interlocutor who might only be tangentially concerned is first encountered.

It reads to me like Chapter 44 was difficult to write successfully. It can be excruciating to carry off a novel’s house keeping successfully. It isa matter of assessing a world stark needs, rather than immersing oneself in the play of emotions.

The presentation of the stream, fish, and scope, by way of Darcy’s appearing a long way of is well done. Fish and man are like in their natural environment, and Mr. Gardener at least is here to observe them similarly.

The trappings of Pemberly are imbued with what Darcy failed to present to the world in simple social relations. They are the proximate cause of his pride but also the tutor of his sense of responsibility and ethics..

Interestingly, the relationship between the sisters presents the divulgence of Intel to the most vulnerable, whereas to Jane it is readily revealed.

The reader sees and understand why Wickham saturated the plot, even though Elizabeth harbors new suspicions of him, but his being mentioned here is not unusual for Elizabeth, as he is just another in a sea of connections.

Mr. Wickham’s treatment of Miss King came to Elizabeth second hand. She was therefore able to ignore it, but it becomes more, in light of contravening information, heavy evidence indeed.

And Darcy asserts that Wickham’s true character was never good.

As per my note about Wickham’s fidelity to the senior Darcy, here Darcy confirms his father’s true feelings for Wickham.

In the deference of feeling to consideration of connections and status, the modern reader observes more of a melodramatic double than was perhaps meant. Darcy never come upon a twist of fate that expresses plainly how misprized the concerns of his station were. Lady Catherine and her daughter’s fate, so too Ms. Bingley’s, are the stand ins for Darcy’s flaws, which Lady Catherine in particular shares. Only this trio suffers bitter disappointment at the end of the book. It makes for a somewhat subtler method than a writer like Dickens, whose characters often suffer from their doubles in the end without proxy. This point being made, I realize I spoke too soon, because the change Mr. Darcy must go through is confronting his strategic error in concealing Mr. Wickham’s character for concern of what it might mean for Georgiana or his own status. He must confront the damage his flaw does to the Bennetts when Lydia is ensnared by Wickham.

Poor plotters are often simply unaware of the devices that can be used to advance or otherwise articulate the plot. A character hitting upon a secret through conjecture, as James does here, without having knowledge or suspicions of the matter is an efficient method and one that is true to life. Others include the discovery of some evidence by accidental or coincidental means and guilt driving a character to reveal select information. It does the writer a great service to always have these devices in view.

Colonel Fitzwilliams and his evident, although ultimately benign interest in Elizabeth does outsized work in making the primary relationship of the book more dynamic. He is as a fire screen to their romance, a pleasant piece of furniture that allows for its users to grow accustomed to the strong force in the room.

Concern over the fire screen is an obsession of Mr. Woodhouse in _Emma_ and seems of particular concern to the sickly or neurotic in Austen’s work.

Miss King is somewhat hard to track, but Wickham takes an interest in her, or her ten thousand a year, before Miss King’s uncle prevents the match. Architecturally, it demonstrates Elizabeth’s unwillingness to listen, which in turn articulated her sincere captivation worth Wickham. This is an element of her change, one that must be overcome for the book to resolve. Her unwillingness to hear is intimately linked to her characters self overhearing.

I wonder how unceremonious evictions could be.

Elizabeth is full of ruinous foibles that feel known to Austen herself.

Sly mister Bennett is always after his own comfort. He can almost be accused of neglectfulness. The station of his daughters is deeply in doubt, but it does not seem to bother him, indicating with a spiritual depth or spiritual dearth.

This deliberation between the sisters contains a potent example of what Auerbach would call the representation of reality. The examples from Mimesis that were composed nearest to Pride and prejudice are Luise Miller by Friedrich Schiller and The Red and The Black by Stendhal. Auerbach's examples, generally, touched upon a quality in the representation of reality in literature that might best be described as weird. There is very little weird in Pride and Prejudice, although Northanger Abbey is rife with the weird, but something about this discussion feels representative.

> His father, Miss Bennet, the late Mr. Darcy, was one of the best men that ever breathed, and the truest friend I ever had; and I can never be in company with this Mr. Darcy without being grieved to the soul by a thousand tender recollections. - Mr. Wickham It is interesting to consider whether or not this claim, amongst Mr. Wickham certain's deceptions, is a true one. Who else could hold the title of Wickham's truest friend? In which case, Wickham's betrayal of this sincerely held admiration and mutual affection makes Wickham a somewhat more tragic figure. I will need to look for more evidence to confirm or deny this theory in future pages.

👥 Mr. Wickham