First Impressions, Second Thoughts
Elizabeth Bennet began to wonder if being Mr Darcy’s wife might have had its compensations.
1813
Elizabeth Bennet began to wonder if being Mr Darcy’s wife might have had its compensations.
1813
Elizabeth Bennet has recently turned down a proposal of marriage from Mr Darcy; now, having recently visited his snobbish aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, she is on a guided tour round Mr Darcy’s own magnificent country house in Derbyshire, ‘Pemberley’.
THE rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of their proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.
“And of this place” thought she, “I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own, and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt.”
“But no” recollecting herself “that could never be; my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them.”
This was a lucky recollection — it saved her from something like regret.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate her ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What did Pemberley say about its owner, in Elizabeth’s eyes?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Elizabeth rejected Mr Darcy’s proposal. She went on a guided tour of his house. He was away.