P & P ch.10-12

Stephen Simmons
AP English 11/Mr. George
11/18/09
P&P

"Mr. Wickham's adieus were much more affectionate than his wife's. He smiled, looked handsome, and said many pretty things...'He is as fine a fellow...as ever I saw'"(251).

Mr. Bennet's comment are finally appropriate. This quotation explains the evolution of Mr. Bennet's character. He is now finally beginning to say things that are more appropriate and less sarcastic. What is ironic about this however, is the fact that he speaks well of the person that he despised just a few pages earlier. He comments that during their visit Mr. Wickham was presented better and appealed to his liking more than his daughter did. Not only is it weird that he is not speaking highly of the man he despised, but he does not speak that greatly of his own daughter in relation to Wickham.

"She could think of nothing more to say; but if he wished to converse with her, he might have better success. He stood by her, however, for some minutes, in silence"(260).

Earlier in the novel Darcy had explained to Elizabeth that he is not able to converse with those whom he has not met before. In other words, he can not speak well to strangers. Even in the latest stages of the novel, after spending time with Elizabeth and observing her which is what many true admirerers do, he still struggles to speak with her. We would think by now that the nerves have gone away and he has gotten comfortable enough around her to just say what he needs to say, but this is not the case. Some may argue that it is because he is so in love and anxious that he can not motivate himself to speak with her, which is the case in many situations. However, I believe, based on what Darcy had explained earlier, that he still has trouble speaking with her because there is an absence of familiarity between the two. If you think about it, they have not exchanged conversation or emotions enough to grasp a good feeling about one another, just structures theories. He does not speak to Elizabeth because there is still some uncertainty about her, and for the first time, Darcy can not read into someones life in the sense that he can not distinguish the mutual feeling felt by Elizabeth just as he ventured to do with Bingley and Jane.