Pride and Prejudice #2

At about half of the book, we were seeing how Jane and Elizabeth Bennet were not having such great luck in getting married.

Elizabeth takes a trip with Sir William Lucas to go visit Charlotte and her husband Mr.Collins. Once there, we see how there is conflict between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth due to the low class Elizabeth is from. She even lectures Elizabeth on how to properly play the pianforte.

We continue to see how Darcy looks for Elizabeth because of how he keeps visiting. One day he came to visit only to tell Elizabeth that Bingley is unlikely to spend much of his time at Netherfield Park in the future. After he leave, Charlotte tells Elizabeth that she thinks Darcy is in love with her or perhaps Colonel Fitzwilliam who is interested in Elizabeth.One time as Elizabeth walked Colonel Fitzwillian told her that Darcy claimed to have recently saved a friend from an imprudent marriage. So Elizabeth concluded that the friend was Bingley and therefore Darcy was the one that separated Bingley from Jane and because of that Jane is very sad now and this makes Elizabeth dislike Darcy even more. Once alone, Darcy comes in and confesses his love for Elizabeth and he proposes her to marry him. She refuses and demands to know is he was responsible for separating Bingley and Jane, and Darcy admits he did. Elizabeth tells Darcy Wickham’s accusations and tells him she thinks he is proud and selfish and that marriage to him is unthinkable. So the Darcy leaves. I believe this is so far the climax of the book because we see how Darcy finally confesses his love to Elizabeth but it just turns into a fight because Elizabeth is mad that Darcy separated Jane from Bingley. I think if Elizabeth wouldn't have found out about that then there would have been a greater chance that she might at least have said yes or at least have been nicer to Darcy.

The next day, Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter explaining why he separated Jane and Bingley and explained what actually happened with Wickham, which was nothing like Wickman said. Darcy and Wickham didn't get along because Wickham tried to get his sister's fortune, which makes sense because he also shifted to another girl because she had more fortune than Elizabeth did. This makes us conclude that Wickham is a liar and is only after the money because he doesn't have any. This makes Elizabeth decide not to trust Wickham and think better of Darcy. A week later, Elizabeth leaves and meets with her sisters to go home. She then sees Wickham before his regiment departs, and they discuss about Darcy but Elizabeth doesn't tell him anything about what she discovered.

Later on, Elizabeth accompanies the Gardiners on a tour of the Derbyshire countryside, and their traveling takes them close to Darcy’s manor, Pemberley. As Elizabeth tours Pemberley with the Gardiners she sees how beautiful it is and imagines how it would be like to be Darcy's wife. The housekeeper, Mrs. Reynolds, shows them portraits of Darcy and Wickham and tells them that in his youth Darcy was very sweet and also tells them a lot of good things about Darcy. Elizabeth is surprised to hear this because she only sees him as proud and selfish. Darcy then meets them very politely and asks Elizabeth if she wants to meet his sister and Elizabeth agrees. We can notice here, Darcy's great change in attitude. After Elizabeth rejected his proposal, he became a lot more humble and he has put his pride to the side in order for Elizabeth to like him. The next day, Darcy, Georgina (Darcy's sister) and Bingley visit Elizabeth at her inn and invite her and the Gardiners to dinner at Pemberley. At dinner, both of the Bingley sisters are present and Miss Bingley begins to attack Elizabeth with her comments. When the guests leave, Miss Bingley tries to bother her by reminding her when Darcy said Elizabeth was somewhat pretty but Darcy said that now he saw her as a really beautiful woman and this makes Miss Bingley upset.

When Elizabeth returns to her inn, she finds two letters from Jane saying that Lydia, one of her younger sisters, ran away with Wickham and that there are no news that they are married. Elizabeth worries a lot because if they don't marry then the reputation of her sister and the entire Bennet family will be ruined. She then hurries to find the Gardiners so they can leave back home in Longbourn. When they get home, Elizabeth finds out that her dad has left to go look for Lydia and Wickham. Elizabeth's mom is really mad and blames the Colonel for not taking good care of her daughter. They then notice that in the letter Lydia left, she signed it as Lydia Wickham. Mr. Gardiner decided to go to London to help Mr. Bennet in the search for Lydia but sends them a letter saying they have not found them yet. They also receive a letter from Mr.Collins accusing Mr. and Mrs. Bennet for being bad parents and saying how Lydia's actions reflect on the entire family. They later get a letter from Mr. Gardiner saying that they have still not found the couple and that Mr. Bennet has decided to return home. Two days after he returns home, they receive a letter from Mr. Gardiner saying he found the couple and that Wickham is willing to marry Lydia only if the Bennets will give him money. Mr. Bennet agrees because he believes that is better than his family having a bad reputation. We see here that after all Wickham is only after money and that's all he cares about. We also see how much Mrs. Bennet cares about marrying her daughters because even after all that happened, Mrs. Bennet doesn't care and is just happy that her daughter is getting married. This also leads us to notice that the Bennets are really good parents. Mrs. Bennet is just worried about getting her daughters married while Mr. Bennet is just not caring about his daughters.

Elizabeth has came to realize that she really likes Darcy now and that if he were to ask her to marry him again she would accept, but thinking about Lydia's behavior and having Wickham as part of the family makes her think it almost impossible for Darcy to propose to her again. Before leaving to the North of England with her new husband, Lydia and Wickham come visit the Bennet house and there Lydia tells Jane and Elizabeth that Darcy was at their wedding, which makes Elizabeth send Mrs. Gardiner a letter asking her why he was there. Mrs. Gardiner sent Elizabeth a letter that said that Darcy was the one who found Lydia and Wickham and he was the one who paid Wickham to marry Lydia. Elizabeth is very surprised that Darcy did all of this. I think Darcy did it because of his immense love for Elizabeth. Days after, Bingley and Darcy come to the Bennet house and says that they will dine there soon. The days that follow Bingley keeps showing up at the Bennet house and then the second time they were left alone, he tells Jane that he will ask her dad for permission to marry her and Mr. Bennet agrees. Jane is very happy and Mrs. Bennet is as well and everyone in the neighbourhood says that the Bennets are lucky because of their daughter's marriage. We know that the book is coming to a conclusion because Bingley and Jane are now together and we know that Elizabeth and Darcy will soon be together too.

A week after Bingley and Jane got engaged, Lady Catherine came to visit the Bennets and told Elizabeth that she heard that Darcy was planning on marrying Elizabeth so she tried to convince her not to marry him because of how low class her family was. Elizabeth defended her family and told her she couldn't promise anything so Lady Catherine left very angry. A little after, Darcy came to stay with Bingley at his place. Both Bingley and Darcy visit the Bennets and they all take a walk together. Elizabeth and Darcy walk slower and when they are alone she thanks him for what she did for Lydia and he says he did it for her and that he still loves her. Elizabeth tells him that she loves him too and that she is willing to marry him. We can see now how everything is coming to a conclusion because now both of the main couples are together. The next day, Darcy asks Mr. Bennet for permission to marry Elizabeth and after talking to Elizabeth about her feelings for Darcy, he agreed. Darcy sends Lady Cathrine a letter announcing their engagement. The Collinses, Lucas, and Mrs. Philips all then come to congratulate the new couple. After both couples get married, Bingley bought an estate near Pemberley, where Darcy lived. That way the sisters could visit each other frequently and the two friends could also visit each other. Elizabeth eventually becomes great friends with Georgiana, Darcy's sisters. Lady Catherine eventually accepts the marriage and visits Darcy and Elizabeth at Pemberley. Darcy and Elizabeth continue to consider the Gardiners close friends, as they were the ones that brought Elizabeth to Pemberley for the first time. Not all of the sisters got married after all but the two oldest sisters were married happily to the ones they loved. And this concludes Pride and Prejudice.