Quick Index Board Index Home FAQ Site Map

View thread | Previous message | Next message


Perhaps not such a schemer?   Written by Tracy W (5/21/2007 5:50 p.m.) in consequence of the missive, Why did the Bingley sisters like Jane at first?, penned by Laurel
Are you new?

Wonderful though the ties of affection can be between sisters, I think that your answer of boredom is probably right. They can't be perpetually only talking to each other. JA tells us that the Bingley sisters like Jane and Elizabeth:


From chapter 6:
Miss Bennet's pleasing manners grew on the good will of Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley; and though the mother was found to be intolerable, and the younger sisters not worth speaking to, a wish of being better acquainted with them was expressed towards the two eldest.

I agree that Bingley does give indications that he likes Jane, but we don't know him before the novel. He may have called numerous other girls as beautiful as an angel before. In chapter 4 we are told that:
The manner in which they spoke of the Meryton assembly was sufficiently characteristic. Bingley had never met with pleasanter people or prettier girls in his life... If it is characteristic of Bingley to say that he had never met with pleasanter people or prettier girls, then he has probably said similar things many times before (implying a surprising monotonicity in improvement in the people he met - perhaps he spent his boyhood being raised by vicious gargoyles? :) ), so his sisters may have just discounted it as Bingley just being Bingley again.

And how good a schemer is Caroline? She hasn't managed to ensnare herself a rich husband yet. Her actions at Netherfield appear motivated only in the short-term, she observes Darcy's attention to Elizabeth and forms a reasonably simple plan of talking to Darcy about how inferior Elizabeth's relatives are. This does not give me the impression of a Machivallean plotter - it strikes me as entirely possible that Caroline just didn't think of the dangers when she sent the invite. Plus, it's quite easy to believe that all her attention was on Darcy, and she was thereby distracted from looking after her brother's "interest".


Previous message | Next message | Board index

All messages in the thread


Password:

Groupread is maintained by Myretta with WebBBS 3.21.


View thread | Previous message | Next message
Board index

Group Read Board Pride & Prejudice Board Emma Board Sense & Sensibility Board Persuasion Board Mansfield Park Board Northanger Abbey Board Austenuations Board Jane Austen's Life & Times Board Lady Catherine & Co. Board Library Board Virtual Views Board Ramble Board Meetings Board Newcomers' Board Milestones Board Help Board Pemberleans Board





- Jane Austen | Republic of Pemberley -

Quick Index Home Site Map JAInfo

© 2004 - 2012 The Republic of Pemberley

Get copyright permissions

Quantcast