Jane Austen Quote - Week 52 by Linda

A lesson in Love from Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 26.

Elizabeth is responding to her aunt’s request for information about Wickham which she detailed and then continues:




Quote

All this was acknowledged to Mrs. Gardiner; and after relating the circumstances, she thus went on: -- "I am now convinced, my dear aunt, that I have never been much in love; for had I really experienced that pure and elevating passion, I should at present detest his very name, and wish him all manner of evil. But my feelings are not only cordial towards him; they are even impartial towards Miss King. I cannot find out that I hate her at all, or that I am in the least unwilling to think her a very good sort of girl. There can be no love in all this. My watchfulness has been effectual; and though I should certainly be a more interesting object to all my acquaintance were I distractedly in love with him, I cannot say that I regret my comparative insignificance. Importance may sometimes be purchased too dearly. Kitty and Lydia take his defection much more to heart than I do. They are young in the ways of the world, and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome young men must have something to live on as well as the plain."

End of Quote

Let’s see what Jane has to say about “Love”. First, it is a “pure and elevating passion”. I would equate that phrase with our modern day saying about the experience of “falling in love”. Okay, I know about that. It happened to me, and it is a bit different from a crush, puppy love, admiration of Darcy's wet shirt scene, etc.

Next, Elizabeth says her “watchfulness has been effectual”. Well, I didn’t know about that part. Nobody in my experience talked about being ‘watchful’, nor what to ‘watch out’ for. Only recently have I run across the idea of first knowing a potential ‘boyfriend’, and then you proceed to ‘date’ him. The point being that you really get to know a person before any manner of intimacy is begun. By that I mean to say the opportunity for intimacy or putting yourself in danger of being ‘used’.

This brings us to being ‘distractedly in love’. It seems that there is the possibility of suddenly finding oneself in an undesirable situation due to not paying close attention, e.g. being distracted by all that ‘love’ stuff. You may find out that the other person is not honorable, truthful, etc as you first thought. So, we need to proceed very carefully, especially if you are ‘young in the ways of the world’. Believe me, I am old, and the ‘world has many ugly ways’ to beware of. Do you need a list?

Lastly, if things are not correctly done, we can find ourselves with ‘mortifying convictions’ and I have a few. My daughters keep telling me to write a book. Fortunately, there are some already out there.

I am sure Jane has lots of advice for us strewn throughout her works on the subject of ‘love’, and all we have to do is pay attention. End of Lesson.

Linda the Librarian

Pic 1: The beautiful Jennifer Ehle as Lizzy Bennet in Pride & Prejudice 1995, from Pecuniarities.com

Pic 2: Tom Riley as (the dashing!) George Wickham in 'Lost in Austen'.
(Icha's note: Forgive me dearest Linda, but you did not specify which Wickham pix I should put here, and since Lizzy was talking about Wickham, and the only dashing Wickham for me is the LIA version, so here he is!). Pic taken from Austenprose.com