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anghraineSomething I’ve always found really interesting is the way in which we see the uncertainty of the Bingleys’ social status.
I mean, there are incredibly obvious things like Caroline and Louisa’s grovelling to Darcy and Georgiana.
But there’s also the simple fact that Austen considers it worth mentioning that while the Bingleys associate with “people of fashion” (high society), the money comes from trade. That does not, as some people suggest, put the Bennet girls higher up the social ladder than Caroline Bingley. (No. Really.) They were brought up and educated as fashionable ladies, they have the fortune to match, they move in high(ish) social circles.
But it matters. It’s why Louisa is married to a penniless fop: that’s who they could afford. It’s why Caroline keeps grovelling to Darcy and Georgiana after his marriage; she’s getting something important out of that connection even once marriage is off the table. Caroline’s fashionable friends and fashionable in-laws and fashionable education at the fashionable seminary in London are juxtaposed against the reality of where the money came from. She needed to go there. They needed the marriage to the Hursts (whoever they are). They need the estate that Bingley isn’t buying. There’s a reason she’s overcompensating so very hard.
Jane, who is a precious flower, doesn’t see why Caroline would be so invested in Bingley marrying Georgiana if he isn’t in love with her. Elizabeth impatiently says that of course they’d be invested in their brother marrying an heiress related to incredibly important people. Naturally the chance of one Bingley-Darcy marriage bringing about another is a factor, but primarily, Bingley marrying a Darcy would go a long ways in rubbing off the smear of what the fuck your father worked for a living once.
Darcy himself vaguely alludes to it in his letter to Elizabeth. He explains that, after all the shit he said about her family, that didn’t much influence him when it came to Bingley marrying into the family. It matters with Darcy himself, but not much with Bingley, because … uh. Things.
And Fitzwilliam, who appears to be Darcy’s best friend, also appears to only vaguely know the Bingleys. It’s not that Darcy and Bingley aren’t close; Fitzwilliam himself says they are. But also, while Fitzwilliam’s opinions of Bingley are positive (in a vague, Darcy-filtered way), he says outright that Bingley is Darcy’s friend and that he only knows Bingley’s sisters a little. It sounds like he honestly doesn’t know them that well and certainly doesn’t spend much time around them.
Yet Darcy himself says that he and Fitzwilliam have a “near relationship” of “constant intimacy.” So we’ve got two different social groups here, both fashionable, but one in which Darcy is clearly dominant, the other in which he’s interacting with relatives and social equals (who, it’s repeatedly suggested, will judge him hard for marrying … a gentleman’s daughter). And there just isn’t much overlap between the two. At least as far as the Bingleys are concerned.
The funny/awful thing is that nobody is really unpleasant about it. Fitzwilliam has nothing bad to say about the Bingleys. It just so happens that they don’t often meet socially. Because of reasons.
I’m pretty sure we know what they are. But it’s unspoken: nobody talks about it, ever.
I mean, there are incredibly obvious things like Caroline and Louisa’s grovelling to Darcy and Georgiana.
But there’s also the simple fact that Austen considers it worth mentioning that while the Bingleys associate with “people of fashion” (high society), the money comes from trade. That does not, as some people suggest, put the Bennet girls higher up the social ladder than Caroline Bingley. (No. Really.) They were brought up and educated as fashionable ladies, they have the fortune to match, they move in high(ish) social circles.
But it matters. It’s why Louisa is married to a penniless fop: that’s who they could afford. It’s why Caroline keeps grovelling to Darcy and Georgiana after his marriage; she’s getting something important out of that connection even once marriage is off the table. Caroline’s fashionable friends and fashionable in-laws and fashionable education at the fashionable seminary in London are juxtaposed against the reality of where the money came from. She needed to go there. They needed the marriage to the Hursts (whoever they are). They need the estate that Bingley isn’t buying. There’s a reason she’s overcompensating so very hard.
Jane, who is a precious flower, doesn’t see why Caroline would be so invested in Bingley marrying Georgiana if he isn’t in love with her. Elizabeth impatiently says that of course they’d be invested in their brother marrying an heiress related to incredibly important people. Naturally the chance of one Bingley-Darcy marriage bringing about another is a factor, but primarily, Bingley marrying a Darcy would go a long ways in rubbing off the smear of what the fuck your father worked for a living once.
Darcy himself vaguely alludes to it in his letter to Elizabeth. He explains that, after all the shit he said about her family, that didn’t much influence him when it came to Bingley marrying into the family. It matters with Darcy himself, but not much with Bingley, because … uh. Things.
And Fitzwilliam, who appears to be Darcy’s best friend, also appears to only vaguely know the Bingleys. It’s not that Darcy and Bingley aren’t close; Fitzwilliam himself says they are. But also, while Fitzwilliam’s opinions of Bingley are positive (in a vague, Darcy-filtered way), he says outright that Bingley is Darcy’s friend and that he only knows Bingley’s sisters a little. It sounds like he honestly doesn’t know them that well and certainly doesn’t spend much time around them.
Yet Darcy himself says that he and Fitzwilliam have a “near relationship” of “constant intimacy.” So we’ve got two different social groups here, both fashionable, but one in which Darcy is clearly dominant, the other in which he’s interacting with relatives and social equals (who, it’s repeatedly suggested, will judge him hard for marrying … a gentleman’s daughter). And there just isn’t much overlap between the two. At least as far as the Bingleys are concerned.
The funny/awful thing is that nobody is really unpleasant about it. Fitzwilliam has nothing bad to say about the Bingleys. It just so happens that they don’t often meet socially. Because of reasons.
I’m pretty sure we know what they are. But it’s unspoken: nobody talks about it, ever.