P&P - CH. 17-20

"'I have not a doubt of Mr. Bingley's sincerity,' said Elizabeth warmly; 'but you must excuse my not being convinced by assurance only ... since he [Bingley] is unacquainted with several parts of the story, and has learnt the rest from that friend himself, I shall venture still to think of both gentlemen as I did before" (73).

Elizabeth was primarily depicted as a young woman of intelllect and wit. She differed from her sisters because of her ability to logically notice things that they could not. As more of her character is revealed, we see a bit of similarity between her and Darcy that she acknowledges. However, this quote when she is speaking to Jane contradicts the Elizabeth we've come to know. ELizabeth is overcome with two overwhelming emotions - infatuation(for Wickham) and hatred (towards Darcy). Though she speaks as if she is defending Mr. Wickham out of reasoning, she is actually making these claims based on how she is feeling. Elizabeth has already established that she hates Darcy, thus she will go on making decisions based on that. Furthermore, now that she is attracted to Mr. Wickham, she will make decisions based on that.

"'Mr. Darcy seemed much pleased with the attention. He answered me with the utmost cicility'" (75).

Mr. Collins condescendingly disregards Elizabeth's suggestion telling him not to apologize to Mr. Darcy. Collins is known for his excessive and annoying "pardons". Thus, ELizabeth's caution was valid. However, as we see in this quote, Mr. Darcy's response to Mr. Collins was not what Elizabeth had expected. She had expected Mr. Darcy to view Mr. Collins' scheme as an impertinent freedom. On the contrary, Darcy was pleased with Mr. Collins' approach. This is of no surprise and this shouldn't be to ELizabeth either, because in her conversation with Mr. Wickham, he specifically said that smong the rich, "he is liberal-minded, just, sincere, rational, honourable, and perhaps agreeable" (62-63). Considering the fact that Collins is rich himself, it makes sense that he finds Darcy to be a pleasant man.