Bennet's sister, Mrs. Some of the officers are also present, including Wickham, who seeks Elizabeth out and sits next to her as she plays cards. Wickham astonishes her by revealing the nature of his relationship with Darcy, telling her that his father was Darcy's father's steward and that he and Darcy grew up together.
According to Wickham, he was a favorite of Darcy's father and when Darcy's father died, Wickham was supposed to have received a position as a clergyman at the rectory that the Darcy family oversees. However, Darcy gave the job to someone else — out of jealousy, Wickham presumes — and left Wickham to fend for himself. Wickham declares that both Darcy and his sister are proud and unpleasant people, and Elizabeth eagerly concurs with his opinion.
When Elizabeth shares Wickham's story with Jane, Jane insists there must be some sort of misunderstanding on both Wickham's and Darcy's parts. Elizabeth laughs at her sister's kind nature and declares that she knows Wickham to be right. As they are discussing the matter, Bingley calls to invite the family to a ball at Netherfield in a few days. Everyone is delighted, including Mr. Collins who, to Elizabeth's dismay, secures her promise that she'll dance the first two dances with him.
At the ball, Elizabeth is disappointed to discover that Wickham is absent and blames Darcy for making him uncomfortable enough to avoid coming. She is so surprised, however, when Darcy asks her to dance with him that she agrees to it without thinking. As they dance, they are at first interrupted by Sir William, who alludes to the anticipated engagement between Jane and Bingley. Darcy seems troubled by this, but is then distracted when Elizabeth raises the subject of Wickham.
They discuss Wickham tensely and end their dance feeling angry and dissatisfied. At dinner, Elizabeth is mortified by her mother's incessant chatter to Lady Lucas about Jane and Bingley getting engaged. She notices that Darcy can't help but hear her mother's loud whispers and unsuccessfully encourages her mother the change the subject.
After dinner, Elizabeth's sense of humiliation grows as her parents and all of her sisters except Jane act foolishly and without restraint.
Collins adds to her misery by continuing to hover near her, causing Elizabeth to be grateful when Charlotte engages him in conversation. With the introduction of Wickham to the novel, the plot begins to become more complicated. Note that even though Elizabeth is perceptive enough to immediately sense that something is wrong between Wickham and Darcy, her perceptive abilities where Darcy and Wickham are concerned will be blinded by her prejudice, rendering her unable to see Darcy's or Wickham's true natures.
Elizabeth's prejudices stem from her first impressions of the men. Whereas she was initially repulsed by Darcy's arrogant and reserved manners and his insulting refusal to dance with her, she is attracted to Wickham's "happy readiness of conversation — a readiness at the same time perfectly correct and unassuming.
Darcy in an unfavorable light. However, Elizabeth slyly told him that she was aware about the truth of his past, and that he had lied to her.
Though Wickham tried to press to find out exactly what she knew, she chose to drop the subject, not wanting to argue with Wickham in front of Lydia. Wickham did not speak to Elizabeth again, aware she knew the truth, and departed with Lydia to Newcastle for his new position. When Wickham and Lydia learned that Mr. Darcy was marrying Elizabeth, Lydia wrote to her sister, probably with encouragement from Wickham, asking for an annual stipend to be provided for them. Elizabeth, though, refused to give them any money.
Lydia was no better than Wickham with money, and the two kept incurring debts on their various activities of frivolity. They were never in one place for long, moving around to find cheaper accommodations.
Whenever they did move, Elizabeth or Jane, who married Mr. Bingley, would pay off the debts they left behind. Wickham was not allowed at Pemberley, but Darcy would help him in his career, for Elizabeth's sake. Wickham is a very charming man, an excellent conversationalist and possesses a gift for making friends.
Unfortunately, he is also an immoral, extravagant liar who has no problem with using or ruining other people in order accomplish his own ends.
He tends to live in the moment without giving much thought to the future and has by so doing thrown away many of the advantages that he was given due to old Mr. Darcy's patronage. Until his marriage to Lydia, his overall plan in life was to marry an heiress.
He is not happy with his marriage. Lydia is Wickham's wife through an "arranged marriage" set by Darcy. He took Lydia with him when he left the militia, running away from his gambling debts, though with no intention of marrying her. In the end, he married her in return of Darcy paying off his debts. According to Elizabeth, Lydia's love for him is deeper than his and they do not live in a blissful marriage as they are always working or moving from one place to another.
Elizabeth is Lydia's sister and she later became his sister-in-law. At first she is charmed by Wickham's good looks and charisma. However, she never saw that Wickham was not who he appeared to be, despite seeing the tense interaction between him and Darcy, and her aunt warning her to be careful as the family doesn't have a lot of money.
It was not until she refused Darcy's first marriage proposal and read his letter, revealing that Wickham sought to elope with Georgiana for her inheritance, that she realises his true nature. After Lydia married him, Elizabeth rarely spoke to him and didn't argue with him in front of Lydia to preserve Lydia's feelings.
Darcy was a former childhood friend to Wickham. Wickham's father was a steward to Darcy's father and he was present when Darcy's father passed away. They both went to school together but Wickham was lazy and left in disgrace. He is always asking Darcy for more money to deal with his gambling debts. This causes a strained relationship between the two characters. When Darcy found Lydia and Wickham in London eloping with each other, Darcy is able to bribe him to marry Lydia to save the Bennet family from disgrace.
He only helps him find work under Elizabeth's instruction but no more else. Georgiana is Darcy's younger sister.
Collins is in search of a wife and when Mrs. Bennet hints that Jane may soon be engaged, he fixes his attention on Elizabeth. Denny introduces his friend, Mr. Wickham, who has just joined the militia, and the young women find Wickham charming. While they converse, Darcy and Bingley happen by, and Elizabeth notices that Wickham and Darcy are extremely cold to each other. Darcy and Bingley depart, and the company pays a visit to Mrs. Phillips, Mrs. Collins to dine at her house the following night.
The girls convince her to invite Wickham as well. They return home and Mr. Collins spends the evening telling Mrs. Collins fades into the background.
Eventually, Wickham and Elizabeth find themselves in conversation, and she hears his story: he had planned on entering the ministry, rather than the militia, but was unable to do so because he lacked money.
Elizabeth, who instinctively likes and trusts Wickham, accepts his story immediately. Later in the evening, while she is watching Mr. Wickham, and what he had told her, all the way home. Elizabeth expresses these feelings to Jane the next day, and Jane defends Darcy, saying that there is probably a misunderstanding between the two men. Elizabeth will have none of it, and when Bingley invites the neighborhood to a ball the following Tuesday, she looks forward to seeing Wickham.
Unfortunately, she is forced to promise the first two dances to Mr. These chapters introduce Mr. Collins, a parody of a serious cleric, serves as a vehicle for criticism of the practice of entailment, by which the law forces Mr. Bennet to leave his property to such a ridiculous man instead of his own daughters. He differs, however, from Miss Bingley and Lady de Bourgh in that he is not snobbish because of his own rank; rather, he is snobbish by association.
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