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| English Literature books summaryVolume III, Chapter 8 Summary: Mr. Bennet wants to find out how much Mr. Gardiner paid to get Wickham to agree to the marriage and to pay him back as much as possible. After listening throughout dinner to Mrs. Bennet's talk of wedding plans and suitable houses in the neighborhood for Lydia and Wickham, Mr. Bennet informs her that he will not receive the couple at Longbourn, nor give Lydia money for wedding clothes. Mrs. Bennet is more disgraced by her daughter's lack of new clothes for the wedding than by her elopement. Elizabeth reflects on the fact that with Wickham as a member of the family, there is no possibility that Darcy will propose to her again. His proposal of four months ago would now be most gratefully received. She realizes that Darcy is the man who would most suit her, and that their personalities would complement each other for their mutual advantage. Another letter arrives from Mr. Gardiner. He reports that Wickham is planning to quit the militia and that has a promise of an ensigncy in a regiment quartered in the North. The letter also mentions Wickham will pay off all his debts both in Brighton and Meryton. After entreaties from Elizabeth and Jane, Mr. Bennet decides to allow Lydia and Wickham to visit Longbourn before leaving for the North. Volume III, Chapter 9 Summary: When the couple arrives, they show no sense of shame whatsoever and Lydia shamelessly expects congratulations from all her sisters. Jane and Elizabeth are extremely distressed at Lydia's conduct. Upon observance, Elizabeth finds that Wickham's affection for Lydia is not nearly so strong as her affection for him. Lydia relates to Elizabeth all the details of the wedding. She is completely ungrateful for what the Gardiners have done, and even complains that they would not let her go out while she was staying with them. Lydia mentions in passing that Mr. Darcy attended the wedding, but then says that she was not supposed to tell anyone. Elizabeth writes to Mrs. Gardiner asking for more details about why Mr. Darcy was at the wedding. Volume III, Chapter 10 Summary: Mrs. Gardiner's letter arrives, explaining all the particulars with regard to Mr. Darcy's involvement in the wedding. Mr. Darcy was the one who found out Wickham's whereabouts by bribing Miss Younge (the woman who had helped Wickham to seduce Georgiana) to tell him. When Darcy found the couple, he tried to convince Lydia to leave, but she refused. That being the case, Darcy tried to get Wickham to marry Lydia, which Wickham had no intention of doing. Darcy offered Wickham money in order to persuade him to marry Lydia. Darcy then waited until Mr. Bennet had left for Longbourn and went to inform Mr. Gardiner of all that had occurred, explaining that he felt guilty for not having exposed Wickham's character sooner. Mrs. Gardiner concludes the letter stating that she is sure Darcy's actions are motivated by his love for Elizabeth, and relates to Elizabeth how much she thinks that he would be a good match. In reflecting on the letter, Elizabeth is sensible of all the mortification and suffering which Darcy must have gone through in the process of getting Wickham to marry Lydia. She does not think, however, that his regard for her could possibly be the primary motive, and she still does not think that there is any hope that he will marry her. Elizabeth's reflections are interrupted by Wickham. They have a guarded conversation in which she makes it clear that she knows more about Wickham's true past than he would like, but she avoids provoking him for Lydia's sake. Volume III, Chapter 11 Summary: Lydia and Wickham leave for Newcastle, where his new regiment is stationed. Lydia's good-byes are not very affectionate. Mrs. Bennet is sad that she will not be able to see her daughter for a long time. Mrs. Bennet hears from Mrs. Phillips that Mr. Bingley is planning to return to Netherfield in a few days. Jane tells Elizabeth that she does not want to see much of him. Elizabeth, however, after having seen him while on vacation with the Gardiners, is sure that he is still partial to Jane, and thinks that perhaps Mr. Darcy may have told Bingley that he now approves of the match. Mrs. Bennet plans to invite Bingley to dinner. Jane is obviously disturbed by his coming and is pained by the constant mention of his name. Mr. Bingley and Darcy come to pay a visit at Netherfield. Elizabeth begins to hope that Darcy's affections for her are not shaken. When they come in, Elizabeth is pained by Mrs. Bennet's cold reception of Darcy in comparison with Mr. Bingley, considering how much she owes to Darcy. Elizabeth is also mortified by her mother's jubilant announcement of Lydia and Wickham's marriage. Darcy speaks little during the visit. When the gentlemen are leaving Mrs. Bennet invites them for dinner. Volume III, Chapter 12 Summary: During the dinner party, Bingley sits next to Jane and Elizabeth is convinced that he still admires her. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are sitting too far apart to be able to speak, and circumstances prevent them from conversing after dinner. Elizabeth is anxious and annoyed because she wants to speak with him very badly. Mrs. Bennet is extremely pleased with the dinner and is sure that Bingley and Jane will soon be married. Mr. Darcy is going back to London but will return in 10 days. Volume III, Chapter 13 Summary: After a few days Mr. Bingley calls again, and the day after he joins them again for dinner. Mrs. Bennet contrives to get Jane and Bingley alone together, but is unsuccessful. The next morning Mr. Bingley joins Mr. Bennet to go hunting, and he then stays for dinner. Mrs. Bennet is this time successful in arranging for Jane and Bingley to be left alone together. When Elizabeth walks into the drawing room she finds them there alone in earnest conversation. Bingley quickly leaves and Jane tells Elizabeth that she is the happiest woman in the world. Jane then goes to tell her mother, and Bingley, who had gone to speak with Mr. Bennet, returns and receives Elizabeth's congratulations. All are very happy. Bingley now comes to visit Netherfield every day. Volume III, Chapter 14 Summary: Early the next morning Lady Catherine unexpectedly comes to visit. Lady Catherine is, as usual, domineering and arrogant in her conversation. She tells Elizabeth she would like her company for a walk outside. Lady Catherine tells Elizabeth that she has come because of rumors that Darcy and Elizabeth will soon be married. Elizabeth answers her inquiries curtly and without revealing the fact that Darcy has not proposed to her again. Lady Catherine tries to forbid Elizabeth to marry Mr. Darcy, but Elizabeth is insensible to her entreaties and threats. Lady Catherine is furious and leaves. Volume III, Chapter 15 Summary: Her conversation with Lady Catherine throws Elizabeth into a great discomposure of spirits. She is not sure what the cause of Lady Catherine's suspicion is, but she is uneasy about the fact that Lady Catherine will surely try to influence Darcy not to propose. Mr. Bennet tells Elizabeth that he wants to speak with her and relates to her the contents of a letter from Mr. Collins in which he says that he has heard that Mr. Darcy may propose to Elizabeth and advises Elizabeth not to accept because of Lady Catherine's disapprobation. Mr. Bennet thinks the letter is extremely amusing because he still thinks that Darcy is indifferent to Elizabeth and that Elizabeth hates Darcy. Volume III, Chapter 16 Summary: Within a few days Mr. Darcy returns to Netherfield and he and Mr. Bingley come to Longbourn early in the day. Jane, Bingley, Darcy, Elizabeth, and Kitty take a walk. Jane and Bingley lag behind the rest, and eventually Darcy and Elizabeth are left to walk together alone as well. As soon as they are alone Elizabeth expresses to Darcy her gratitude for his assistance in the affair with Wickham and Lydia. Darcy replies that he wishes she had not found out, but adds that what he did was done for Elizabeth's sake. Elizabeth cannot say a word. Darcy tells her that his affections are no different than they were when he proposed, and asks her to tell him if hers are the same as well. Elizabeth informs him that her sentiments have changed and that she will now gladly receive his assurances of continued affection. He is overcome with delight upon hearing this and speaks warmly and fervently about his love. Lady Catherine's attempt to dissuade him from proposing only had the effect of giving him hope by letting him know that Elizabeth was not decided against marrying him. They speak about the last proposal, both apologizing for their lack of civility. Mr. Darcy had been tortured by Elizabeth's reproof "had you acted in a more gentleman-like manner." This and her other reproofs on that night humbled him and led him to realize his selfishness and conceit. Elizabeth tells Darcy that his letter slowly removed all her former prejudices. When Darcy met Elizabeth at Pemberley, he wanted to show her immediately that he had changed as a result of her just reproofs. Darcy tells Elizabeth that before leaving for London he had told Bingley that he had been wrong in interfering with Bingley's relationship with Jane and that he was now sure that Jane was really attached to him. This assurance from Darcy gave Bingley the encouragement he needed to make the proposal. Volume III, Chapter 17 Summary: At night, when she is finally able to speak with Jane alone, Elizabeth tells her what has happened. Jane is incredulous. But eventually Elizabeth convinces her that she is serious and that she really does love Darcy. Elizabeth explains her reasons for previously concealing her affection, and reveals to Jane what Darcy did for Lydia. Jane is extremely happy for her, and they spend half the night talking. The next morning Mrs. Bennet is annoyed on seeing that Mr. Darcy has again accompanied Bingley to Longbourn, and suggests that Elizabeth go for a walk with him to keep him out of Jane and Bingley's way. Elizabeth is quite happy to comply. Bingley greets Elizabeth with such warmth that she is sure he knows of her engagement. During their walk Elizabeth and Darcy decide that Darcy will ask Mr. Bennet's consent in the evening and that Elizabeth will speak to her mother. After Mr. Darcy speaks with Mr. Bennet, Darcy tells Elizabeth that her father wants to speak with her. Mr. Bennet is shocked because he thinks that Elizabeth hates Darcy. After long explanations she assures Mr. Bennet of her affection for him. She also tells him of what Darcy did for Lydia. He is surprised and happy for his daughter. At night Elizabeth tells her mother of the engagement. Her mother is shocked but extremely happy in thinking of how rich Darcy is. Her former dislike of him is completely forgotten. The next day her mother acts remarkably well toward Darcy, and her father tries to get to know him better and is pleased with him. Volume III, Chapter 18 Summary: Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy converse playfully about how he fell in love with her in the first place and why he took so long to propose the second time. He tells her that his second proposal was all thanks to Lady Catherine, her warning having given him hope of Elizabeth's affection. Elizabeth asks him when he will tell Lady Catherine the news, and he goes off to write to her, while Elizabeth goes to write to Mrs. Gardiner. Miss Bingley's reactions to Mr. Bingley's engagement to Jane are affectionate and insincere. Miss Darcy's reaction to news of Mr. Darcy's engagement is one of genuine delight. The Collinses come to stay at Lucas Lodge because Lady Catherine is so angry at the engagement. Darcy deals well with the obsequiousness of Mr. Collins, along with the vulgarity of Mrs. Philips and Mrs. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet is extremely happy and proud at her daughters' marriages. Mr. Bennet misses Elizabeth and often goes to visit her at Pemberley. Bingley and Jane leave Netherfield after a year and move to Derbyshire, because their closeness to Mrs. Bennet and the Meryton relations is too much to bear even for them. Kitty now spends most of her time with her sisters, and is much improved by their example and society. Mary stays at home and keeps her mother company on her visits. Lydia soon writes to Elizabeth to congratulate her and ask her to see if Mr. Darcy will use his money and influence to help Wickham. Elizabeth replies negatively, but does send Lydia money that she saves by economizing in her private expenses. Miss Bingley drops her resentment of Darcy's marriage because she wants to retain the right of visiting Pemberley. Georgiana and Elizabeth become very close and very fond of one another. Relations with Lady Catherine were broken off for a while, but Elizabeth finally convinces Darcy to attempt a reconciliation, and Lady Catherine comes to visit them. Darcy and Elizabeth are always on intimate terms with the Gardiners, to whom they are grateful for having brought them together. Pygmalion by B.Shaw Context Born in Dublin in 1856 to a middle-class Protestant family bearing pretensions to nobility (Shaw's embarrassing alcoholic father claimed to be descended from Macduff, the slayer of Macbeth), George Bernard Shaw grew to become what some consider the second greatest English playwright, behind only Shakespeare. Others most certainly disagree with such an assessment, but few question Shaw's immense talent or the play's that talent produced. Shaw died at the age of 94, a hypochondriac, socialist, anti- vaccinationist, semi-feminist vegetarian who believed in the Life Force and only wore wool. He left behind him a truly massive corpus of work including about 60 plays, 5 novels, 3 volumes of music criticism, 4 volumes of dance and theatrical criticism, and heaps of social commentary, political theory, and voluminous correspondence. And this list does not include the opinions that Shaw could always be counted on to hold about any topic, and which this amboyant public figure was always most willing to share. Shaw's most lasting contribution is no doubt his plays, and it has been said that "a day never passes without a performance of some Shaw play being given somewhere in the world." One of Shaw's greatest contributions as a modern dramatist is in establishing drama as serious literature, negotiating publication deals for his highly popular plays so as to convince the public that the play was no less important than the novel. In that way, he created the conditions for later playwrights to write seriously for the theater. Of all of Shaw's plays, Pygmalion is without the doubt the most beloved and popularly received, if not the most significant in literary terms. Several _lm versions have been made of the play, and it has even been adapted into a musical. In fact, writing the screenplay for the _lm version of 1938 helped Shaw to become the first and only man ever to win the much coveted Double: the Nobel Prize for literature and an Academy Award. Shaw wrote the part of Eliza in Pygmalion for the famous actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, with whom Shaw was having a prominent affair at the time that had set all of London abuzz. The aborted romance between Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle reflects Shaw's own love life, which was always peppered with enamored and beautiful women, with whom he flirted outrageously but with whom he almost never had any further relations. For example, he had a long marriage to Charlotte Payne-Townsend in which it is well known that he never touched her once. The fact that Shaw was quietly a member of the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology, an organization whose core members were young men agitating for homosexual liberation, might or might not inform the way that Higgins would rather focus his passions on literature or science than on women. That Higgins was a representation of Pygmalion, the character from the famous story of Ovid's Metamorphoses who is the very embodiment of male love for the female form, makes Higgins sexual disinterest all the more compelling. Shaw is too consummate a performer and too smooth in his self- presentation for us to neatly dissect his sexual background; these lean biographical facts, however, do support the belief that Shaw would have an interest in exploding the typical structures of standard fairy tales. Characters Professor Henry Higgins Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics who plays Pygmalion to Eliza Doolittle's Galatea. He is the author of Higgins' Universal Alphabet, believes in concepts like visible speech, and uses all manner of recording and photographic material to document his phonetic subjects, reducing people and their dialects into what he sees as readily understandable units. He is an unconventional man, who goes in the opposite direction from the rest of society in most matters. Indeed, he is impatient with high society, forgetful in his public graces, and poorly considerate of normal social niceties the only reason the world has not turned against him is because he is at heart a good and harmless man. His biggest fault is that he can be a bully. Eliza Doolittle f Eliza, The Flower Girl, Flower Girl, flower girl, The flower girl, the flower girl g "She is not at all a romantic figure." So is she introduced in Act I. Everything about Eliza Doolittle seems to defy any conventional notions we might have about the romantic heroine. When she is transformed from a sassy, smart-mouthed kerbstone flower girl with deplorable English, to a (still sassy) regal figure _t to consort with nobility, it has less to do with her innate qualities as a heroine than with the fairy-tale aspect of the transformation myth itself. In other words, the character of Eliza Doolittle comes across as being much more instrumental than fundamental. The real (re-)making of Eliza Doolittle happens after the ambassador's party, when she decides to make a statement for her own dignity against Higgins' insensitive treatment. This is when she becomes, not a duchess, but an independent woman; and this explains why Higgins begins to see Eliza not as a mill around his neck but as a creature worthy of his admiration. Colonel Pickering Colonel Pickering, the author of Spoken Sanskrit, is a match for Higgins (although somewhat less obsessive) in his passion for phonetics. But where Higgins is a boorish, careless bully, Pickering is always considerate and a genuinely gentleman. He says little of note in the play, and appears most of all to be a civilized foil to Higgins' barefoot, absentminded crazy professor. He helps in the Eliza Doolittle experiment by making a wager of it, saying he will cover the costs of the experiment if Higgins does indeed make a convincing duchess of her. However, while Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 |
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