Chapters 7-12

Chapter Seven:

Ok, two big things here--the officers, and Mrs. Bennet's terrible idea to make Jane ride to Netherfield on a horse in the rain. You'll see more about the officers later, but I think it's worth mentioning that for all the notes go out of their way to explain the historical significance of girls liking men in uniform, not much has changed on that front.  I'm certain that single folks who live near military bases know where to find the soldiers on their nights off. So, that's all that is.

Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Bennet, what have you done?  The notes point out a few things--one, that at this time a cold could easily turn into something much more serious.  Remember, antibiotics haven't been invented yet, so if those sniffles turn into a sinus infection, or an ear infection, or pneumonia?  Your chances really weren't that great. I mean, it's not like everyone who got the sniffles keeled over dead, but it was kind of a big deal for Jane to get sick.  Which is how Elizabeth justified going all that way alone.This is one of those things you pick up if you read enough old and/or historical fiction:  if a young woman was alone outdoors for too long, people basically decided they had the right to assume she was *gasp* with a man, doing scandalous, horrible things.  (Kissing?  Showing some ankle?)  I mean, my mother still gets anxious if she knows I'm outside alone anytime after 8pm, but this was a whole other level.  If your "honor" (read: chastity) was compromised, or even if people thought it could have been, suddenly your marriage prospects diminished greatly.  And remember, it all comes back to marriage for the Bennet girls (we heard more about their family situation at the beginning of this chapter.)

Chapter Eight:  

Ok, this chapter is a bit tricky in terms of being pretty dated.  The main thing that's happening is that Mr. Bingley's sisters (Mrs. Hurst, the married one, and Miss Bingley, the unmarried one who is trying really, really hard to get Mr. Darcy to notice her) are trying to make Elizabeth look bad in front of the men.  First they make fun of her some more for walking to Netherfield, and then when she comes into the drawing room after dinner, they try to show off. When Miss Bingley asks after Miss Darcy (Mr. Darcy's younger sister) it's really a way of saying, "Look, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, I know Mr. Darcy better than you.  See?  I even know his family!"  Then, in that whole long discussion of "accomplished ladies", Miss Bingley basically lists off the things she knows how to do (playing the piano, singing, dancing, drawing, etc.) and calls that accomplished.  She went to a very fancy girls' boarding school, which was very expensive, and taught her almost nothing that we would consider a core subject today.
This was just when the old tradition of teaching girls things to make them pretty and entertaining was starting to get some pushback from people who thought girls should learn real subjects, but that was a fairly controversial idea.  Elizabeth, as we see, is a reader, but has not had the benefit of a fancy education in all those traditionally girly things.  So it's sort of infuriating to Miss Bingley when Mr. Darcy says, "Sure, ok, screen-embroidering and dancing are great, but if a woman isn't well-read, then what's the point?"  And Elizabeth just rolls her eyes at the whole thing--really, there are girls out there who have had time to learn all those arts and crafts AND read
extensively?--which winds up winning the conversation for her.  Of course Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst badmouth her as soon as she leaves, but it's clear who looks better at the end of Ch. 8.

Chapter Nine:

Another argument that can best be summed up as "No, I'm fancier!" This time, though, Mrs. Bennet is playing, and so there can be no winners because everyone involved has to talk to Mrs. Bennet or in fact be Mrs. Bennet.  The takeaway here is that Mrs. Bennet is so provincial (meaning literally "from the provinces", but the usual
connotation is someone who hasn't had much life experience and doesn't think that anything they haven't seen is worth seeing) that she can't help but embarrass herself in front of the worldly (opposite of provincial) Bingleys and Mr. Darcy.  It's like someone from one of the upstate New York cow towns near where I grew up bragging to someone from the city about how many people they see in a day.  (Also, as you may have noticed, they call London "town"--"We'll send a messenger to town to fetch the physician,"--the way people within a hundred-mile radius of NYC call it "the city".) So you can imagine Elizabeth's horror when, after her mother has finally finished looking like a total rube, her younger sister gets in Mr. Bingley's face and demands a ball.  

Chapter Ten: 

I kind of love this chapter.  The arguments between Darcy and Elizabeth are some of the best parts of the book, in my opinion, and they're at their best when the jealous Miss Bingley is there trying to get a word in.  She's like a fly that Darcy keeps having to swat away. Just look at the dialogue on p. 98--he's just trying to write his letter and she can't shut up.  All the things he and Elizabeth argue over are sort of based on the values of the time, and while their
respective sides do reveal bits of their personalities, what's most important is that they are really starting to enjoy bickering and bantering.

Chapter Eleven:

I think this drawing room scene would appear in many "Top 5 Scenes From Pride and Prejudice" lists.  It's similar to what we've seen before, where Elizabeth and Darcy bicker and Miss Bingley is jealous, except that it also contains this weird, great moment where Mr. Darcy makes what passed for kind of a dirty joke back then.  When Miss Bingley is sick of being out-talked and decides to strut her stuff by taking a walk around the room, she realizes Darcy isn't paying any attention.  In what may be her cleverest move of the whole book, she gets Elizabeth to walk with her, knowing that will get Darcy's attention.  But when she invites Darcy to join in, he tells her that would defeat the purpose of the whole walking thing.  Elizabeth know better than to ask for the punchline to his mysterious remark, but Miss Bingley can't help herself, and Mr. Darcy explains that either they're walking together to share secrets, in which case he would be in the way, or they're walking to show off their figures--their bodies--and in that case, he's got a better view from where he's sitting.  This is practically the Regency era equivalent of a guy sitting back in his chair and yelling, "Oh yeah!  Smokin'!  Back that thing up, baby!"  So while Miss Bingley exaggerates her reaction, as usual, it's still actually kind of scandalous.  I find it to be such an interesting moment for Darcy because it's so out of character--is he overwhelmed by how beautiful and unattainable Elizabeth is proving to be?  Is he just so annoyed with Miss Bingley that he's hoping to shock her into shutting up?  Or is this just his true sense of humor--clever and a little bit wicked--coming through?

Chapter Twelve: 

It feels like this is just a quick wrap-up chapter--the "Bennets at Netherfield" section comes to an end, and a big new chunk starts with Ch. 13.  Mr. Darcy's feelings are interesting--he wants Elizabeth to leave because she's too poor and her family is too low-status for him to fall for, and yet, he can feel it happening.  One thing Austen does really well is showing what a character is thinking and then what she/her narrator thinks of that character's thoughts.  The sentence that starts with the words, "He wisely resolved..." is a good example--clearly, he's really full of himself for thinking that Lizzy has any feelings for him or designs on him that must be "crushed", so the word "wisely" gives the whole thing a sarcastic tone.