Hanwool Sky Lee
British Literature
Mr. Berrios
January 26, 2015
Pride and Prejudice
Discuss the Bennett Family’s behavior during the ball and explain how these would be considered social blunders
Chapter 18 of the novel the Pride and Prejudice, describes the ball held in Netherfield. To catch what has happened in that ball, let us take a look of following statement of Elizabeth, which perfectly shows her despair caused by her family’s behaviors in that ball.
“To Elizabeth it appeared that, had her family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening, it would have been impossible for them to play their parts with more spirit or finer success” (Chapter 18, pg. 62)
From the statement above, we can predict that Bennet’s family has done something that would have Elizabeth feel ashamed. Through this essay, I will clarify what they have done, and furthermore, how would they be considered social blunders.
First, it called everyone’s attention that Mr. Collins
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Darcy, he became the first person that made Elizabeth to feel vexed. His exaggerated conduct also affected to Mr. Darcy, for it was quite notable that his aggrandized respect came from his intention to acquire Mr. Darcy’s approval. Unfortunately, Mr. Collins couldn’t even notice Mr. Darcy’s contempt toward him, but simply believe that Mr. Darcy was impressed by him. We can find the reason of this weird behavior of Mr. Collins in chapter 13, where author described the personality of him. According to author’s explanation, Mr. Collins has a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility as his personality. Since he obtained the confidence and protection of Lady Catherin, it became even worse. He was obsequious to people in power, whereas he was haughty for ordinary people. And worst thing was that he was not afraid to show that to everyone. It was more than enough to prove to everyone that Mr. Collins is a superficial