P& P #9 3/31: 14-18

"There is but such a quantity of merit between them; just enough to make one good sort of man; and of late it has been shifting about pretty much" (Austen 210).

-Mr. Wickham as revealed through Mr. Darcy's letter as a bad person, who masks his ugly soul with a visage, a pretense. While Darcy is actually a generally thoughtful person, he actually cares for his friends, which can be seen in his friendship with Mr. Bingley. These two characters are oppisites on a spectrum. And we see that at the beginning of the book, Elizabeth liked Mr. Wickham, and correspondingly she was a very prejudice person, making inferences and judgements without the facts. But as the story continues, Elizabeth becomes aware of Mr. Wickham's true nature, and we begin to see that she begins to fluctuate in her liking of Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy. At the same time, she is struggling to cope with the fact that she is actually a prejudice person, "She was still full of indignation [for Mr. Darcy]; but when she considered how unjustly she had condemned and upbraided him, her anger was turned against herself" (200). Thus these two characters are in essence like the modern day's equivalent of the little angel and demons that sit on our shoulders. She is stuck in between choosing the devil, Mr Wickham, or the angel, Mr. Darcy.

Why does Elizabeth not tell Jane about Mr. Darcy's reasoning for persuading Mr. Bingley to break his relations with Jane?

a. Elizabeth believes her sister to be to nimwitted to understand
b. Elizabeth is afraid that Mr. Darcy wanted to keep it private
c. Elizabeth thinks Jane does not care.
d. Elizabeth is afraid that it will only hurt Jane.