Chapter 3
3.1 Intelligence gathering.
Mr Bennet refuses to describe Mr Bingley to his family. Numerous strategies are devised by the Bennet family. Lady Lucas is more forthcoming but could not be considered a primary source of information. Lady Lucas acquired her information from Sir William, who is a primary source. Sir Willian describes Mr Bingley as,
young,
handsome,
agreeable,
attending the next party.
The final characteristic is of interest as the group agree that dancing at a party will results in matrimony. This relationship is important to Mrs Bennet as she has only a single objective in her life. If all of her daughters are married, this single objective will have been achieved.
3.2 Meeting: Mr Bennet and Mr Bingley
Mr Bingley meets with Mr Bennet for 10 minutes. The library acts as a meeting venue. No mention is made of a meeting request being delivered or returned. The objectives and content of the meeting is unclear but potentially irrelevant. Mr Bingley’s objective is to observe beautiful young girls. This objective is not achieved.
Mr Bennet’s daughters do partially achieve their intelligence gathering goal. Mr Bingley is surveyed from an upper story window of the Bennet residence. Mr Bingley is described as,
wearing a blue coat
riding a black horse
It seems unlikely that this is sufficient intelligence to fulfill the objectives of the group.
After the meeting a further meeting request is delivered. This meeting is arranged for an evening. Efficiencies were to be introduced by simultaneously meeting and enjoying dinner. Mrs Bennet introduces further efficiencies by offering a meeting plan far in advance of the event.
This meeting request is declined by Mr Bingley as it clashes with an alternative meeting request in his calendar. Mrs Bennet is upset by the response as she does not have access to Mr Bingley’s calendar and cannot therefore understand what meeting might take priority. Mr Bingley’s meeting refusal suggests to Mrs Bennet that he may move residence once more.
Lady Lucas also does not have access to Mr Bingley’s calendar. She proposes that his alternate meeting may be to gather friends for the upcoming gathering. Lady Lucas is correct in her assumption. Mr Bingley intends to bring 12 women and 7 men to the gathering.
3.3 The Ball: A dance workshop
The Bennets’ daughters were upset that Mr Bingley has so many female friends. They are pleased when they are informed that Mr Bingley will attend the ball with six women, as these women are all related to Mr Bingley. Five are his sisters. The sixth is his cousin. Upon entry to the ball Mr Bingley’s party has fallen to only four.
Two sisters.
The husband of the eldest sister.
An unidentified young man.
Mr Bingley is described as,
attractive,
well mannered,
having a pleasant expression upon his face,
confident.
Mr Bingley’s sisters are described as,
attractive (potentially a shared family trait),
fashionable.
Mr Bingley’s brother in law is named Mr Hurst and is only described as appearing like a gentleman. The unidentified young man is called Mr Darcy and was initially described as,
more attractive than Mr Bingley,
tall,
noble,
earning £10,000 per year.
The final characteristic in this list is well known amongst all those assembled within five minutes of his arrival. Mr Darcy was described above for half of the meeting. By the second half of the meeting Mr Darcy is described as,
ill mannered,
proud,
superior,
difficult to please.
His previous attributes were insufficient to counter these later observations. This includes his financial position.
Mr Bingley dances frequently and quickly introduces himself to all the significant decision makers at the meeting. Mr Bingley is therefore upset at the early end to the gathering. He offsets this disappointment with a proposal to hold a similar gathering as his new residence.
Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy are quite different in nature. In contrast to Mr Bingley, Mr Darcy exhibits the following behaviours.
He dances only twice.
This dancing is made only with members of his party. (Mrs Hurst and Miss Bingley).
He refuses to be introduced to other female guests.
He walks around the room for most of the evening.
He speaks only to members of his own party.
He is stubborn.
He exhibits pride.
He is allegedly the most disagreeable man on Planet Earth (The accuracy of this statement is met with considerable doubt by the Editor.)
He is unlikely to be invited to another workshop.
Mrs Bennet holds these views more firmly than others at the meeting. This opinion is amplified by the accusations that he insulted one of Mrs Bennet’s daughters. The details of this insult are available for review.
3.4 Mr Darcy insults Miss Bennet
Elizabeth Bennet is unable to attract sufficient continuous attention to dance for the entire meeting. Despite being available to dance, and his proximity to Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy remains unwilling to dance. Mr Bingley takes a break from his dancing to encourage Mr Darcy to dance. Mr Darcy continues to refuse.
Mr Darcy adopts a very low opinion of dancing and will do so under one condition. He must know his dancing partner well before he can enjoy dancing. This places a contradiction before Mr Darcy. Without dancing, the chances of him becoming sufficiently acquainted with a partner to dance is very low. Mr Darcy also suggests that it would be punishing to dance with the other women at this particular dance.
Mr Bingley disagrees with Mr Darcy’s assessment, initially throwing into doubt Mr Darcy’s taste in dance partners. Mr Darcy’s taste is ultimately not impugned as Mr Bingley states clearly that he is not particularly fastidious in his choice, and to him the room is therefore full of potential options.
Mr Darcy regards only one woman in the room as sufficiently attractive to dance with and indicates the eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Bennet, Jane (Attractive/Silly/Ignorant). Despite his previous statement regarding his lack of discernment, Mr Bingley agrees. He returns to type by indicating an alternative sister nearby, Elizabeth, no doubt noting that a blood relation may exhibit similar characteristics to the preferred Jane if one is willing to endure an imperfect facsimile.
Mr Darcy follows Mr Bingley’s indication, unfortunately making eye contact with Miss Bennet. This eye contact lasts only a brief moment. Mr Darcy describes Miss Bennet as merely tolerable. He continues this appraisal by noting that if she has been rejected by every other man in the room his own assessment must be generous. It is unclear whether Elizabeth’s lack of stature influences this low opinion.
Miss Bennet hears the entire appraisal of her worth by Mr Darcy. Despite a newly developed dislike of Mr Darcy it is to her credit that she adopts a brave face and informed her friends of the whole damming assessment.
3.5 Solutions to the contradiction between dance and familiarity.
The Editor proposes a brief divergence from the body of the manuscript to suggest resolutions to the contraction in Mr Darcy’s a lack of desire to dance with a stranger, and a possible need to gain familiarity to enable dancing.
Objective: Dancing
Assumption: Dancing will promote familiarity.
Contradiction: Dancing will not occur without familiarity.
We need to separate the achievement of familiarity from the need to dance. A study of strategies offered by Altshuller offers some potential solutions.
The core of this strategy focuses upon 16: Partial Action, in which the act of dancing is curtailed to a minimum to diminish Mr Darcy’s discomfort to the lowest possible degree. This could be achieved through a simple and slight shuffling of the feet to feign the act of dancing itself. This proto-dance could be taken from the dance floor itself in an act of 2: Taking Out. Adopting this manner, Mr Darcy could approach an unfamiliar dance partner beyond the dance floor to engage in inconsequential but necessary conversation to gain the familiarity he needs to evolve the interaction into a fully developed dance.
If Mr Darcy is unwilling to make this preliminary approach himself he might co-opt Mr Bingley or Mr Hurst as 24: Intermediary, to make the initial approach on his behalf.
Whilst engaged in this initial strategy to gain familiarity 19: Perdiodic Action and 18: Mechanical Vibration maybe employed on occasion to enhance the overall effect through a sudden swaying of the hips and occasional snapping of the fingers all whilst remaining in this initial non-dancing mode of operation.
Mr Darcy would be in good company if he adopted these inventive principles in the resolution of the contradiction within which he is trapped as this is a strategy widely adopted throughout the Engineering disciplines to adequate but not particularly spectacular success.
The Editor unfortunately sees no application for 29: Pneumatics and Hydraulics in achieving familiarity with young women, despite its great utility in so many other practical fields.
3.6 Workshop wash-up
Despite the grave insult directed towards Elizabeth Bennet that might crush the self-esteem of the target, attendance at the ball is considered a success for the Bennet family. Mrs Bennet is pleased that her daughter Jane Bennet had successfully attracted the attention of many men. Mr Bingley, on two occasions. This success was also enjoyed by Jane, but she kept her opinions to herself. Elizabeth Bennet was also pleased at her sister’s success. Mary Bennet (reflective, bookish) also gained some success in attracting attention, but received praise from Miss Bingley in academic fields rather than in her ability to attract the attention of men. Catherine and Lydia Bennet were never without the company of men for the entire event and regard the objective of such meetings as for little else.
The women of the Bennet family return to their village of LongBourn. Mr Bennet did not attend the ball but is still awake when the women return. Mr Bennet had not remained awake due to concern over the evening travels of his family. He was reading a book and lost track of time.
Mr Bennet is very curious about the events of the evening. Mr Bennet hoped that Mrs Bennet would assess Mr Bingley poorly. Mr Bennet was mistaken. Mrs Bennet assessed Mr Bingley highly and expressed a desire for Mr Bennet to have attended. Jane Bennet’s ability to attract the attention of men is described to Mr Bennet. The attention of Mr Bingley is noted as Mr Bingley had only attended one woman twice. Mr Bingley danced with women in this following order.
Miss Lucas
Jane Bennet
Miss King
Maria Lucas
Jane Bennet (reprise)
Elizabeth Bennet
Mr Bennet is very upset by this good news. He hopes that Mr Bingley injures himself sufficiently to prevent further dancing. Mrs Bennet disagrees. She regards Mr Bingley as very attractive and his sisters as charming and elegant. The lacework on Mrs Hurst gown is particularly noteworthy.
Mr Bennet interrupts Mrs Bennet’s report on the attractiveness of the Bingley household. Mr Bennet is not interested in fashion. Mrs Bennet switches topic to the insult presented to Elizabeth Bennet by Mr Darcy. Mrs Bennet exaggerates this report because she now hates Mr Darcy.
Elizabeth’s thick skin to insults is noted. The unpleasantness of Mr Darcy also blunts his insult. Mrs Bennet expresses a desire for Mr Bennet to have attended the ball to engage in an aggressive confrontation with Mr Darcy.
3.7 Conclusions from Chapter 3
Mr Darcy does not like to dance with women.
Mr Bingley is not particularly discerning in his choice of partner.
Jane Bennet is often surrounded by men.
Catherine and Lydia Bennet should say no more often.
Mrs Bennet hates Mr Darcy.
It is very difficult to upset Elizabeth Bennet.