To think she had a chance with Darcy…
I read on the forums quite often that Caroline was delusional to think she had any chance with Darcy. Their evidence is usually based on the letter writing scene (mending pens anyone?), where Darcy is clearly annoyed by Caroline, and based on the fact that Caroline’s fortune comes from trade (how low and terrible!). I shall refute these points only using evidence from Jane Austen’s other works and therefore show that Caroline was not unrealistic in thinking she could succeed with Darcy.
I will first address “trade”. The social consequences of being “in trade” seem to be much more nuanced than modern readers generally think. Emma is a massive snob, but she accepts Mr. Weston as an acceptable person to visit. Mr. Weston, “quitted the militia and engaged in trade (Ch 2)”. And yet, once he purchases his small estate of Randalls, Emma will visit him and happily see her former governess married to him. We do not know the family history of the Bingleys, they might be from a gentleman’s family but like Mr. Weston, resorted at one time to trade.
It did seem like a normal thing for high-born, wealthy men to marry women from trade. We have a great example of this in Sense and Sensibility, where Mrs. Jennings is a vulgar woman from trade: “Since the death of her husband, who had traded with success in a less elegant part of the town (Ch 25).” Mrs. Jennings has two daughters, one of whom has married Sir John Middleton, a baronet, and the other has married to Mr. Palmer, a gentleman of a good estate.
These are undoubtably good marriages and while we are not told what fortune the Jennings women possessed; we know for certain that their background is at least equivalent to Caroline Bingley. Lady Middleton also appears to be well-educated, as she did at one time play piano (for her ladyship had celebrated that event [her marriage] by giving up music, although by her mother’s account, she had played extremely well Ch 7) That Mrs. Jennings’s daughters married so well is not presented as unusual in S&S, even though another match, that of Sir Thomas and Maria Ward (Lady Bertram) in Mansfield Park is explained by the author since it is extraordinary (Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram Ch 1).
The reason, we must assume, that women from trade are acceptable to the gentry is because they are a source of wealth. Mansfield Park notes that ten thousand pounds gave one “any equitable claim” to a marrying a baronet. When Mary Crawford arrives at Mansfield, her sister Mrs. Grant believes that she is equal to marrying Tom, the eldest son and heir:
She had not waited her arrival to look out for a suitable match for her: she had fixed on Tom Bertram; the eldest son of a baronet was not too good for a girl of twenty thousand pounds, with all the elegance and accomplishments which Mrs. Grant foresaw in her; and being a warm- hearted, unreserved woman, Mary had not been three hours in the house before she told her
what she had planned. (Ch 4)
Now we can assume that as a good sister, Mrs. Grant has high hopes for Mary, but Mary acts as if this statement were true. Edmund also says later, “Miss Crawford may chuse her degree of wealth. She has only to fix on her number of thousands a year, and there can be no doubt of their coming. (Ch 22)” This source also is somewhat unreliable, because Edmund is worrying about how poor he is and how unlikely he is to attract Mary, but it does give an overall impression of what a well-educated, beautiful woman with twenty-thousand pounds can expect in marriage. I will add that Mary is a daughter of a gentleman so she is slightly different from Caroline.
Now for Darcy’s behaviour towards Caroline and how much hope she ought to have derived from it. We must keep in mind Emma, a book which spends a lot of time showing how very little observers would predict matches on. Mrs. Weston suggests that Mr. Knightley likes Jane Fairfax because he kindly lends her his carriage for the ball, Emma misinterprets Mr. Elton’s attention towards her as love for Harriet, and Mr. Knightley assumes that Emma loves Frank Churchill because they flirt at Box Hill. We can assume that Caroline is searching for similar hints from Darcy, things that may be very subtle.
Caroline’s hopes may be founded in the fact that Darcy only danced with herself and Mrs. Hurst at the assembly ball or by the fact that Darcy has introduced Caroline to his not “out” sister them (Elizabeth is flattered when Darcy asks to introduce her to his sister later in the book) or because he has spent so much time with them in general. We learn from Colonel Fitzwilliam that Darcy spent the summer with the Bingleys, then the fall at Netherfield, and then Bingley stayed at the Darcy house in London for the winter. Elizabeth meets the Bingleys while they are visiting Pemberley in the summer. This time does serve a purpose, Darcy wishes for Bingley and Georgiana to marry, but as with Emma/Harriet, Caroline might think that Darcy also wants to know her better.
There also seems to be an idea at this time that if one marriage between families occurs, more are to follow. This is discussed in both P&P “she is the more anxious to get Miss Darcy for her brother, from the notion that when there has been one intermarriage, she may have less trouble in achieving a second; in which there is certainly some ingenuity, and I dare say it would succeed (Ch 21)” and in Mansfield Park “The loss of Mary I must consider as comprehending the loss of Crawford and Fanny (Ch 44)” and “Mary was in a state of mind to rejoice in a connexion with the Bertram family (Ch 30)” (both of these passages refer to a match between Henry Crawford and Fanny Price encouraging a match between Mary Crawford and Edmund Bertram, Fanny’s cousin). The fact that Darcy is encouraging an alliance between Bingley and Georgiana should give Caroline hope.
Then we have Darcy’s behaviour towards Caroline. We have some notable scenes where Darcy seems quite annoyed by Caroline, but we also are told they spend quite a bit of time making fun of the Bennets together, “leaving her own and her relations’ behaviour to the remarks of the two ladies and Mr. Darcy; the latter of whom, however, could not be prevailed on to join in their censure of her, in spite of all Miss Bingley’s witticisms on fine eyes. (Ch 9)” (emphasis in text) This states that Darcy did join in mocking all the Bennets except Elizabeth. We know that he has done this more than once, since Miss Bingley quotes him later as having said of Elizabeth, “She a beauty!—I should as soon call her mother a wit. (Ch 45)” It is also notable that Darcy is more likely to agree with the opinions of the Bingley sisters than Charles is:
“I think I have heard you say that their uncle is an attorney in Meryton.”
“Yes; and they have another, who lives somewhere near Cheapside.”
“That is capital,” added her sister, and they both laughed heartily.
“If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside,” cried Bingley, “it would not make them one jot less agreeable.”
“But it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world,” replied Darcy.
(Ch 8)
The purpose of this essay is to show that Caroline Bingley had good reason to hope that she had a chance with Darcy, whether she did or not. As I have shown, similar matches occur in Jane Austen’s works and it seems reasonable for a woman of large fortune to expect an advantageous match. Caroline has reason to expect that one match between the Bingleys and the Darcys will lead to another. Also, with how much time the families send together and Darcy’s tendency to join in with Caroline’s mocking of the Bennets, there is sufficient “encouragement” for Caroline to misinterpret. Even though we have good reason to think Darcy never would have married her, Caroline is not delusional in thinking that he might have.
Books cited: Mansfield Park, Sense & Sensibility, Emma, and Pride & Prejudice all written by Jane Austen
Check out my book, Prideful & Persuaded, where Caroline Bingley finally gets her happy ending! If you have already read it, please remember to rate/review on Amazon or Goodreads. Thank you!