Who it is for
Readers following character development, social satire, and the changing relationships around Chapter 21 will find this chapter especially useful.
English reader · Project Gutenberg #1342
Chapter 21
Pride and Prejudice. English-only reading by default; switch among English, Chinese, and Spanish, or compare languages side by side.
Chapter summary
This chapter advances the novel’s social and emotional action around Chapter 21, using dialogue, family expectations, and manners to reveal character motives and relationships. Its opening movement begins: Collins’s offer was now nearly at an end, and Elizabeth had only to suffer from the uncomfortable feelings necessarily attending it, and occasionally from some peevish allusion of her mother. As for the gentleman himself, his feelings were chiefly expressed, not by embarrassment or dejection, or by trying to avoid her, but by stiffness of manner and resentful silence.
Modern reader note
Read this chapter in its Regency social context. Courtship, inheritance, gender expectations, class manners, and family authority around Chapter 21 reflect the novel’s historical world rather than present-day norms.
Loading chapter text...