Pride and Prejudice

Jane had been hesitant to speak too highly of Bingley, but when she’s alone with Elizabeth, she confesses that she finds him “sensible,” “good-humored,” and in possession of “perfect good breeding” (15). She was surprised by his invitation to dance with him twice; Elizabeth is not surprised, replying that Bingley “could not help seeing that you were about five times as pretty as every other woman in the room” (15). Elizabeth notes that Jane “never see[s] a fault in any body“(16) and has never uttered a negative word about anyone. When Jane replies that she only speaks her thoughts, Elizabeth agrees, wondering how someone with such “good sense” can be “so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others” (16).

Jane says that Bingley’s sisters are “very pleasing women when you converse with them” (16); Elizabeth silently disagrees, having found them “proud and conceited” (16). Though handsome and well-educated, with “a fortune of twenty thousand pounds” (16),Bingley’s sisters seem to place more importance on the fact that they are “of a respectable family in the north of England” (16) than on the fact that “their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade” (16-17).

Bingley’s father had intended to purchase an estate but died before he had the chance; he’d left £100,000 to Bingley.