WHO BETRAYS ELIZABETH BENNET to Lady Catherine de Bourgh? | Jane Austen PRIDE AND PREJUDICE analysis

Jane Austen PRIDE AND PREJUDICE analysis | Who tells Lady Catherine de Bourgh about the Meryton rumours that Mr Darcy is likely soon to be engaged to Miss Elizabeth Bennet? John Sutherland, in his book ‘Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet?’, argues that the culprit is Charlotte Lucas (a.k.a. Mrs Collins), & that she passes “the news…on to her husband [Mr Collins] and his patroness [Lady Catherine de Bourgh] over dinner at Rosings”. Who else might be the gossiper besides Charlotte Lucas? Colonel Fitzwilliam? Georgiana Darcy? Caroline Bingley? Mr Wickham? Mr Collins? Lady Lucas? Sir William Lucas?

In the video:
First, I go chronologically through the text to show who I think is the culprit.
Then, I consider Mrs Collins’s role in events, & perform a character analysis of Charlotte Lucas. I defend Charlotte against Sutherland’s charges that she wants “to poison Elizabeth’s prospects” of marrying Mr Darcy.

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[DrOctaviaCox]

Who do you think told Lady Catherine about the rumours from Meryton? And do you think Charlotte Lucas/Collins is a ‘schemer’?

[morgansmith]

I always assumed it was Mr. Collins, if only because he never seems to shut up for a minute...

[AndersWatches]

I’m not sure how one could not only misconstrue Charlotte’s character so badly, but also have the confidence to write an entire book on it.

[margaretpass]

I love the idea that Charlotte may have done it. The thought that she used Lady Catherine as a tool to push Lizzy and Darcy together is brilliant. Lady Catherine would have no idea she was being used by such an inferior person. Its almost as if Charlotte has punished Lady Catherine for being in everyones business. Ha!

[AnishaFernandes]

This Sutherland fellow seems like the kind of old man who would rather assume to pit two women against each other rather than actually read and understand the novel properly.

[sharragamez]

Has Sutherland actually read this book? It seems perfectly clear throughout that Charlotte loves the idea of Elizabeth and Darcy. There might be some affectionate "ha, told you so" in there, but I never saw anything to suggest Charlotte was treated poorly by the two eldest Bennet girls, or that she blamed them for their mother and sisters.

[cy]

I never doubted it was Mr Collins. He pretty much admits it in his letter. But it wasn't a "betrayal", it was just Collins being himself - trying to please his patroness with his long-winded speeches about nothing.

[debshaw]

I always assumed it was Mr. Collins. But never felt any ill intent on Charlotte’s part as she and Lizzy were great friends.

[annaelizabeth]

lol John Sutherland really looked at Lizzie and Charlotte's loving relationship and said, "women are so catty, I bet Charlotte wants to ruin her life." Like??? Someone help this man, misogyny has truly rotted his brain

[OkGoGirl]

I never once even considered Charlotte as “bitter” or out to get her friend until this video and saw some guy had a whole theory about it. I had no idea anyone could’ve thought that Charlotte was spiteful at all. In the book it clearly states they are friends, at beginning and end. And the first thing that came to my mind on this subject was that JA specifically wrote that Charlotte rejoiced in the match. How does one get the idea of spite from that?

[heytherejay]

What I love about Jane Austen’s writing is that she never really pits women against other women. She could have easily done so several times in P&P, but instead she didn’t. It’s super refreshing! Also, Sutherland really needs to reread the book, because Charlotte and Lizzie are bffs and their characters don’t seem the type to backstab each other. It’s been a while since I read the books, but even I knew 🙄

[razmataziest]

I am horrified that someone tried to besmirch the friendship between Charlotte and Elizabeth in this way.

[woodswitchprints]

Charlotte shipped Elizabeth and Darcy from really early on. I'm completely on board with this proposed scheme that Charlotte pulled a reverse Uno on Lady Catherine AND Elizabeth, but with her friend's best interest in mind. If Charlotte is bitter about anything, it's about having to suffer Lady Catherine's company so frequently and I imagine this was likely a very satisfying outcome to her.

[onemercilessming]

Even reading this in 1963 as a 13 year old, I assumed the snitch was Mr. Collins. He was so dependent on Lady Catherine for his livelihood, he would have thought his tale-bearing would gain him brownie points with Lady C.

[hansbmd]

I love that line, "Charlotte's degree of contentment, to understand her address in guiding, and composure in bearing with, her husband..." because that's the perfect way to describe Charlotte's relationship with Mr. Collins. She's the one that guides and handles him. Mr. Collins believes that it's his societal and spiritual duty, both as a man and as a cleric, to guide his wife, and yet he's so clueless that he doesn't realize that she's the one who guides him. I also hadn't thought before how similar Mr. Collins and Sir William Lucas are in personality, but that explains how Charlotte is able to manipulate Mr. Collins; she is very observant and an excellent judge of human character, but she's also an expert on that particular character.

[Midorikonokami]

When a man tries to interpret a women writing for women, this is what happens, haha. He misses all the marks, writes a book about it, and then it takes another woman to set it right :p

[ElizabethJones-pvsj]

I think the text makes it clear that Mr Collins was the one to report rumours of Lizzy's engagement and as you point out there's little Charlotte could have done to stop Mr Collins from passing the report on, short of poisoning his tea ;)

[klhaldane]

I would have thought that the single phrase "Although really rejoicing in the match" was sufficient to prevent anyone seeing Charlotte as "embittered" or "spiteful" towards Elizabeth. Surely the author herself has told us what Charlotte's feelings are.

[kimberlyperrotis]

Also, Charlotte mentions early on that Darcy looks at Elizabeth a great deal, and warns her not to slight him without cause.

[christinadunigan]

Charlotte probably also saw Mr. Darcy’s patronage as a way to get herself as far away from Rosings as possible. Mr. Collins was merely irksome. Lady Catherine was meddlesome. Charlotte couldn’t even choose what cuts of meat to order up for dinner, which servants to hire, or the arrangement of her own closets.