Why am I thus rejected?
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 11
Elizabeth is at Netherfield Park with Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy’s sister Caroline, while
Jane has a cold and recovers in one of the guestrooms.
Caroline, watching Darcy read, pretends to be absorbed in reading a book. But she's soon bored and
suggests to Elizabeth that they walk around the room together. This gets Darcy's attention.
Caroline invites Darcy to join them, but he says he doesn't want to interfere: they must either be
sharing secrets or showing off, and in that case he's happy to watch.
Sexual attraction in the novel are expressed only in little comments like these.
Elizabeth advises Caroline that the best response is to laugh at what is ridiculous, which leads to a
discussion of the aspects of Darcy's personality that might be ridiculed.
Darcy claims that his main fault is that his "good opinion once lost, is lost forever."
When Elizabeth tells him that it is difficult to laugh at a tendency to "hate every body," Darcy says
that if this is his flaw then Elizabeth's one is misjudging people.
Darcy identifies his own flaw, which is the immense pride he takes in himself and his social
standing. He also correctly diagnoses Elizabeth's: she believes so fully in her own ability that she
becomes subject to her prejudices and blinds herself to the truth.
