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Chapter 40
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Pride and Prejudice, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Pride
Prejudice
Family
Marriage
Class
Summary
Analysis
As the regiment prepares to depart Meryton, Lydia receives an invitation from the wife of Colonel Forster to come with the regiment to Brighton. Elizabeth secretly asks Mr. Bennet to stop Lydia from going. Elizabeth urges him to realize how Lydia's flirty foolishness will hurt the family. But Mr. Bennet wants a quiet house and thinks Lydia must make her own mistakes. And besides, Colonel Forster will look after her.
Elizabeth is motivated by having lost Bingley and Darcy to the Bennet's foolishness. She urges Mr. Bennet to act like the father he's never been. But Mr. Bennet sits back and passes the job to someone else.
Themes
Literary Devices
Quiz
Test Yourself
In the days following, Elizabeth encounters Wickham at a social event. He blushes when she asks if he knows Colonel Fitzwilliam. When Wickham asks how Darcy is doing, Elizabeth responds that she understands Darcy better now. Wickham gets the point, and they part.
Elizabeth cannot be directly insulting to Wickham, but she lets him know that she knows about his sketchy past. She also admits to realizing and respecting why Darcy is the kind of man he is.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
