Inner-outer correspondences (Pride and Prejudice)

External circumstances and events are a precise expression of the psychological condition of the people involved. The inner-outer correspondence may express in various ways.

At Netherfield ball, “It appeared that her (Eliza’s) family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening.”

Elizabeth’s summary of her thoughts is the precise representation of her character in this context. In the whole episode, she acted as though she were determined to expose her family fully. The correspondence between Elizabeth’s behavior and that of her family can be depicted as follows:

Eliza feels that her mother’s exuberance about Bingley and Jane is vulgar and embarrassing. She does not understand that her own exuberant, unexpressed sentiments toward Wickham are equally misplaced. She later becomes deeply embarrassed that she had ever believed Wickham’s lies.

Mr. Bennet tries to get Mary to come away from the piano as she is embarrassing everyone by her poor performance. Mary wants to continue her playing and feels offended. Caroline comes up to Elizabeth to warn her about Wickham. Eliza feels offended too, because she wants to continue her enchantment with Wickham. Mr. Bennet tries to give an advice that is not readily accepted. To Elizabeth, Mary is acting in a foolish way forcing her father to come forward in front of everyone and take her away. Eliza does not see that life is warning her of her own inappropriate behavior.

During their dance together, Eliza directly cross-exams Darcy to the point that he wants her to stop. She then analyzes Darcy’s character for Charlotte. When her cousin Collins speaks out loudly at the party about the duties and obligations of a parson, Eliza feels his oration is an embarrassment to the whole family. She does not yet understand that her aggressive behavior and speech are equally inappropriate and will become equally embarrassing as her cousin’s.