Swipe Left on Mr. Darcy — Are You Sure?, Page 14
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Panel 1. Lizzie stands at the head of the kitchen table, arms loose, saying it plainly to her mother. LIZZIE: Mum. I'm marrying Mr. Darcy. Panel 2. Mrs. Bennet frozen mid-motion, absolutely still, eyes enormous, mouth open, saying nothing at all. Panel 3. Lydia and Kitty stare at their mother rather than at Lizzie, waiting for the explosion. Panel 4. Mrs. Bennet erupts, her whole face alight, leaning across the table. MRS. BENNET: Mr. DARCY?! Panel 5. In raptures now, the pink flush blazing, her bead necklace swinging as she turns. MRS. BENNET: A house like that! Oh, my Lizzie! Panel 6. Close on Mrs. Bennet, whiplashing straight into total devotion. MRS. BENNET: I always liked him. Such a handsome man.
Image description
Six panels in the kitchen. Lizzie tells her mother she is marrying Mr. Darcy. Mrs. Bennet is frozen and silent while Lydia and Kitty stare, then erupts into delight about the house and decides she always liked him.
About this chapter
Lizzie comes home from the leafy lane engaged to the one man nobody in that house would believe she could want, and discovers the hardest part is not saying yes: it is being believed. Jane laughs, certain it is a joke, until the whole reordered story comes out in the dark of their bedroom, and asks the one question Lizzie has never let herself answer out loud. The next morning Darcy is at the front door in his charcoal overcoat asking, of all people, for her father. Behind a closed living-room door two men have a conversation Lizzie is not in, while her mother speculates about lawsuits and Mary offers wisdom nobody requested. Then it is her turn, and Mr. Bennet, dry and unbothered for twenty-two chapters, is not dry at all: he wants to know whether his sharpest daughter has sold herself to a rich man she cannot respect. So Lizzie tells him everything, including the part that was never hers to tell, and says the words she has never once said about anybody. Her father takes off his glasses. Downstairs, Mrs. Bennet goes silent for three unprecedented seconds before the house detonates, and the chapter closes where it opened: the same porch steps at golden hour, except she is not walking up them alone.