The Hand of Fate: All Thumbs or Not?

Good morrow, dear readers. I hope that October is treating you well.

As I’ve been reading lately – a Definite benefit to months of bedrest – I’ve been pondering coincidences. Amongst Janeites, some claim there is an inordinate number of them in Pride & Prejudice: Mr Collins’ connexion to Darcy through Lady Catherine de Bourgh; Wickam’s presence in Meryton; and ODG touring Pemberley when ODB arrives.

If I am stepping on anyone’s deeply held beliefs – or passionately written blogs – I apologise, but my experience has proven such coincidences Happen.

Readers from the Americas (North and South) are accustomed to great land areas, and it boggles our minds – how could there be this many interconnected individuals in the small town of Meryton? Some perspective: the island of Great Britain is 600.9 miles long from the tip of Scotland to the English Channel and is 300 miles at its widest point. Its area is 80,823 square miles, roughly the same size as Oregon (the US’s 12^th largest state).

Another frequent criticism of Austen (I’m looking at you Charlotte Bronte) is that her novels only featured the gentry; the “3 or 4 families in a country village” she recommended as material to her niece Anna (9/1814). She never denied this and poetically described her work to her brother Edward, “The little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour.” (12/1816) Which means Jane Austen’s original characters were drawn from only 2.6% (350,000) of Great Britain’s population (12.6 million in 1813), sprinkled across 109,000 households.

Now consider Mr Collins’ connexion to Darcy. Hunsford is but 50 miles from Meryton (“good road”, according to Darcy), and a visit from the heir-presumptive to Longbourn to meet his cousins is not astounding. But those 50 miles is an 8-hour carriage ride, I hear some say. Allow me an example from real life: soon after my dh, nine children, and I moved from Central Florida, across two state lines, to a small town in the Southeastern US, we stopped at a business seeking directions. That gentleman was unable to assist because he was likewise a new resident. He moved the month before we did and had lived less than a mile down the same road from us in the suburbs of Orange County, Florida – a 760-mile,12-14 hour drive.

Such coincidences happen in life, especially in context of that “little bit of ivory” and what we know of Jane Austen’s original characters. Lady Catherine de Bourgh likely would have counted a future estate owner as her vicar as quite a feather in her class-conscious cap. Likewise, it would be difficult to swing a Cheshire cat at a dinner party amongst the Regency Era gentry and upper echelon professionals and not hit someone related to, granted a living by, or a neighbour of the nobility. (Jane Austen’s mother – wife of a vicar – was the great-grandniece of the 1^st Duke of Chandros.) Therefore, it does not stretch credulity for Mr Darcy to meet his aunt’s clergyman at a ball at Netherfield Park.

What about Wickham – Darcy knew him before Meryton. Several years after our initial move, we were living a different town, and my third child had a good friend. When I met the latter’s dad, I thought he looked familiar but couldn’t place him. In conversation, I learned the father had been the manager of my favourite grocery store in Central Florida. We had met several times over the years, when I would line up my ever-growing gaggle of children for our weekly grocery shopping. It becomes, therefore, unsurprising that, in P&P, Lt Denny recruits Wickham for the militia when in London – 25 miles from Meryton. Given Wickam’s character, post the foiled elopement with Miss Darcy, he likely was pressed for cash and had creditors after him; thus, an escape as a militiaman in a small town would have its appeal (most probably as a substitute for a land owning resident of whichever shire the militia was from). Likewise, it is evident from their initial meeting on the high street of Meryton, and again his questions to Lizzy at the Phillips’, Wickham had no clue that Darcy was in the area.

Okay, but what about Pemberley? Have you never bumped into an acquaintance at some tourist attraction or convention? It’s happened in my family more times than I can readily count. Touring grand homes when on a road trip was commonplace back then, and would not you – if you had heard much about the beauty and grandeur of an acquaintance’s home – be even more curious to see it? And ODG did ensure that Darcy was not in residence before she left Lambton. How can it be shocking that Darcy arrives at his own house – especially with the valid excuse of attending to business with his steward (and avoid Miss Bingley’s cloying manners)?

Though I have just countered many of the coincidences in Pride & Prejudice, there is one I agree is far-fetched and, quite frankly, unnecessary: Mrs Gardiner’s connexion to Lambton. Given that she is unacquainted with both Darcy and Wickham, this does not forward the plot. Furthermore, the Peak District and great houses in Derbyshire are enough of an excuse to place Lizzy and the Gardiners in the area when Darcy arrives at Pemberley.  

So what is you opinion, dear readers? Are there too many coincidences or are they each believable?