Announcement of Charlottes engagement. After Charlottes startling news, Elizabeth was left to reflect on it while sitting with her mother and sisters.

    Sir William’s “good-breeding” helped him to bear their reactions with the utmost composure and though “he begged leave to be positive as to the truth of his information; he listened to all their impertinence with the most fore bearing courtesy”. Elizabeth confirmed his account by mentioning her prior knowledge of it from charlotte and endeavored to put a stop to her mother’s and sisters’ exclamations to Sir William in which she was readily joined by Jane

    Mrs. Bennet was “too much overpowered to say a great deal while Sir William remained”, but no sooner had he left than “her feelings found a rapid vent”. She persisted in “disbelieving the whole of the matter” were “very sure that Mr. Collins had been taken in”, she “trusted that they would never be happy together”, and that “the match might be broken off”. Two inferences were plainly deduced from her ravings; one was that “Elizabeth was the real cause of all the mischief” and that she had been “barbarously used by them all”. Mrs. Bennet was in an intolerable as “nothing could console her and nothing appease her”

     Mr. Bennet’s reaction was parallel to Mrs. Bennet’s, for “it gratified him, he said to discover that charlotte Lucas whom he had been used to think tolerably sensible, was as foolish as his wife and more foolish than his daughters”

      Jane was surprised at the match, but primarily expressed her “earnest desire for their happiness” while Kitty and Lydia were happy as the news was gossip to spread in Merryton. Thus were the reactions to the announcement of charlotte Lucas’ engagement to Mr. Collins.