I just came across a passage of narration in P&P Chapter 53, which I find to be a perfect example of narration which might at first, while reading or rereading quickly, seem like an objective narrator’s point of view, but which, upon close reading, is then seen to be Elizabeth’s (unacknowledged) point of view.
It describes Mrs. Bennet’s impatience for Bingley, recently returned to Netherfield after his long absence, to somehow meet again with Jane:
“Mr. Bingley arrived. Mrs. Bennet, through the assistance of servants, contrived to have the earliest tidings of it, that the period of anxiety and fretfulness on her side be as long as it could.”
This is clearly Elizabeth’s sarcastic judgment that her mother’s desire to know the exact moment when Bingley arrives is masochistic, since knowing sooner will not make her mother’s wish come true any faster, it will only lengthen the time during which Mrs. Bennet frets, which will then be very unplesant for Elizabeth – and, as sarcasm goes, I think it’s pretty witty and funny.
Arnie
Arnie Perlstein