A brief scene analysis

There is a scene from Pride & Prejudice that makes me squirm with dramatic-ironic delight every time I watch it. The Bennett family comes to collect Jane after she has stayed a while at Pemberly, being sick with cold and fever when she was forced to ride to the house in the rain. Lizzie and Mr. Darcy have established their mutual disaffection for each other, and yet, he offers his hand to assist her climbing into the carriage. Without a thought, she accepts.

Finding her properly climbed in, he drops his hand, spins on his heel and stalks off.

Their individual reactions to their unexpected but assumed encounter are unique but striking. Lizzie, obviously impacted by his actions and perhaps by her own, watches him walk off with a look of conflict, confusion, and intrigue.

Exciting enough for a general audience member, true. But ah! It's Darcy's reaction that is so entangling!

So much is conveyed in that simple hand gesture! Discomfort, dignified embarrassment, awkward propriety, excitement, repulsion, perhaps even a certain electricity he intends to shake out. Though we see his set jaw a moment later, it is his hand that expresses all we need to know about their exchange. His hand puts the audience directly in his place and we know exactly how we are meant to feel in that moment.

This, my friends, is why I love storytelling, in all it's forms.