a series of signs of increasing force

Story Scholar

THE APPROACH
The Call to Adventure is the first sign that life will never be the same. It appears in myths, fairy tales, and modern novels alike.

While the Call can often be a single event — such as the arrival of a stranger or a summons for the character to leave on a journey — I’d like to propose a technique that can make the Call to Adventure feel more interesting and nuanced, and that is: to show its approach.

Joseph Campbell describes the Call to Adventure as “a series of signs of increasing force”.

Here’s how this plays out in Pride and Prejudice, through Austen’s masterful prose and pacing:

News that someone (“a young man of large fortune from the north of England”) has moved into the neighbourhood.
His name? – Bingley
[Mr. Bennet visits Mr. Bingley]
[Mrs. Long promises to introduce them to Mr. Bingley at the assembly]
Mrs. Bennet dismisses the possibility of Mrs. Long introducing them.
Mr. Bennet surprises his family by revealing his visit.
Mr. Bennet refuses to give his family any information regarding Mr. Bingley.
Lady Lucas tells them that Bingley is “quite young, wonderfully handsome, extremely agreeable”.
Mr. Bingley returns the visit. The ladies see from an upstairs window only that “he wore a blue coat and rode a black horse”.
Mr. Bingley is invited to dinner but declines because he is going to town.
Lady Lucas informs them that he’s gone to “get a large party” for the ball.
1. The “large party” consists of 12 ladies & 7 gentlemen…
2. Then only 6 ladies…
3. Then 2 ladies & 3 gentlemen.
First impressions at the ball:
1. Mr. Bingley: “good-looking and gentlemanlike”
2. Mr. Hurst: “merely looked the gentleman”
3. Mr. Darcy: “fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report… of his having ten thousand a year.”
Changed perceptions of Mr. Darcy halfway through the ball:
1. “His character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again.”
2. More specific evidence of Darcy’s pride (and prejudice): “She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt me…”

1 | THE HERALD
Elizabeth doesn’t just meet Darcy all-of-a-sudden. No, he approaches sedately, step-by-step, beginning with the rumour of a new neighbour:

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”

Mrs. Bennet has received her information from Mrs. Long “off-stage”, prior to the start of the narrative.

Herald characters are very useful for setting a narrative in motion. They require no development, reveal character through the reactions they engender, and can be judged on the effect of their news, either good or bad. Thus, when Mrs. Bennet resents the possibility of Mrs. Long’s meeting Mr. Bingley before them she calls her “a selfish, hypocritical woman,” but when Mrs. Long suggests that Jane will soon be married to Bingley she is “as good a creature as ever lived”.

Mrs. Bennet is herself a herald, relaying the news to her husband, and to the reader.

Through her, the indefinite “single man in possession of a good fortune” of the first line begins to gain force of character, being delineated by name, and growing clearer in space and time:

“Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”
“What is his name?”
“Bingley.”
“Is he married or single?”
“Oh, single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year…”

2 | UNCERTAIN PROGRESS
The signs then seem to waver, and the reader is uncertain whether they will lead anywhere, adding to the suspense.

At first, Mr. Bennet refuses to visit Mr. Bingley, so it looks like the Bennet girls won’t have a chance to meet him (let alone marry him).

A slight possibility emerges of Mrs. Long making the introduction, only to be dismissed — Mrs. Bennet points out that “it will be impossible for her to introduce him, for she will not know him herself.”

Later, Mr. Bennet reveals (in his teasing, roundabout way) that despite his earlier remarks, he actually called on Mr. Bingley at Netherfield.

The astonishment of the ladies was just what he wished—that of Mrs. Bennet perhaps surpassing the rest; though when the first tumult of joy was over, she began to declare that it was what she had expected all the while.

But Mr. Bennet chooses to withhold information, refusing to tell them anything at all about Mr. Bingley.

Not all that Mrs. Bennet, however, with the assistance of her five daughters, could ask on the subject, was sufficient to draw from her husband any satisfactory description of Mr. Bingley. They attacked him in various ways, with barefaced questions, ingenious suppositions, and distant surmises; but he eluded the skill of them all; and they were at last obliged to accept the second-hand intelligence of their neighbour, Lady Lucas.

This playful prevarication becomes an opportunity to further develop the characters, not only of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet — who were sketched out in the first chapter — but also of their daughters.

Mr. Bingley, meanwhile, grows closer as a sign, for now we learn from Lady Lucas that…

He was quite young, wonderfully handsome, extremely agreeable, and, to crown the whole, he meant to be at the next assembly with a large party. Nothing could be more delightful! To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love; and very lively hopes of Mr. Bingley’s heart were entertained.

3 | GLIMPSES

In a few days Mr. Bingley returned Mr. Bennet’s visit, and sat about ten minutes with him in his library. He had entertained hopes of being admitted to a sight of the young ladies, of whose beauty he had heard much; but he saw only the father. The ladies were somewhat more fortunate, for they had the advantage of ascertaining, from an upper window, that he wore a blue coat and rode a black horse.

Not only do the Bennet ladies catch a glimpse of Mr. Bingley, but the readers are allowed a privileged glimpse into his thoughts for the first time. It seems Bingley has been going through the same process of increasing signs; he, in his turn, has had reports of the Bennets, and he, too, suffers the disappointment of a deferred meeting.

Austen’s light, witty style can easily mask the brilliant effectiveness of this mirroring. Delaying a face-to-face encounter and instead allowing the characters to catch no more than a fleeting glimpse, is an opportunity to:

Increase the suspense of the meeting.
Give a more general impression of the characters and their surroundings.
Show the characters from different points of view.

4 | INACCURATE REPORTS
Again, the signs waver: even as Mrs. Bennet is planning a magnificent dinner for Mr. Bingley, he turns down the invitation and retreats all the way to London.

Lady Lucas again acts as a herald to allay their anxiety:

“Lady Lucas quieted her fears a little by starting the idea of his being gone to London only to get a large party for the ball; and a report soon followed that Mr. Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to the assembly. The girls grieved over such a number of ladies; but were comforted the day before the ball by hearing that, instead of twelve, he had brought only six with him from London, his five sisters and a cousin. And when the party entered the assembly-room, it consisted of only five altogether: Mr. Bingley, his two sisters, the husband of the eldest, and another young man.”

The “large party” is distilled to specifics, as the signs draw together in frequency. There’s only a fortnight between Mr. Bennet’s visit to Netherfield, and the ball at the assembly-room, but the second-hand nature of the reports allows the signs to be condensed almost comically, and appear to climax with the eventual meeting.

The “information relay” also plays an important part in enlarging the themes of pride and prejudice, especially in the way it establishes the questionable validity of the information.

5 | FREQUENT REGARD
“Another young man” is revealed to be Mr. Darcy, and the momentum of the narrative is such that his rise and fall occur within the span of a single sentence:

The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.

While we might have been led to believe that the meeting with Bingley was the culmination of the Call, it seems that he was only another sign, pointing to, and quickly surpassed by Darcy’s superior good looks and huge fortune.

You’ll notice that the signs don’t always proceed in strictly chronological order. For example, Austen contrasts the first impression Darcy makes to 1) his later perception as “proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased”, and 2) to Bingley, before filling in the details of Darcy’s disparagement of Elizabeth:

… he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till, catching her eye, he withdrew his own, and coldly said, “She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”

This seemingly anti-climactic exchange establishes the importance of first impressions that will play such a pivotal part in the consequences of later events in the novel.

Now that both parties have seen the unknown face to face, they’ve taken the first step on their story path, and life will never be the same again…