Focalization is defined as the act of determining who is
seeing the events and characters in the narrative. Or to put it in reverse, it is
defined as through whose eyes the reader sees other characters and events. The passage
you cite is the conversation between Charlotte Lucas and Elizabeth in Pride
and Prejudice in which Charlotte has just told Elizabeth that she has
accepted Mr. Collins's proposal of marriage. The passage starts
out:
The
possibility of Mr. Collins's fancying himself in love with her friend had once occurred
to Elizabeth ....
This is an
interesting passage to analyze because of what comes before it. Chapter 22 begins with
just the narrator [this is called "empty center" focalization, with an "empty," or
deictic, center]. After which, the focalization becomes variable focalization as it
moves from one character to another: first from the narrator to Elizabeth, then to
Charlotte, then Collins, then the narrator again, to the whole Lucas family, and back to
Charlotte.
Next, in the passage in question, Austen directs the focalization
into a different and more dedicated path. The words, "The possibility of Mr. Collins's
fancying himself..." begins the passage with just the narrator’s
focalization.
The omniscient narrator is just stepping out
of the Lucas household and shifting the focalization--the eyes through which we see
events and characters--to the heroine. This return to the heroine is part of Austen's
greatness: She takes us on escapades but never leaves us dangling in the wind without
focus. The rest of that sentence says in part:
readability="6">
The possibility ... had once occurred to
Elizabeth ... but that Charlotte could encourage him seemed ... as far from possibility
... as she could encourage him
herself.
From having the
Lucases, Charlotte, and Collins as focalizers, we have now come back to Elizabeth who
once again becomes the focalizer, the one through whom events and characters are
focalized, or seen. This focalization through Elizabeth gives way to the narrator again
at "The steady countenance ...." The narrator now is in a position to present free
indirect speech in this portion:
readability="7">
the prospect of their relationship was highly
grateful to her, and that she wished her all imaginable
happiness.
The narrator steps
back in after the indirect speech at the words "Elizabeth quietly answered
'Undoubtedly;'" the narrator continues through the words "was added the distressing
conviction that ...." Following this, the passage ends with another example of
Elizabeth's free indirect speech:
readability="5">
it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably
happy in the lot she had chosen.
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