Victorians! discussion

Mr. Pickwick gives Peter Magnus some advice on how to propose to a lady, and just after the other Pickwickians arrive, Magnus returns successful and wants to introduce Pickwick to his fiancee. Lo and behold, it is the same lady in whose bedchamber Pickwick had been embarrassed! Their reactions upon seeing one another are not lost on Magnus, who demands an explanation, which they refuse to give. Magnus challengs Pickwick to a duel, and his fiancee goes to the local magistrate to report them (saying that Pickwick and Tupman are involved, and that the other principle has left town, in order to spare Magnus). The magistrate is highly incensed and has Pickwick and Tupman arrested. Sam, Winkle, and Snodgrass get into a scuffle with the authorities and are brought along to the magistrate's. However, Sam recognizes the house as that from which Job had come, alerts Pickwick, and he tells Mr. Nupkins the true nature of Jingle and Job. The Nupkins' had welcomed 'Captain Fitz-Marshall', and even had designs of matrimony with Miss Nupkins, so this is quite a blow and embarrassment. Pickwick and Sam confront Jingle and Job, and Nupkins cancels the arrests and fines. Sam also begins to fall in love with their maid Mary! The Pickwickians return to London, and Pickwick sends Sam to Mrs. Bardell's to give notice, pay the bill, and tell her he will send for his things; adding that he wouldn't be displeased if Sam happens to find out what is going on with the case. Sam finds Mrs. Bardell with her friends Mrs. Cluppins and Mrs. Sanders, has a drink with them, and finds out a few things about Dodson and Fogg's practices.

Why do all the ladies faint?

I think some of them do it for effect! At least they don't faint quite as regularly as the heroines of the original Gothic novels, which Jane Austen parodied so hilariously in some of her early stories (such as Love and Freindship) - in one passage, the heroine says that she and her friend took turns fainting on the couch!