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beyond-katie-blog · 4 years

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An Analysis of Elizabeth Bennet: A Viewpoint of the British Class System in the 19th Century

Pride and Prejudice, a staple in romantic literature and regarded as a classic, was written by Jane Austen and published in 1813. The novel is based in the nineteenth century near the end of the Georgian era specifically during the Regency period, a time of cultural development before the famous Victorian era. Elizabeth Bennet, a twenty-one-year-old woman that is the second eldest of her five sisters, did not seek marriage like her sisters which was atypical for the time. Elizabeth, unlike the majority of girls and woman like her mother and certain sisters, disliked the pressures and notions of formal society. Elizabeth marries Mr. Darcy, a man with prejudice and pride akin to hers but in different prospects, and it teaches her more about the reality of class and their own troubles. It is expected that “A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved.” (Austen 45) and also improve her mind in the form of extensive reading. Men, in this aspect, are expected to be handsome, gentlemanly yet formidable, and who known all formal graces of courtship of a woman of great standing or a plentiful dowry. In Pride and Prejudice, life can act as a viewpoint of the marital and societal expectations in the British class system by analyzing Elizabeth Bennet’s personal relationships with family, friends, and romantic interests.

In discussions revolving around the 19th century, the social and romantic aspects of the century is what is most commonly seen: For beneath the surface glitter of Regency life - the opulent interiors, the elegant dress, the grand, scenic architecture - was an underlying malaise, a pervasive emptiness and a sense of loss that afflicted a wide spectrum of the populace. (Erickson 8) Elizabeth Bennet shares quite similar views in the way that she abhors what is expected of society in the marital sense. Elizabeth is regarded as the second most beautiful compared to her oldest sister, Jane, and as the most peculiar and expressive. She enjoys dancing, laughing, and being free with her emotions and purpose. She did not hide how she felt but when it would compromise someone else, particularly her sisters or husband. In 19th century standards, she is not the woman a man would usually wish to marry as she is overly witty, intelligent, and stubborn in her opinions of society. These traits were not desirable in women of that time, subservience was expected, and conversation was the least concern compared to confirming succession and wealth for the family. Behind marriage lies the ideal of money not love, most women from a young age were raised to yearn for a man with a plentiful fortune. For the British Class System in the 19th century, “consequence of continuing material progress, the national distribution of income and wealth slowly became somewhat less skewed...” (Goldthorpe/Lockwood 142) it lessened the power dynamic between the classes but did not abolish it. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. (Austen 4) Elizabeth settles that she would die an old maid, a woman who never marries and gets no money from a marriage, rather than enter a loveless marriage. Love is not optional for her but a necessity, the presence of her husband is to be enriching, riveting, and comforting. Elizabeth’s family knows this is an important part of who she is and what eventually led to her self-proclaimed passionate and loving marriage to Mr. Darcy, in which her father accepted due on this basis.

Elizabeth’s parents are dissimilar, as the very first mention of the character illustrates their core personality differences:

Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news. (Austen 6)

Mr. Bennet does not care for his children’s marriages as fervently as his wife, Mrs. Bennet, and certain daughters did. Starting from the eldest sister is Jane, twenty-three, who is known for her beauty and is “so admired” (Austen 15) marries a kind and wealthy heir named Mr. Charles Bingley [a close friend of Mr. Darcy]. Elizabeth is her father’s favorite and shares the closet bond with him due to their shared understanding and admiration. Mary, nineteen, is the middle child and “a young lady of deep reflection” (Austen 9), she is also the only one to remain home after all her sisters married. Catherine “Kitty” Bennet, seventeen, is the fourth sister daughter and is often in the shadow of Lydia, her youngest sister, who “She will follow wherever Lydia leads. Vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled!” (Austen 265). Lydia Bennet, fifteen, is the youngest child and she is described as “lost to everything” (Austen 318) and was determined to married an officer. This determination to led her elopement with the charming, yet very deceptive officer Mr. George Wickham [a former childhood friend of Mr. Darcy], who Elizabeth herself said “...will never marry a woman without some money.” (Austen 318) Though Mr. Bennet did not expect and greatly disliked the elopement of Lydia and Mr. Wickham, the marriage had to properly happen in order to protect the Bennet family’s honor from total ruin and disgrace. The sisters are all quite different in many regards and can fit into many modern stereotypes, such as Kitty and Lydia falling into the stereotype “all woman are obsessed with men” and Mary being “the silent type.” Ms. Bennet was the one to entertain the younger sister’s obsession with marriage, which led to the Lydia’s predicament but also was able to prevent Kitty, and the reputation of those living in the manor, from the same fate. It is also essential to mention Mr. Collins, a cousin of Mr. Bennet, who is a clergyman, and landholder at the estate of his patroness, Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Mr. Collins, in the event that Mr. Bennet’s dies and none of his daughters are married, is the devisee of the Bennet manor. Due to this, Bennet needed to marry a woman of or in relation to the Bennet family. His first choice was Jane for superficial reasons but that did not work out because she was in active courtship with Mr. Bingley. For that reason, Mr. Collins later proposed to Elizabeth, who swiftly rejected him leading him to marry her best friend.

Charlotte Lucas, twenty-seven, is a close friend of the family and Elizabeth Bennet’s best friend who marries Mr. Collins for his wealth and also her growing age. Charlotte was known “for her compassion” (Austen 129) and would recognize the romantic chemistry between Jane and Mr. Bingley, and even Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy from the beginning. Charlotte would listen closely to anyone; she was not bothered by Mr. Collins curt mannerisms. “Marriage vied with inheritance as the most important way to transmit power and wealth.” (Phegley 110) Charlotte and Mr. Collins was not a ‘proud’ one nor was it for love, but for the sake of herself and family’s prosperity. With this, Charlotte and Mr. Collins were able to easily coexist in the marriage where “mutual entertainment between couples would appear to be relatively rare” (Goldthorpe/Lock-wood 142). In the 19th century, especially in the Georgian era “…daughters were seen as the way forward, the family member who could boost the status and fortunes of a whole generation.” (Courcy 29) which is why Charlotte was so hastened to marry Mr. Collins. His air was grave and stately, and his manners were very formal. (Austen 74) His impact is considerably small as a character but as a characteristic of the time he is an example. Mr. Collins is written as the average man to marry in that period, a wealthy and monotonous man whom only pursued marriage on the basis of inheritance and his own steadfast loyalty to whomever held power. Despite Charlotte being Mr. Collins third choice, as a husband he treated her well, as expected, which is described in Cruelty and Companionship: Conflict in Nineteenth Century Married Life:

But despite this [the customs of courtship] rigidity, by the end of the nineteenth century the exposure of marital misconduct among men of all social classes had brought to an unprecedented amount of attention to proper ideals of male behavior in marriage, so that one result of the long marriage debate was a challenge to prevailing concepts of marriage. The ‘manliness’ of husbands was tested increasingly by their marital conduct, and not only their breadwinning capacities, which could not help but encourage more intense questioning of their family authority. (Hammerton 2)

Colonel Fitzwilliam, thirty, is a gentleman whom Elizabeth took frivolous liking to, but were just friends. Though perceived as a complete gentleman, he does admit that he would be unable to ever marry a poor woman, inadvertently emphasizing Elizabeth lower economical stance, as he must provide for himself. He is cousin of Mr. Darcy and the guardian of Georgiana Darcy, the beloved younger sister of Mr. Darcy, and accidentally supplies knowledge to Elizabeth that lessens her opinion of Mr. Darcy. Colonel Fitzwilliam is who tells Elizabeth of Mr. Darcy’s involvement in separating Jane and Mr. Bingley, though he was not aware that Jane was her sister. The colonel said that Mr. Darcy had “congratulated himself on having lately saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage...” (Austen 212).

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy did not start out being so ardently in love with each other but actually held hard feelings toward each other due to misunderstandings of each other’s character. They first met at a ball and whilst in Elizabeth’s earshot makes a rude remark of her appearance, “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me…” (Austen 14) which decides her opinion of him being “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world…” (Austen 13) Elizabeth and Charlotte discuss his status in society, and how he has the right to be prideful, and Elizabeth even says, “I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.” (Austen 23) Elizabeth notices his apprehension for dance, which was a very prominent social activity in the Regency/Georgian era that was not taken lightly and was subject to many works of art such as Albert Ludovici Jnr., The Regency Dance:

Pride and Prejudice, a suitable title and phrase for the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy represents their equal prides and prejudices based upon the British Class System. The class system held favorably to the rich and negatively towards the poor, even more to those who lived in complete poverty. Elizabeth was prideful and had a prejudice against the wealthy, as she felt they all saw the poor as lesser than them. Mr. Darcy was just as prideful and had a similar prejudice on the opposite end of the spectrum as he felt all the poor, especially woman, only cared for wealth. Mr. Darcy, as previously described, separated Jane and Mr. Bingley because of his prejudices without truly seeing the type of person Jane was, and immediately generalized her due to his own skewed perspective. Shortly, only five pages, after Elizabeth finds out his involvement in the separation of Jane and Mr. Bingley, he proposes to Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy confesses that “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” (Austen 217) After the confession, Elizabeth is left astonished and in shocked silence which gives him the fuel to continue the explanation of his conflicted and quite derogatory reaction towards his own feelings. During this, Elizabeth remains calm until she finally becomes angry and responds with a outright and notable response, addressing her main provocation: “I might as well inquire,” replied she, “why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character? Was not this some excuse for incivility, if I was uncivil? But I have other provocations. You know I have. Had not my feelings decided against you—had they been indifferent, or had they even been favourable, do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?” (Austen 219) In the 2005 film adaption of Pride and Prejudice, suitably named after the novel, makes Mr. Darcy “look more passionate than the literary original”. (Gymnich/Ruhl 26) By using the actor as a tool, Joe Wright, the director was able to direct them to display emotions not commonly represented in the 19th century. Such as making the scene occur in the rain, a romantic trope very commonly used in iconic romance films like

The Notebook, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Enchanted

, instead of in the lackluster guestroom of the Collins house she was occupying. For this reason, Elizabeth “referred for the truth of every particular to Colonel Fitzwilliam himself—” (Austen 237) as there was no reason for him to be untrustworthy or biased in her eyes. In gaining Elizabeth’s trust he also fortuitously lessened her opinion of Mr. Darcy, especially after the displaced proposal. She over time finds out he was responsible for saving her family’s reputation by arranging the elopement of her sister, Lydia, to Mr. Wickham and assisting in reconnecting Jane and Mr. Bingley. Through her established friendship with the colonel, and circumstances connecting Mr. Darcy and herself, they began to see one another in a positive light and Elizabeth contentedly agrees to become Mr. Darcy’s wife upon seeing the happiness Jane’s engagement with her Mr. Bingley brought. In finally seeing what was behind his negative behaviors was actually concern and kindness for the people he cared for, Elizabeth was able to admit that she loved Mr. Darcy. When asking her father, Mr. Bennet, for permission to marry Mr. Darcy he asked if she really like him, this was her vivid response:

“I do, I do like him,” she replied, with tears in her eyes, “I love him. Indeed he has no improper pride. He is perfectly amiable. You do not know what he really is; then pray do not pain me by speaking of him in such terms.” (Austen 424)

With this, Elizabeth’s were assured and a stereotype of 19th century marital expectations was broken, as she loved her husband and he did in return, a rarity found in the time of rising society.

To conclude, in examining Elizabeth Bennet’s family, friendships, and romantic interests it was possible to analyze the marital and societal expectations of the British class system. Mr. and Ms. Bennet, though quite drastically different raised intelligent and mature young women, maybe with the exceptions of Kitty and Lydia Darcy, who even if they make mistakes can improve from them. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, along with Jane and Mr. Bingley, were able to break the stereotype of dispassionate marriages, instead entering healthy and tender ones. On the other hand, Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins acted as a prime example of the reality of marriage in the 19th century. Charlotte, only a short time away becoming an “old maid”, ended the burden on her parents and was able to financially ascend with the help of her marriage to Mr. Collins. However, this is not to be misunderstood. Charlotte was not in love with Mr. Collins, but she was content and treated well by Mr. Collins, together developing a unique companionship. With this, 19th century expectations are broken down and evolve into positive representations of what could be seen as negative. Prejudices between the rich and poor occurred in many ways, by not accepting a simple dance or even a proposal, it can take so many shapes. Pride truly takes many forms throughout society; Not enough words or to many, rejection, a superior wage, a bigger home, or just a phrase can hurt another person’s pride. Pride and Prejudice whilst generally focusing upon the marital aspects, it also expresses the moral lacking’s of individuals and their thoughts in society during the Regency era. It made possible, in examining Elizabeth Bennet’s family, friendships, and romantic interests it is possible to properly observe the marital and societal expectations and limitations that live within the British class system.

WORK CITED

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. AmazonClassics, 2017.

Courcy, Anne De. The Husband Hunters: American Heiresses Who Married into the British Aristocracy. St. Martin's Press, 2018. Dillon, Sarah. “Pride and Prejudice.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 10 Jan. 2020, www.britannica.com/topic/Pride-and-Prejudice.Erickson, Carolly. Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England. William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint Edition, 2011.

Goldthorpe, John H., and David Lockwood. Affluence and the British Class Structure. University of Cambridge, Department of Applied Economics, 1964. Gymnich, Marion, and Kathrin Ruhl. Gendered (Re)Visions: Constructions of Gender in Audiovisual Media. V & R Unipress, Bonn Univ. Press, 2010.

Hammerton, A. James. Cruelty and Companionship: Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Married Life. Routledge, 2016.Jnr. Ludovici, Albert. The Regency Dance. 1852-1932. Art and Antiques, Oxford, England. Bonhams. https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/18050/lot/18/?category=list“Romantic Rain.” TV Tropes, Tvtropes, 13 Aug. 2014, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanticRain. Phegley, Jennifer. Courtship and Marriage in Victorian England. Praeger, 2012.

#research paper #pride and prejudice #jane austen #beyond-katie

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misscrawfords · 7 years

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Sparkling like granite?

So ITV is making a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice which is going bring out its “darker tones”.

Here are my thoughts at considerable length (which nobody asked for) about this adaptation (which nobody asked for).

My initial response was mixed. On the one hand, I’m actually not averse to a new adaptation of P&P. Sure, it’s over-adapted and there are lots of novels which deserve a multi-part adaptation more than P&P. (Mansfield Park? The novels of Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Walter Scott?) However, P&P is one of the world’s most popular novels and there hasn’t been a straight TV adaptation of it in over 20 years. Adaptations of P&P often say as much about the time in which they are made as they do about the source material and a good adaptation, even if one doesn’t necessarily agree with the choices made, can make you see the book in a new light and provoke discussion. I’m not averse to that.

So there’s that response of muted interest. That warred with deep misgivings about the “darker tones” of Austen’s “adult” novel which is “much less bonnet-y” in an adaptation by someone who has apparently never watched an adaptation of the book, despite loving it. Really? Has she been living under a rock? P&P is so much part of popular culture that it seems impossible to adapt it in a way that does not pay homage consciously or subconsciously to previous adaptations. Can one avoid a “post-modern moment” as Lost in Austen so delightfully made explicit? I’m deeply sceptical. (Does one even want to? Intertextuality can add so much... but that’s a discussion for another day.) Anyway, back to the “darker tones”. My instinct is to say that this seems terribly wrong. Of all Austen novels, P&P is the most light-hearted, the most sparkling, the most comforting. Why oh why, would you want to mess with that? For goodness sake, let us have our romantic comedies and laugh out loud satire and implausible happy endings! Why must everything be marred with the brush of making things grim and dark and equating that grimness with gritty reality? Reality may be sometimes grim and dark but it is also sometimes hilarious and warm and full of love. Why must the former be prioritised? I have a massive problem with reinterpreting texts to “make them dark” as if that is a naturally good thing. But that’s probably also a discussion for another day.

So, mixed feelings. But naturally the purists are up in arms about this idea (and a part of me certainly wants to join them) and that makes me desperately inclined to take a second look and examine the possibilities of this adaptation and some of the potentially intriguing things the writer has said.

“Darker tones”

Okay, so firstly what does this mean? Does P&P even have darker tones? Surely you have to squint? Weeeeeell, yes and no. It’s a mistake to assume Austen never wrote about the nastier aspects of human nature and experience. The more obvious examples (leaving out Mansfield Park’s troubled potential references to the slave trade) are the fate of Colonel Brandon’s ward, Eliza; the decline of Mrs. Smith; the condition of the Prices in Portsmouth; the fate of Maria Rushworth; General Tilney’s treatment of his wife - and of course Wickham’s role in P&P. Just because Austen doesn’t write rape, seduction, abuse, death etc. explicitly on the page and just because her novels end (mostly) happily doesn’t mean she lives in a fantasy world untouched by these things.

Let’s look at Wickham. He attempted to seduce a vulnerable 15 year old girl who knew him and trusted him and used a woman in a position of authority to her to gain access to her. To use modern terminology, how long, one wonders, had he been grooming Georgiana? The elopement was prevented but only just. And while Darcy clearly thinks his sister’s reputation is intact (and her virtue), is it? Could Wickham have persuaded Georgiana to sleep with him before the elopement? I don’t personally think so - I think she would have somehow told Darcy if that had happened - but it is a possible and interesting idea, even if I don’t know where you would go with that except to show what an awful person Wickham is... which we know.

Wickham then successfully elopes with another 15 year old girl in a vulnerable position away from her family a year later - this is looking like a pattern of a rather unhealthy interest in underage girls (again to use modern theory, which is dangerous as an interpretation but sometimes useful). He’s the same age as Darcy after all - 28. Not an unheard of age gap in those days but still creepy considering the vulnerable positions of the girls in question. Lydia is ruined and by proxy, so are her sister’s chances. Wickham causes a LOT of problems by this one act. And all to get revenge on Darcy for refusing to give him money after he spent all his.

There is, moreover, the Meryton gossip: “He was declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and his intrigues, all honoured with the title of seduction, had been extended into every tradesman’s family.”

Is this true? Has he been seducing (raping?) respectable girls in Meryton? Who knows! This is the wisdom of Mrs. Phillips after all. But they are talking about it openly in the text, there is rarely smoke without fire and it would hardly be out of character.

Is this sufficiently dark? It’s certainly not exactly a riotous comedy. Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of a Meryton tradesman’s daughter who loses her virtue and her father his money would be a very different novel. Georgiana’s history bears close examination. As with Eleanor Tilney’s story in Northanger Abbey, a real Gothic tale right under Catherine’s nose which she doesn’t even notice, there’s something pretty horrible going on in P&P if you care to look.

Perhaps this is what the writer Raine means by “actually a very adult book”.

What else could that refer to? (Because I give her sufficient credit to assume she’s not going to add in random pornographic scenes for the sake of it. Honestly.)

Jane Bennet. Jane is basically depressed for the duration of the novel. Elizabeth constantly worries over her low-spirits and concern for her affects her own happiness. In fact, Elizabeth herself is miserable for a lot of the novel. She goes on a journey of self-discovery but that comes at a cost. She is affected by Charlotte’s marriage, Jane’s disappointment, her own disappointment in Wickham, the effect of reading Darcy’s letter, Lydia’s elopement and finally realising she loves Darcy and will never have him. That’s a lot to throw at even the most resilient, good-humoured and optimistic person. Just because Lizzy loves to laugh doesn’t mean she is not unhappy in some way or other for a lot of the novel. For example:

After disappointment re Bingley and Wickham:

“Oh! if that is all, I have a very poor opinion of young men who live in Derbyshire; and their intimate friends who live in Hertfordshire are not much better. I am sick of them all. Thank Heaven! I am going to-morrow where I shall find a man who has not one agreeable quality, who has neither manner nor sense to recommend him. Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all.”

“Take care, Lizzy; that speech savours strongly of disappointment.”

(I am always struck by the great bitterness in Elizabeth’s humour in that scene. It’s often overlooked IMO.)

After reading Darcy’s letter:

...it may be easily believed that the happy spirits which had seldom been depressed before, were now so much affected as to make it almost impossible for her to appear tolerably cheerful.

The only other use of the word “depressed” in the novel also applies to Elizabeth.

When Lydia has returned with Wickham:

Elizabeth could bear it no longer. She got up, and ran out of the room; and returned no more, till she heard them passing through the hall to the dining parlour.

You’ve got to be pretty much at the end of your tether to run out of the room at the age of 20 because you cannot bear to hear your sister talking any more.

Elizabeth is not happy. Jane is not happy. Mrs. Bennet is certainly not happy. Sure, it’s a comedy and Elizabeth has the delightful ability to laugh at herself and others and Jane tries very hard to overcome low spirits and always sees the best and Mrs. Bennet absolutely must be a caricature or else the humour is lost and everything becomes terribly heavy and not like the novel at all, but we feel triumphant with Elizabeth at the end precisely because she has actually suffered so much along the way in very human ways - romantic disappointment, losing a friend to a lifestyle choice she can’t understand, family troubles... These are not the things of epic but that doesn’t make them unimportant. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries conveys this aspect of the characters so well without losing the comedy. It is possible. Certainly I don’t think any other period adaptation has succeeded so well and I would love to see an adaptation that does. It’s not graphic sex, but I would describe this as in the realm of adult themes.

“Much less bonnet-y”

Okay, I don’t really know what this means. I suspect it’s a dig at the period dramas of the 1980s and 90s with beautiful aesthetics and no dirt and everyone speaking very properly. I thought we got the reaction to that overwith in the 00s and I really don’t want more sackcloths and pigs in the corridors, please. Ladies in that period wore bonnets. Get over it. This strikes me as the most provocative statement in all the things that were said, but it is also largely meaningless without more context. Productions like Poldark and Victoria have made an effort with costumes and sets so I don’t see why this would skimp on them. Will it be set in the 1790s this time with more of a rompish Georgian feel than a neo-classical Regency tone? Time only will tell!

"I hope I do justice to Austen’s dark intelligence – sparkling, yes, but sparkling like granite.”

Now this intrigues me! This is what makes me curious and also hopeful. Because Austen pulled no punches and had a very good understanding of dark impulses and the awful ridiculousness of human behaviour - and she absolutely skewered it.

In Paragon we met Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Dowdeswell with her yellow shawl airing out, and at the bottom of Kingsdown Hill we met a gentleman in a buggy, who, on minute examination, turned out to be Dr. Hall — and Dr. Hall in such very deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead.

Mrs. B. and two young women were of the same party, except when Mrs. B. thought herself obliged to leave them to run round the room after her drunken husband. His avoidance, and her pursuit, with the probable intoxication of both, was an amusing scene.

I give you joy of our new nephew, and hope if he ever comes to be hanged it will not be till we are too old to care about it.

How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!

You get the point. All expressed in very nicely balanced phrases and a genteel tone and they are very amusing - but what sentiments! In short, I think Raine’s description of Austen’s wit and intelligence actually very apt. Similar things are found in P&P as in her letters. Consider Mr. Collins.

You ought certainly to forgive them, as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing.

Ouch.

“She had better have stayed at home,” cried Elizabeth; “perhaps she meant well, but, under such a misfortune as this, one cannot see too little of one’s neighbours. Assistance is impossible; condolence insufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied.”

A nice thing to say about your friends and neighbours...

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then. It is something to think of, and it gives her a sort of distinction among her companions. When is your turn to come? You will hardly bear to be long outdone by Jane. Now is your time. Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably.”

“Thank you, sir, but a less agreeable man would satisfy me. We must not all expect Jane’s good fortune.”

“True,” said Mr. Bennet, “but it is a comfort to think that whatever of that kind may befall you, you have an affectionate mother who will make the most of it.”

Such kind parental support!

Mr. Bennet’s sarcasm, Mr. Collins’ pomposity which is eventually revealed as truly cold-hearted, Elizabeth’s biting and often undeserved satire, Mrs. Bennet’s foolishness - all of these are funny and the adaptation must make them funny. The dialogue must glitter and shine or you lose the absolute light-hearted sparkling joy of the novel and everything becomes heavy. But there’s an edge to the humour, there really is. And you treat like the stereotype of Sunday night bonnets and swoonable men jumping in lakes to romantic soundtracks at your peril.

You know what, I’m willing to give someone who describes Austen as “sparkling like granite” a shot. Love and Friendship for the first time presented an Austen adaptation that took absurdity, satire and caricature as its starting point in adapting Austen and I would love to see an adaptation of P&P that did the same, with all the greater subtlety that this novel requires over several hours, considering that it is a beautiful love story as well.

Will this adaptation deliver? Who knows? And there are a lot of things to be concerned about in this endeavor. But it might be really quite interesting.

tl;dr Austen is uncomfortable funny, she has a dark side, but they can’t make the adaptation dark and grim because that misses the point.

#Pride and Prejudice #Jane Austen #period drama

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