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Pride and Prejudice
May. 25th, 2020 03:05 pmThere are some takes on P&P, and the characterization of various characters, that frustrate me whenever I see them. For example!
1) Elizabeth is determined to only marry for love! ... uh, no, that's Jane, at least if we're talking about the book. In the various adaptations, sure, Elizabeth talks about marrying for love and how important it is. But in the book, Elizabeth is more concerned with whether or not she respects any prospective future husband. Love is great! I'm sure she would prefer it! But after watching her parents' marriage (and knowing that they believed themselves in love when they married, that's why her father married beneath him) what she wants most out of marriage is mutual respect.
2) Elizabeth is so unconventional and breaking social conventions left and right! ... uh, no, that's Lydia. Elizabeth cares very deeply about courtesy and propriety, in some cases too much. Why does she hate Darcy, to begin with? He is discourteous and flouts propriety (i.e. doesn't dance or talk to anyone at an assembly.) Why does she like Wickham so much? Everything he says and does (that she knows of) is courteous and proper. He knows how to project a surface veneer of Proper And Courteous Gentleman. Now, Elizabeth doesn't let her desire for courtesy and propriety to blind her to the ways that people can be rude, cruel, mean, or selfish despite being (on the surface) everything that is proper, but that doesn't mean she doesn't like propriety, it just means she wants it to be real and not just surface hypocrisy.
3) Elizabeth's perceptions of everybody and everything in the novel are absolutely true and impartial! ... uh, no, one of the major themes of the book is Elizabeth realizing that she is an unreliable narrator and doesn't always judge people very truly. She's an intelligent and perceptive woman, but nobody is perfectly impartial, and even at the end of the book she certainly is not. It is good to take her evaluations of other people, and what she believes they are thinking and feeling, with a large grain of salt even at the end of the book.
4) Mr. Bennet is the Good Parent and Mrs. Bennet is the Bad Parent! ... uh, they're both pretty bad, actually, just in different ways. Mrs. Bennet's flaws are obvious, but that's because Elizabeth loves her father more than she loves her mother, and so she's more critical of her mother. But, look, Mr. Bennet has known for years that Mrs. Bennet is not a very good mother, that she's not doing anything to help their kids grow and learn and become good people with decent educations. And how does he respond? By alternately ignoring the issue and mocking his wife and any daughters he thinks are silly. At best, that's neglect. And, yeah, he likes Elizabeth best and treats her better than the others! But that doesn't make him a good parent. It just means he's playing favorites as much as Mrs. Bennet is. Jane and Lydia are treated well by their mother because she likes them (although the lack of discipline and boundaries has done some damage to Lydia), and Elizabeth is treated well because Mr. Bennet likes her, but Mary and Kitty are kinda screwed over by both parents.
I find the first two more annoying than the second two, because they're caused by modern ideology being imposed on Elizabeth. She's the heroine, so she must therefore think and behave the way a woman we can relate to would, so she must think about love and marriage and social conventions the same way we do. We believe that True Love is necessary for marriage, so therefore Elizabeth must. We believe that most of the social conventions of the Regency were stupid, so therefore Elizabeth must, too. We see Elizabeth the way we think she ought to be, instead of the way she actually is.
1) Elizabeth is determined to only marry for love! ... uh, no, that's Jane, at least if we're talking about the book. In the various adaptations, sure, Elizabeth talks about marrying for love and how important it is. But in the book, Elizabeth is more concerned with whether or not she respects any prospective future husband. Love is great! I'm sure she would prefer it! But after watching her parents' marriage (and knowing that they believed themselves in love when they married, that's why her father married beneath him) what she wants most out of marriage is mutual respect.
2) Elizabeth is so unconventional and breaking social conventions left and right! ... uh, no, that's Lydia. Elizabeth cares very deeply about courtesy and propriety, in some cases too much. Why does she hate Darcy, to begin with? He is discourteous and flouts propriety (i.e. doesn't dance or talk to anyone at an assembly.) Why does she like Wickham so much? Everything he says and does (that she knows of) is courteous and proper. He knows how to project a surface veneer of Proper And Courteous Gentleman. Now, Elizabeth doesn't let her desire for courtesy and propriety to blind her to the ways that people can be rude, cruel, mean, or selfish despite being (on the surface) everything that is proper, but that doesn't mean she doesn't like propriety, it just means she wants it to be real and not just surface hypocrisy.
3) Elizabeth's perceptions of everybody and everything in the novel are absolutely true and impartial! ... uh, no, one of the major themes of the book is Elizabeth realizing that she is an unreliable narrator and doesn't always judge people very truly. She's an intelligent and perceptive woman, but nobody is perfectly impartial, and even at the end of the book she certainly is not. It is good to take her evaluations of other people, and what she believes they are thinking and feeling, with a large grain of salt even at the end of the book.
4) Mr. Bennet is the Good Parent and Mrs. Bennet is the Bad Parent! ... uh, they're both pretty bad, actually, just in different ways. Mrs. Bennet's flaws are obvious, but that's because Elizabeth loves her father more than she loves her mother, and so she's more critical of her mother. But, look, Mr. Bennet has known for years that Mrs. Bennet is not a very good mother, that she's not doing anything to help their kids grow and learn and become good people with decent educations. And how does he respond? By alternately ignoring the issue and mocking his wife and any daughters he thinks are silly. At best, that's neglect. And, yeah, he likes Elizabeth best and treats her better than the others! But that doesn't make him a good parent. It just means he's playing favorites as much as Mrs. Bennet is. Jane and Lydia are treated well by their mother because she likes them (although the lack of discipline and boundaries has done some damage to Lydia), and Elizabeth is treated well because Mr. Bennet likes her, but Mary and Kitty are kinda screwed over by both parents.
I find the first two more annoying than the second two, because they're caused by modern ideology being imposed on Elizabeth. She's the heroine, so she must therefore think and behave the way a woman we can relate to would, so she must think about love and marriage and social conventions the same way we do. We believe that True Love is necessary for marriage, so therefore Elizabeth must. We believe that most of the social conventions of the Regency were stupid, so therefore Elizabeth must, too. We see Elizabeth the way we think she ought to be, instead of the way she actually is.
