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| From the 1995 BBC Production of Pride and Prejudice |
Q1: After a fairly short acquaintance, Elizabeth Bennet, the "smart" girl ironically falls for one of the officers that Kitty and Lydia chase about--George Wickham. As she herself says, "he is, beyond all comparison, the most agreeable man I ever saw" (97). Why does she fall for him? Is it out of character for her? Or might it tie into the overarching themes of the novel itself?
Q2: Why does Charlotte agree to marry Mr. Collins after Elizabeth has already refused him? And more importantly, why doesn't Elizabeth believe that her best friend would make such a disastrous match? What does Charlotte's decision/reasoning say about the realities of women in the late 18th century?
Q3: The Narrator writes of Mrs. Bennet that "Elizabeth was the least dear to her of all her children" (71). Why would this be, considering she is generally the reader's favorite daughter (or character) and everyone decent in the book loves her, including her father. Where does this dislike or animosity come from, particularly considering this is her second-born daughter?
Q4: How does Austen satirize the upper classes in the mode of Sheridan at Rosings (with Lady Catherine de Bourgh)? How does she treat her social inferiors--the Collins and Elizabeth--and how might Austen be sharing Elizabeth's delight here in "anything ridiculous" (9)?
Q1: I believe she chooses Mr. Wickham because she is intrigued by the tension between him and Darcy. Mr. Wickham pins darcy as a self-absorbed, arrogant man. Elizabeth finds him "handsomer than ever as he expressed them [the words]" (Austen 55). Elizabeth says herself she delights in "anything ridiculous" (9). I believe she finds great pleasure in watching Darcy's reactions when he sees her and Mr. Wickham together.
ReplyDeleteQ3: Mrs. Bennet is the ultimate puppet master when it comes to the marriage game. Elizabeth, however, does not follow in the steps of her mother. She refuses to marry Mr. Collins for money, even though her mother threatens never to see her again. In fact, Mr. Collins describes Elizabeth as "headstrong and foolish" (75). Elizabeth is not the type of woman any man would want to marry, thus making her a thorn in her mother's side.
Great responses; I think Wickham realizes that Elizabeth roots for the underdog and is happy to present himself as such, and then plays on her natural dislike (or the opposite) for Darcy. She also prides herself on not following class distinctions, and she becomes convinced that class alone has destroyed Wickham's hopes--a fact which Miss Bingley seems to support. In her zeal to be a savior she allows herself to be prejudiced by heresay and gossip...and perhaps she reads life a little too much like a novel!
ReplyDeleteQ2) Charlotte agrees to marry him because she doesn't have a whole lot of options; that's basically what she tells Lizzy, too. I think the reality of it is that those women don't get very many chances to get married so love and character want a favor in a marriage--wealth and reproduction was all the marriage needed to provide!
ReplyDeleteQ3) it seems like Lizzy is just like her father and I constantly wonder if the Bennets had married for love or, like in the case above, for political reasons. I think Mrs. Bennet resents her husband for constantly contradicting her and parallel to that, she resents his mini-me. She's also clearly frustrated for constantly neglecting the priority of marriage. Her mother hates that she isn't being practical. I'm sure this is a trait that has existed throughout her whole life--not just in the short amount of time that we are exposed to the family and their marriage drama.