Pride and Prejudice – where to begin? This is quite possibly my favorite novel. It is quite definitely by my favorite author – Jane Austen. (I am torn between this and Persuasion as my favorite of hers – when I discovered that my soon-to-be-daughter-in-law, Megan Morrison, had the same two favorites, I knew Devin had found the ideal wife!) Reading it is sheer pleasure. But this is about the book’s impact on me. Like my previous entry, The Scarlet Letter, this was a book I read (as spinach) for my own good while we were on another summer trip to Mexico. So, again, my expectations weren’t high. As I read the opening chapters, I found myself thinking, “Almost nothing is happening and yet I can’t wait to turn the page.” I salute you, Jane, for your talent to amuse an unobservant twentieth century American teenager! Today, I shake my head – NOTHING HAPPENING!!!??? Ah, well, more about that later. The book was hilarious and highly romantic – or so at least it seemed. As I kept re-reading the book over the years, slowly either it changed or I did. I began to realize that my laughter was due to Austen’s gentle yet blistering critique of society and humankind. The book portrays a family, father – well-read and intelligent; wife – foolish, neurotic and seemingly nearly illiterate; five daughters – the eldest, thoughtful and well-bred; the third, dull and pedantic; the fourth, a born follower; the fifth, a heedless, self-indulgent, as well as over-indulged-by-her-parents, flirt. And then there was the second daughter (Did you think, I had forgotten her?) ELIZABETH BENNET quite possibly my favorite character in all literature – spirited, intelligent, sharply critical, funny, charming – utterly delightful. For me, it was love at first sight (and to quote Oscar Wilde) “the beginning of a life-long romance.” The story is about a woman’s search for a suitable match, in terms of social standing, compatibility, and LOVE! The Bennet girls are of the upper class but of little money AND they have some “unsuitable” connections. Therefore, although they desperately need to marry wealthy men, they are unlikely to be able to! We, the readers, should begin to see that Ms. Austen has some comments to make on the ways of the world, especially as they apply to women. To give you one example of a way that I find the book has utterly changed for me as I became more aware of Austen’s critical view of humans, let me discuss Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mr. Bennet is witty (he has some of the best lines in the book); he loves Elizabeth best of all his daughters; in fact, he was one of my favorite characters. Mrs. Bennet, on the other hand, is always complaining and hysterical, says very inappropriate things to the embarrassment of her daughters, and is basically rather vulgar. She is obsessed with getting her girls well-married. Throughout the book some of Mr. Bennet’s best lines are at his wife’s expense – and the comments are insightful and well-deserved. BUT . . . Despite his surface charm (and Jane Austen is highly suspicious of men with surface charm – see Wickham in this book, Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park and Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility. She obviously prefers the quieter, more thoughtful man.), Mr. Bennet is clearly a bad husband and a poor father. He has not helped his wife become a calmer, more well-educated woman. Instead, he has made fun of her IN FRONT OF HER OWN DAUGHTERS as well as the rest of society. He has not bothered to save for his daughters’ future dowries, hoping that one day a son would come along to save the family fortune. He allows his youngest daughter to go on a trip that he knows is a bad idea rather than exert himself to stop her – and this decision has disastrous consequences for her for the rest of her life! How could I not see this? Well, I can answer that – because Jane Austen does not tell us her judgment; she presents the evidence without comment and lets the reader draw his or her own conclusions. As for Mrs. Bennet, I still find her hilarious and irritating. But over the years, my sympathies have turned to her. Of COURSE, she is frantic with fear for her daughters’ futures; who wouldn’t become a bit of a neurotic hysteric, when she had a ne’er-do-well husband who will hardly lift a finger to help get his daughters good husbands! She has to do it all, as he whiles away his days reading in the library, emerging to make the occasional disparaging remark about his wife and his three younger daughters. I do want to say that I STILL find Mr. Bennet charming (and he DOES love Elizabeth very much – as do we readers!) and I find his disparaging remarks hilarious, even as they pain me. In fact, the book makes me reflect on myself (as really good books – they tell me – are supposed to do). How often have I let a clever remark exempt me from taking action? (If I can make fun of it, I don’t have to do anything about it.) Seeing Mr. Bennet’s flaws makes me want to be a better husband and father – or dare I say it – a better human being. Pride and Prejudice – full of insight, hilarious, romantic, with one of the happiest of happy endings ever in literature – sheer joy. If you haven’t read it – start now. If you have, read it again!!!
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 03:16:29 +0000
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