Austen constantly reminds the readers how embarrassing, over the top, and desperate Mrs. Bennet portrays the Bennet family to be. The importance of the reputation of one’s family in the novel is seemingly significant. Mrs. Bennet is viewed as ridiculous and annoying throughout the novel as she tries to marry her daughters off to wealthy men of the upper class. Although Jane and Elizabeth Bennet do end up marrying these wealthy men, it is difficult to tell if they have the same motivations as their mother. It can be assumed that sweet Jane truly marries Bingley out of love even though he was engaged to another woman previously. Elizabeth’s motivations, however, to marry Darcy are blurred. Elizabeth initially denies “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world” (Austen 13), when Darcy asks for her hand in marriage. More towards the end of the novel, it is interesting to note how quickly Elizabeth’s feelings towards Darcy change as she ends up “loving” him and accepting his proposal. She begins to “love” Darcy when he informs her of Wickham’s greedy intentions. The act that fully convinces Elizabeth to accept Darcy’s proposal is when she finds out Darcy pays Wickham to marry Lydia so the Bennet family would not be publicly shamed. At this moment, it is clear that Elizabeth perhaps does not truly love Darcy because of his person, but she “loves” him for his actions that ultimately helped her family. Austen here attempts to further emphasize the importance of making all decisions for the sake of one’s family reputation. Initially, Elizabeth is an independent woman and frankly does not seem to care what others think about her. She is described as having “an abominable sort of conceited independence as most country town indifference to decorum” (36) by the wealthy ladies of the upper class. Throughout the novel, Elizabeth says what she wants and does not try to impress the wealthy. Nonetheless, while Elizabeth does not care what society thinks of her as an individual, the fact that she marries a man just because he paid someone off to marry her sister shows that she does care about her family’s reputation above all. Ultimately, Elizabeth and her mother, Mrs. Bennet, are motivated to marry based on family reputation.
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ReplyDeleteMrs. Bennet sole concern is marrying off her daughters, which was very typical of parents during that time. I do not see her obsession with finding them husbands as a character flaw, however. At that time, the mother and father role in the family was so to orchestrate the marriages for their children. Today we have much more freedom in choosing who, and when we marry, which makes it much harder to relate to Mrs. Bennet. I believe the reason we see the lengths Mrs. Bennet goes to as embarrassing and over the top is a product of the times. She was simply a mother who cared deeply for her children and wanted to give them the best marriage possible for them. To do that, she would necessarily want them to marry as high and well as possible. When Mrs. Bennet speaks to her husband about meeting M. Bingley, her motherly pride is evident, "How good it was in you, my dear Mr. Bennet! But I knew I should persuade you at last. I was sure you loved your girls too well to neglect such an acquaintance" (Austen 9). Mrs. Bennet clearly loves her daughters, and her obsession with finding them husbands is a by-product of that love and affection she has for them. I believe that if society had not changed as drastically as it has in the 200 since the novel was published, we would all be much more sympathetic to Mrs. Bennet.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Elizabeth’s feelings toward Darcy change rapidly after she realizes her first impressions of him were inaccurate and later worsened by the opinions of others. It is also commonly said that there is a thin line between love and hate. Therefore, I do not find it unrealistic for Elizabeth to want to marry Darcy, especially because real affection, let alone love, was rare in this type of marriage. However, when Jane questions Elizabeth and Elizabeth defends her love for Darcy, she says that it began upon “first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberly” (244). I find this to be a bit out of character for Elizabeth, a woman who does not fawn over men with the greatest wealth and inheritance, but the greatest character. While I am convinced that Elizabeth really is in love with Darcy, it is interesting that she points out seeing his grounds as the moment she knew she was in love. Elizabeth may also be swayed a bit by wealth, like her mother. In the end, though, I am convinced that Elizabeth is not marrying Darcy because he is wealthy, but because she loves him, as demonstrated by her conversation with her father. Mr. Bennet says to Elizabeth, “I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband” (246), and Elizabeth assures her father that she is not indifferent to Darcy.
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