Throughout the whole of Pride and Prejudice, the one character that intrigued me the most would have to be Mr. Bennet - father to five girls and husband to a crazy woman. To me, Mr. Bennet is hilarious. With his sarcastic humor and his witty remarks to his wife, I thought he was a great man. As the story carries on however, I began to wonder about his personality. Bennet was a funny man, but was he a good father? Continually withdrawing to his library, and clearly taking pleasure in torturing his wife, I became unsure of what to make of Mr. Bennet. For a man with a large family, he didn't seem very interested in their every day lives, and in fact, every time things became annoying or tiresome for him, he retreated into his library. Some people would even blame him for Lydia's and Wickham's elopement. His foolish encouragement only added fuel to the fire, and when Lydia actually ran away with Wickham, Mr. Bennet once again proved to be useless in recovering her. It seemed to me that Bennet rather hide and read himself blind in his library than face his problems. Lizzie noticed that her parent's marriage was not very good, but perhaps it would have been better had Mr. Bennet worked a little harder at it. What do you think of Mr. Bennet? Is he an effective father and husband or is he more of a detriment to the family? Do you understand his constant flights to the library? Do you support them? What would YOU do in his shoes?
So I can't really think of good answers to any of the discussion questions posted... here's one of my own. Corinne's post on the happy ending got me thinking about happiness in general, which made me think of Lizzie versus Jane.
We began a discussion on the topic of Lizzie vs. Jane and who has the better personality. I don't recall who said this, but I, at the very least, fully agree: Jane is who I would want to be, some day, but Lizzie is more who I am. I think we would all (except for those of us without a heart or soul...not naming any names) like to have, at times, the naïveté that Jane has -- the ability to see the best in everybody and to be able to look at all of life through pink sunglasses. Yes, there is more potential to get hurt (because, the Lizzie in me says, there are people who seem to live only to cause pain to others), but won't life be so much the richer if we based our actions on expecting the best of people rather than the worst? (To quote Mean Grls -- "I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy...")
Back to the text. After Jane becomes engaged to Bingley, she says she wishes Elizabeth could be as happy as she is. To this, Elizabeth replies, "If you were to give me forty such men, I never could be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness."
How much truth do you think Elizabeth's statement holds, both in the book and in the real world? Where is the balance between Lizzie and Jane? Is there an ideal that's met in the book somewhere? Which characters support Jane's world view? Which support Lizzie's? Who do YOU want to be, and why? Any tangential answers to anything related to happiness/Jane/Lizzie are fully appreciated as well. :P
-Ola
In deviating a bit from the general format of broad discussion questions...I'd like to focus on a very specific part of the text. In volume II, chapter XVI Lydia take to her usual obnoxious attention-whoring and dominates conversation. Her topic of choice, however, strikes me as a bit taboo, even by today's standards, let alone those of Victorian society. She says: "We dressed up Chamberlayne in woman's clothes, on purpose to pass for a lady, - only think what fun! Not a soul knew of it, but Col. and Mrs. Forster, and Kitty and me, except my aunt, for we were forced to borrow one of her gowns; and you cannot imagine how well he looked! When Denny, and Wickham, and Pratt, and two or three more of the men came in, the did not know him in the least. Lord! how I laughed! and so did Mrs. Forster. I though I should have died. And THAT made the men suspect something, and then they soon found out what was the matter" (169). While I'm, of course, not opposed to some drag every now and then, I find myself really perplexed by this episode's place in the novel at large. Why does Austen include such gender-bending in "Pride and Prejudice?" General reactions? Confusion? Do you think this is a commentary on masculinity? Or is she again simply trying to illustrate Lydia's ridiculosity? -Zach Lundin
Whenever I watch a romantic comedy, it's great to see the couple finally get together at the end of the movie, but seriously-- what happens after the couple gets together / becomes a couple / gets married? It's hard to extend these characters past the happy ending, and the same happens at the end of Pride and Prejudice. What happens to Lizzie and Mr. Darcy? It has been entertaining (for some) to watch Lizzie and Mr. Darcy discover each other's character to the point where they realize they're in "love" and get engaged. But seriously-- what else is there to do after that? I suppose they can always find new things to argue over, but after they jump over the hurdle of social constraints to marriage... where do they go from there? What do you think happens to Mr. Darcy and Lizzie after they get married (assuming that they're real....)? After all this commentary on love and marriage, why do you think Jane Austen leaves out the trials and tribulations of a marriage between two characters that fall in love against the odds?
- Corinne
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