Once again, Austen has taken me on a roller coaster ride of emotions - who would have known Darcy was so sentimental? Not as difficult to decipher were Elizabeth’s true feelings for him - same goes for Jane towards Bingley, but it was moving to feel the true sensation of confusion for both young women. I have literally this moment put it back on my shelf and I must say, I’m still smiling at Lizzy’s manner towards Lady De Bourgh - she put her foot down and had the right to do so. Lydia’s elopement earlier in the book however, convinced me of her foolishness; she seemed ditzy and immature from the beginning - I’m glad the family stepped in at the end and made sure Kitty did not follow in her footsteps.
Austen included such a variety of characters; the individualities of each independent filled out the story and put a realistic light on it - which I personally love to see in a book. I enjoyed her characters so much and I look forward to reading more of her works!
P.S. One of my friends has decided to name one of my ex-batt chickens (which I adopt in August) Elizabeth - after Miss Bennet (no spoilers) herself :)
Watching Pride and Prejudice (2005) is honestly such a prim and proper Regency bisexual wet dream. Because each scene with Lizzie and Darcy as a bi viewer is like “oh my god Lizzie is a stunning goddess,” then “oh and here’s Darcy and he’s a freaking cute ass beef cake man,” and sometimes it’s “oh my there’s Jane and she is a beam of beautiful sunshine,” and “oh Mr. Bingley let me touch those fluffy ginger locks.” When they start bantering, it becomes a high speed game of tennis and I am the ball person ready to pick up all the excess sexual tension, all while having an asthma attack over their swoon-worthy voices. Like fucking kiss already, the intense stares and covert glances are killing me. Please kiss each other. Or me, I don’t fucking care! Why does this movie have to end, you are all so beautiful. Send help. Neither closeted child me or bi as fuck now me can handle this movie without much squealing.
CelebratingThe Lizzie Bennet Diaries 5 Year Anniversary! Join us in April as we re-visit Lizzie’s story in its entirety, presented on Facebook. Be part of the conversation and use #LBD5Year to share what you loved most about experiencing the show live!
Mrs. Bennet, Miss Bennet, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, Miss Mary Bennet, Miss Catherine Bennet, Miss Lydia Bennet, and a mysterious man paying them a call (who can it be? 0: ). commissions/store/ko-fi/instagram
Non-Austen Reads for Austen Readers: Ella Enchanted
Non-Austen Reads for Austen Readers: Ella Enchanted
Happy Mother’s Day!
For those who are celebrating, I hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day. To honor my mother, today’s book was a recommendation from my mother. I am always thankful for her patience toward my obstinacy.
Non-Austen Reads for Austen Readers is something I started a while back for fans of Jane Austen who are looking for something to read.
Okay, okay, okay, I actually intended it to be the first part, but I was unexpectedly blown away by my own thoughts on Mr. and Mrs.Bennet and when I got back I realised that I’d already written too much for anybody to read, so, here we’re at the second part of my essay that is basically part number zero.
As I’ve mentioned before, there’s some pleasure in finding the hints about the ending of the story that you’d read before. And I daresay there’s A LOT OF foreshadowing (can I call it foreshadowing? Sorry, English isn’t my native language) in Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen is a master and I respect her even more now after noticing all these little (sometimes - not so little) details that point to the chain of events.
First of all, the ball where Jane and Bingley see each other for the first time. Jane is a beauty, Bingley is Bingley, Mrs.Bennet already counts their future children (only to pretend afterwards that she isn’t quite sure whether he liked her or not) and later Charlotte Lucas discusses the whole deal with Elizabeth.
Jane is known for her easiness and lightness of heart but at the same time she’s quite good at hiding her real feelings and Charlotte gives a comment that I didn’t pay attention to at first (it’s easy to forget as the conversation takes place early in the book) but that hits me hard now:
“If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him”
Elizabeth strongly disagrees and even says that Charlotte makes her laugh and her words are not the case for Bingley and Jane’s love, but…we all know what is going to happen after some chapters. (Charlotte, by the way, kind of foresees her own wedding, saying in that very scene, that it’d be better for people to get engaged before they really got to know each other!)
And it’s not the only case of Elizabeth’s opinion turning exactly against her.
Thanks to their mother’s care, Jane falls ill and has to stay at Netherfield for some time. Lizzy, being a good sister (I absolutely love their friendship!) follows her. During her stay there was a bunch of conversations, one of them - with Mr.Darcy. Darcy states that Mr.Bingley only boasts that he could leave a place at any time, had he wish to do so, while in reality he would stay if a friend asked him to stay, being, hence, too easy to persuade. Lizzy disagrees:
“You appear to me, Mr.Darcy, to allow nothing for the influence of friendship and affection. A regard for the requester would often make one readily yield to a request, without waiting for arguments to reason one into it”
Lizzy praises friendship - and I give her all the credits for it! - but later, when Bingley, basically, does what she was talking about: yielded to his friend’s request and left Netherfield, she is angry at him, calling him inconsistent.
While Elizabeth is quite inconsistent herself and Jane Austen makes sure that WE KNOW IT. She is disappointed in her old friend for marrying for the sake of not being an old spinster and really struggles to forgive her (now, I’m not in any way blaming Lizzy as I experienced something like this myself), but at the same time she can easily justify Wickham’s actions, which, in my opinion, are much more morbid:
“The suden acquisition of ten thousand pounds was the most remarkable charm of the young lady to whom he [Wickham] was now rendering himself agreeable; but Elizabeth, less clear-sighted perhaps in this case than in Charlotte’s, did not quarrel with him for his wish of independence. Nothing, on the contrary, could be more natural.. she was ready to allow it a wise and desirable measure for both”
Here, she calls it a WISE decision while in Charlotte’s case marrying for money and position is something unforgivable, though Charlotte’s perspectives were far worse than those of Wickham’s. Not to mention the fact that Wickham is just an immoral scoundrel (but more of it later). And, surprise-surprise, Charlotte foresaw it TOO (I’m honestly amazed at this woman’s talents):
“When Darcy approached to claim her [Elizabeth’s] hand, Charlotte could not help cautioning her in a whisper, not to be a simpleton, and allow her fancy for Wickham to make her appear unpleasant in the eyes of a man ten times his consequence”
BOOOOM!
It’s actually amusing how many times Elizabeth was completely wrong. I mean, it’s right there, in the title, but still, Lizzy is so amiable as a character (jokes aside - she’s my forever number 1 in any list of favourite characters) that we easily overlook her lack of judgement and even rushness in deciding one’s character. Moreover, Jane Austen tricks us into feeling like Elizabeth, thinking like Elizabeth and, man, being Elizabeth! Not that I complain about it, but once you start looking at the events from the side, everything seems quite obvious.
But more of this “obviousness” and other things in the next part (yes, I’m here for a loooong ride)
