Burrito West Blog

I've been home sick for the past week so I have a lot of time to think of random things and watch Austen adaptations. I re-watched my favourite version of Sense and Sensibility (this one) and it has me thinking about Pride and Prejudice.

In P&P, much fun is made of Mrs. Bennet, who is very fixated on marrying her 5 daughters off. With good reason - if Mr. Bennet dies, they all must live on charity of the distant male cousin who will inherit the estate. And if he wanted, he could throw them out and they would have to fend for themselves (except there weren't really many ways for women to fend for themselves in ~1800).

This is interesting on its own - it seems cruel but when you read of the origins, you understand it. Estates were big operations and the only way to keep them going was to keep them whole. If you start to split them up among multiple heirs, they wouldn't work. someone would get a large house with no income to support it and the estate would fall into disrepair. So - in a country keen to maintain the estate/class structure, we understand legal mechanisms prohibiting men from leaving estates to their widows or breaking it up among daughters.

Sense and Sensibility is essentially the story of what happens to a widow in exactly this predicament. And it's not good. I think it's easy for us to look at where the Dashwoods end up and think it's all right - they have two servants after all! But they came from a very great estate and were used to very fine things... and then end up in a tiny cottage that must be bloody freezing. This is a huge transition for them and means that the daughters are a burden to any man considering marrying them. They have no titles, no money.

With no son to inherit the estate and provide for his sisters & mother, that responsibility falls to the sisters' husbands; any reasonably well-off man marrying a Bennet or Dashwood sister could expect his obligations towards the mother and any of her unmarried daughters to be written into the marriage contract. So as the situation stands in the book, the Bennet and Dashwood girls aren't just bringing very little money to a marriage, they're actually bringing liability to it. Having a brother wouldn't necessarily give them any more money, but at least the liability would be removed.

I think it's hard for modern readers to appreciate the dire change in circumstance that faces the widow and daughters in a situation like this. Mrs. Bennett is not unreasonable to fixate so much attention on trying to get her daughters taken care of and/or married to a man who can take care of everyone. She goes about it poorly, but given the other things available to occupy her time (covering screens? reading?), this seems worthwhile.

When Lizzie turns down Mr. Collins' proposal - think what she is doing. Her family is at risk of being in serious financial trouble. Marrying Mr. Collins would put Lizzie in control of the use of the estate when her father passes away and Mr. Collins inherits it. She could ensure her mother and sister are all cared for. We cheer her for refusing Mr. Collins because he's kind of a fool, but it's a dangerous choice to make given the consequences. Mrs. Bennet is right to be frustrated with Lizzie.

Then there is Mr. Darcy - he is very very wealthy. I think one of the reasons he's not keen to socialize with strangers is because women must constantly be trying to 'get' him and it must be exhausting/annoying. I've also wondered about the educational difference. Darcy has received the best education England has to offer at the time. Lizzie, as an example in contrast, has been home schooled by her mother (portrayed as a fool in most of the book). Darcy is perhaps understandably underwhelmed by the company offered at country assemblies - making uninteresting small talk with people more interested in your fortune than you.

So - when Lizzie refuses Darcy... first of all, what a shock to him; I'm sure it never occurred to him that anyone would refuse him and his fortune, especially a poor woman with no prospects.  And again, Lizzie has a chance to secure the future for her mother and four sisters and chooses not to.  In the end, the right thing to do because it causes Darcy to reform himself a bit, but she doesn't do it with that intent.  She does it out of anger, dislike, and prejudice.

I think its very interesting to watch S&S and think - that could have been the Bennets if Lizzie hadn't fixed everything with Darcy - forced to move to the other side of the country, leave all their friends, and settle in a drafty cottage by the sea and learn how to do housework when they are used to being gentlewomen. All prospects for good marriages are lost (outside of a good novel plot, that is).  It puts all of Lizzie's marriage refusals in a different light.

One comes away with significantly increased sympathy for Charlotte of P&P- who was 26 (considered old-maid age) and took the only offer of marriage she was likely to receive - a very practical decision.