Pride and Prejudice (blog 3)

I think that this section of the book has been very interesting so far. I stopped reading for the last blog right before Mr. Darcy asked Elizabeth to marry him, and I stopped reading for this part where (spoiler alert) Mr. Gardiner leaves for London to help Mr. Bennet find Lydia. Plenty of things have happened in between that I find worth discussing.

First of all, Elizabeth turned down Mr. Darcy. Of course that made sense at the time since she had bad information on him and seemed to be putting up an effort to see him in the most disagreeable light. Even when she got the letter explaining everything I see why she may have liked him more but still didn't what to marry him. That is all reasonable and makes sense. Then she goes to Pemberly and still doesn't really do more than notice that he likes her and consider that it wouldn't be too bad to be married to him. "She respected, she esteemed, she was grateful to him, she felt a real interest in his welfare; and she only wanted to know how far she wished that welfare to depend upon herself, and how far it would be for the happiness of both that she should employ the power, which her fancy told her she still possessed, of bringing on the renewal of his addresses." (page 297). She is acting very wierd for women of her time in this situation. I mean, I wasn't there or anything but at that time marriage was more buisness than anything else. It was important that the couple get along and can live with each other but other than that you just get over it and marry the guy in the best position.

To support the buisness side of it you have all these different people picking who they want to marry and even who their relatives should be marrying. Elizabeth is supposed to marry Mr. Collins because he is a respectable man and will best be able to support the family by not forcing them out of their house when Mr. Bennet dies. Mr. Collins marries Elizabeth's friend. The friend's family is very pleased not because they didn't expect she would be able to marry that well. Jane and Mr. Bingly were expected to be married but weren't partly because she didn't show enough emotion while Elizabeth doesn't marry Mr. Collins because her emotions would not allow it and Mr. Darcy wants to marry Elizabeth despite money and position. Miss Bingly wants to marry Mr. Darcy because he is very high up and respectable and wants her brother to marry Miss Darcy for the same reasons. Mr. Wickham wants to marry Miss Darcy only for money. Lady Catherine wants Darcy to marry her daughter because it would be an even, respectable match. And last but not least everyone is so upset about Lydia and Mr. Wickham because it is not a respectable match (aside from the fear that he wont marry her at all).

So the fact that Elizabeth isn't completely ready to marry the man who is extreamly rich, respectable, and in love with her is very out of place. I think that Jane Austen is saying that women should expect more respect both from other people and themselves. Mr. Darcy has proven all of the mentioned points except that he sees her as an equal, and any woman but Elizabeth probably would have said yes to Mr. Darcy in the first place even without thinking he was a good man. This was probably very extream for the time, and even though Mr. Bennet was a liberal and allowed Elizabeth to decline Mr. Collins even though it would have benifitted the family greatly even he would probably not support Elizabeth staying away from Mr. Darcy at this point.

Sorry, I ment to talk about more but I guess I just got carried away on this topic.