She was doing so well!
Germaine Greer’s wonderful columns in Radio Times during the ITV Jane Austen season were some of the most sensible things we can remember associated with those films, so we were pleased to see her essay in The Age related to her appearance at next week’s Jane Austen and Comedy conference in Melbourne; however, we were disappointed in some parts of the essay.
In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet has a real father, but he’s a bit of a bumbler who has made a foolish marriage and is incapable of governing his unruly gang of daughters. When Lydia runs off with the worthless Wickham it is Mr Darcy who fulfils the father role, by saving the family from disgrace and seeing that Lydia is properly provided for.
Mr Darcy is tall, haughty, unbending, unsmiling and master of Pemberley, while Mr Bennet is not even master of his own household.
Tall and haughty, yes; unbending, not so much by the end; but unsmiling? We protest! That is a libelous myth.
“It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. — I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.”
He smiled, and assured her that whatever she wished him to say should be said.
and
“And your defect is a propensity to hate every body.”
“And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is wilfully to misunderstand them.”
and
Darcy smiled, and said, “You are perfectly right. You have employed your time much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you, can think any thing wanting. We neither of us perform to strangers.”
and
“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Every thing nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”
Darcy only smiled, and the general pause which ensued made Elizabeth tremble lest her mother should be exposing herself again.
and
“It is a proof of your own attachment to Hertfordshire. Any thing beyond the very neighbourhood of Longbourn, I suppose, would appear far.”
As he spoke there was a sort of smile, which Elizabeth fancied she understood;
and
She paused, and saw with no slight indignation that he was listening with an air which proved him wholly unmoved by any feeling of remorse. He even looked at her with a smile of affected incredulity.
and
that she, his favourite child, should be distressing him by her choice, should be filling him with fears and regrets in disposing of her — was a wretched reflection, and she sat in misery till Mr. Darcy appeared again, when, looking at him, she was a little relieved by his smile.
and
Mr. Darcy smiled; but Elizabeth thought she could perceive that he was rather offended; and therefore checked her laugh.
He even smiles when he is offended!
In Emma, Mr Knightley has been in love with Emma Woodhouse since she was 13 and he was 30. For seven years he has blamed her and lectured her and she has “borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it”, so her reward is consummation with him.
Since she was 13? Not quite.
He had been in love with Emma, and jealous of Frank Churchill, from about the same period, one sentiment having probably enlightened him as to the other.
Really, if you’re going to claim that there is creepy Electra complex stuff going on in Jane Austen’s novels, it would behove one to ensure one has one’s facts straight.
Other parts of the essay are quite good and we recommend reading it. Once you get past the wth parts, it’s not bad.
Thanks to Alert Janeite Lisa for the link.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:36 am
I am a little confused. Why take offense at the remark about Mr. Knightley being in love with Emma since she was 13? He says so himself (Vol 3 , chapter 17):
“The good was all to myself, by making you an object of the tenderest affection to me. I could not think about you so much without doating on you, faults and all; and by dint of fancying so many errors, have been in love with you ever since you were thirteen at least.”
The only quibble can be about the nature of the love. The providing of the age could even be significant, since he obviously loved her in a platonic sense ever since she was a baby, not just since she was 13. He may have felt an attraction to her when she was 13, but pushed it out of his active consciousness when he discerned that it would be inappropriate to pursue the thought. Also, one can be in love with a girl without necessarily wanting to “make love” to her- have sexual relations with her. He may have had the self-command to push away such thoughts. There obviously were nuances to his love, but he indeed was in love with her when she was 13.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:38 am
I think he was joking in that passage; and I agree, he loved her, but as a friend, until his jealousy of Frank Churchill “enlightened” him.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:48 am
And by the way, I agree on that part about Darcy smiling. When he smiles, it is significant, I think one of my favorite passages in P&P is when Elizabeth is touring Pemberley, and she finds his portrait:
“At last it arrested her—and she beheld a striking resemblance to Mr. Darcy, with such a smile over the face as she remembered to have sometimes seen when he looked at her.”
November 19th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I wonder how many people overlook the number of times Darcy does smile and, like Elizabeth, don’t realize that he really is more amiable than one’s first impression leads one to think.
November 19th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
I think what happens is that Jane Austen “sells” him so well as a proud man that we either miss the smiles completely, or they only register on the edge of our consciousness, so that we like him without knowing why.
Until his first proposal, the only time he acted toward her in an obnoxious way was the one time at the Meryton ball. And even when proposing, he wasn’t trying to be obnoxious - he thought he was being honest and that she would appreciate his love being strong enough to overcome his initial reluctance. He was almost unfailingly polite to her, but still, until the visit to Pemberley, “that he was not a good-tempered man had been her firmest opinion.” And that’s what most people who read the story evidently still think.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Oh, I don’t know–saying, “I love you but your family is nuts” is not really the recommended way to a lady’s heart!
And I blame several film presentations of P&P with a haughty, unsmiling Darcy. I saw a play of P&P last year and Darcy laughed and smiled at Elizabeth’s jokes and teasing and it’s a whole different dynamic. You really SAW him falling for her.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Hmm. I happen to think that Knightley always loved Emma and that he was serious when he told her that he had loved her since she was thirteen. Why else hang around a spoiled young woman all the time?
And it doesn’t seem like the essayist goes near eluding to an electra complex in the novel. Though they do seem to imply that there is something vexing in Emma’s willingness to allow Knightley to continually reprimand her, hinting at something of a sado-masochistic relationship. (Although personally I think there is enough to show that Emma often does what she wants even if Knightley disapproves of it).