Inexplicable Austen reference of the day
From an advice column: the querent asked about a friend whom she once wished to date, but he confided that he was in love with another woman–whom he had never dated. The advisor helpfully invokes…Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Johanna, many people nurture a fantasy because it confers a mental gain for them. It may not be a productive way to live, but they reap a psychic benefit from doing it.
In Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” there is a noblewoman named Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Lady Catherine is a laggard whose only accomplishment in life was being born to a wealthy family. In one scene in the novel, during a discussion about playing the piano, Lady Catherine remarks, “If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.”
Lady Catherine’s fantasy allows her to overlook her own laziness and to pretend she owes her lofty position to intrinsic merit rather than an accident of birth.
What?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:19 am
Lady Catherine lazy? I think not. She was probably too busy bustling around taking care of everybody and everything to sit at a piano long enough to learn.
Besides, wouldn’t the fantasy of her daughter’s marriage to Mr. Darcy be more appropriate as an analogy?
May 24th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Mags I’m with you on this one… huh?? As I was reading it I thought maybe you’d left some part out cuz I really didn’t get what the heck she was talking about. She certainly gives an… interesting description of Lady Catherine. But wait, what did that have to do with the advice she was dispensing??? Wow.
May 24th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Actually, a few weeks ago I was thinking about that. She rants on and on, giving tips on style of playing and execution. She says Elizabeth would be better if she would practice. She is going to exhort Georgianna not to neglect her practice. She seemed to expect that Mrs. Collins would want to practice, and (condescendingly, in the bad sense) recommended that she practice on the piano in Mrs. Jenkinson’s room.
Refined ladies could play the piano (for example, the Bingley sisters), if they were taught. It was expected. Mr. Darcy had previously indicated that musical proficiency was the mark of an accomplished woman. In principle, Lady Catherine seems to agree with that.
Lady Catherine knew all of this. Lady Catherine certainly had the resources when she was young. What was her own problem - was she lazy, or was she incompetent?
To me, lazy is as good an explanation as any.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I’m with you on this, Curtis. Lazy is as lazy does. But do we dare contradict the ladies? No one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half.
I’m in trouble now.
May 24th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I think “lazy” is not the right word. The aristocracy would not do anything that could possibly be interpreted a “work,” which would have inferred manual labor. You might as well be “tainted by trade.”
May 25th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
How about “idle” rather than “lazy”? When Lady Catherine questioned Elizabeth about her upbringing, Elizabeth said that “those who chose to be idle, certainly might.” It is very likely true that some of the Bennet sisters didn’t play piano because they chose to be idle, but I still don’t think that is why Lady Catherine didn’t learn. I think she just couldn’t sit still long enough, although this could be, as Tony says, only half of my understanding. (Just kidding.)