John Dashwood is an arse. It’s his responsibility, as a male and head of the family, to support the females as they are unable to work. He shirks his responsibility partly because he’s selfish, partly because his wife is selfish, and partly potentially due to jealously. This is his fathers second family, he remarried and had 3 children. John’s mother died and left him plenty of money to live on. With his fathers death he also gets the estate of Norland and the estate income, due to the entail his sisters get nothing. However, you can never have enough money.
Audio from Cassandra by Taylor Swift
Video & Audio from Sense and Sensibility 1995
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Catherine’s only 17 and Mr Tilney proposes (though does he in this adaptation?)
When Catherine is thrown out of his father’s house, Mr Tilney isn’t there but he’s pissed when he returns and discovers what happened. Against his fathers wishes he goes to Catherine.
He felt himself bound as much in honour as in affection to Miss Morland, and believing that heart to be his own … no unworthy retraction of a tacit consent, no reversing decree of unjustifiable anger, could shake his fidelity, or influence the resolutions it prompted.”
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey C30
Catherine is “assured of his affection” which “originated in nothing better than gratitude, … a persuasion of her partiality for him.” It’s a simple love story really; she meets a guy and falls in love, that sparks his affection. His father attempts to get in the way and fails.
HENRY: Will you have me? Will you love me?
CATHERINE (for most of the novel): I’m only 17. I don’t know anything
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Lydia and Kitty, Charlotte and Lizzy: best of friends
Both relationships change dramatically by the end of the book/movie, the pairs are separated and only maintain contact through family relationships. It’s marriage that will separate them; Lydia’s marriage to Wickham and Charlotte’s to Collins. The former everyone with the exception of Kitty and her mother disapprove, the latter everyone with the exception of Lizzy and her mother approve.
I was struck by the similarity of these scenes at the Netherfield Ball; two friends all dressed in white walking together and laughing. You can see the younger two acting at being grown up while probably drunk. Even the hair adornments are similar; Kitty and Lydia have feathers while Charlotte and Lizzy have flowers in their hair.
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Lizzy learns rumours of Mr Wickham’s behaviour in a letter from Darcy after his first disastrous proposal. She has a wee “struggle,” partly she thinks because he’d flattered her as Darcy had not, but realises she doesn’t know his “real character.” It’s only when Lizzy reads Mr Darcy’s letter and recalls her first conversation with Mr Wickham where he laid out his rumour of how Darcy had treated him that she is
…struck with the impropriety of such communications to a stranger… he had boasted of having no fear of seeing Mr. Darcy… yet he had avoided the Netherfield ball the very next week. …till the Netherfield family had quitted the country, he had told his story to no one but herself; but that after their removal, it had been everywhere discussed; that he had then no reserves, no scruples in sinking Mr. Darcy’s character, though he had assured her that respect for the father would always prevent his exposing the son.”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, C36
So he only starts rumours when he feels relatively safe of their lack of truth being discovered. When Wickham elopes with Lydia Bennet rumours start to swirl about him.
All Meryton seemed striving to blacken the man who, but three months before, had been almost an angel of light. He was declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and his intrigues, all honoured with the title of seduction, had been extended into every tradesman’s family.”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, C48
It’s never clear whether the seductions were accurate, but the debts appear to be, as he provides Mr Gardiner with a list of debtors to satisfy. The things Darcy tells Elizabeth in the letter appear to also be true. As Lizzy notes Wickham did note in their first conversation that they had grown up together and Darcy is a good brother, they may be the only true things he conveyed.
The lyric following this selection could also apply to Wickham:
I could build a castle Out of all the bricks they threw at me”
Taylor Swift, New Romantics
Not only are people talking about him or hurling bricks at his character, enough to build a castle, he manages to use the bad situation he’s got himself into to his advantage – to build himself a castle. He may have to marry Lydia Bennet but he manages to get Darcy to pay off his debts and buy him a new commission plus now they’re brothers so there’s always the future potential. We learn in the last chapter that Wickham himself never asks for money, or at least that we know of, but Lydia has no qualms about asking both of her eldest sisters for money frequently.
My introduction to Jane Austen was the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (you know the one, it has Colin Firth in a wet shirt) on Montana Sunday Theatre. The family, like the rest of the world, was obsessed. We recorded it on VHS and watched it over and over (to be fair, the over and over part may have just been me). Every member of our family was designated a character; mine was Mary Bennet. I was distraught. Sure, I liked reading but I wasn’t boring or ignorable. Was I?
I didn’t relish being equated to “one of literatures’ famous wet rags” because “Mary’s no hero”; she’s the easiest Bennet to remove from an adaptation, she serves no function in the major plot lines. But J. C. Peterson’s Being Mary Bennet opens with the line; “It is a truth universally acknowledged that no one should spend her eighteenth birthday at the library.” I spent my most recent birthday at the library and I loved it! There were cupcakes, quiet reading, my favourite librarian, my favourite niece and favourite sister. (It’s ok my other sisters won’t read this anyway.)
It’s only in recent years that I have come to accept that in some ways, I am Mary Bennet. We’re both from large families and struggled to be visible or acceptable. I know now that part of the reason, at least for me, was due to undiagnosed neurodivergence, living in a word that wasn’t made for me. At one time I heavily identified with a devastating line from Katherine J Chen’s Mary B “How could I, little weed, be a favourite of anyone?” (in that book Mary does become a heroine).
Reading Being Mary Bennet was almost revolutionary. I identified so strongly with Marnie as she takes a journey to kick her Mary-ness, worries that her family doesn’t notice when she’s not there, and despite trying new things still needs to organise her books “just so.” But she discovers people who love her, like they say in Bridget Jones “just as she is.”
Mary may not have main character energy, she may be inconsequential to the heroines story line but does it matter? Some people may only ever see Mary, and that’s their loss.
This scene in the 2022 Netflix adaptation of Persuasion is extremely awkward, intended to be funny, no doubt. It’s likely that people would have allocated places at the dinner table, either according to rank or as directed by the hostess. No one would wander the table trying to find a place. Nor would a lady be forced to pull in her own chair, if there was no gentleman to help, then a servant certainly would.
The lyric speaks of feeling out of place which Anne certainly does, she’s trying to find her footing with people she’s usually comfortable around. In the novel she plays at the pianoforte so Captain Wentworth can dance with the Miss Musgroves’, her eyes filling with tears as she, and any eligibility she may have, is ignored. Captain Wentworth is still aware of her, he asks whether she dances and in the above scene he watches her, only sitting once she’s found her seat.
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And then there’s Kitty Bennet…
Austen describes Kitty as “weak-spirited, irritable, and completely under Lydia’s guidance.” Lizzy attempts to warn her father of the danger of Lydia’s character out in the world and highlights how much Kitty, though two years older, is influenced by her.
Our importance, our respectability in the world, must be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia’s character… Her character will be fixed; and she will, at sixteen, be the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous… In this danger Kitty is also comprehended. She will follow wherever Lydia leads. Vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled!”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, C41
Lizzy turns out to be more right than she could have imagined. Kitty is so heavily involved in Lydia’s schemes that the elopement is “not wholly unexpected” by her. When Lydia is married Kitty is left drifting, she no longer has a stronger character to lead her.
At the end of the novel:
Kitty, to her very material advantage, spent the chief of her time with her two elder sisters…her improvement was great…removed from the influence of Lydia’s example, she became, by proper attention and management, less irritable, less ignorant, and less insipid. From the further disadvantage of Lydia’s society she was of course carefully kept…”
The dedication alone made me want to cry, the first chapter repeated the feeling. As an aim (romances that sweep trans people off their feet) it’s a noble one and it is my humble belief that the author achieves it.
There are a lot of changes from the original Pride and Prejudice on which this is based; it’s set in London, everyone is younger (referred to as boys), there are a lot of anachronisms and, oh yeah, Lizzy Bennet is Oliver Bennet. I’ve no doubt there have been queer and trans individuals throughout time, but I do doubt they would be as easily accepted as Oliver is (but then having Jane as a sister – she’d accept you no matter who you were).
For every boy who wished that Darcy would love them, this book is wish fulfilment for you. For every transman who wished for acceptance from their family, this story may tell part of your journey. Oliver fears how he will be treated but so desperately wishes to be himself (trigger warning for gender dysphoria).
Some Austenites are purists but I adore each new retelling especially when it delves into unexplored areas. Austen was inventive and revolutionary in a quiet way; I believe she’d cheer on those that follow in her footsteps.
Till Elizabeth entered the drawing-room at Netherfield, and looked in vain for Mr. Wickham … a doubt of his being present had never occurred to her… She had dressed with more than usual care, and prepared in the highest spirits for the conquest of all that remained unsubdued of his heart…”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, C18
Wickham doesn’t appear at the Netherfield Ball to avoid Darcy, who he’s been telling lies about. His absence merely increases Lizzy’s dislike of Darcy, though at least Wickham never broke a promise to dance with her. The high hopes she had of conquering Wickham’s heart make her feel the disappointment so much more.
When she discovers the truth about Wickham she berates herself:
His behaviour to herself could now have had no tolerable motive: he had either been deceived with regard to her fortune, or had been gratifying his vanity by encouraging the preference which she believed she had most incautiously shown.”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, C36
Wickham’s elopement with Lydia be a final F you to both Darcy and Lizzy (who’s taken Darcy’s side). He attempts to charm Lizzy again but she’s having none of it.
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Audio from You’re On Your Own Kid by Taylor Swift
Video from Pride and Prejudice 2005
And then there’s these lines that seemed to fit Charlotte:
Different adaptation but same story.
Charlotte does her best to not be embarrassed by her husband who she married very clearly for the security he could provide her and not his jokes. He does “save” her and she “takes the money.” Lizzy is bewildered that Charlotte would make such a choice – her eyebrow raise speaks volumes.
This truly terrible Hallmark-esque movie stars a wooden Alicia Witt (who I recognise from Cybill) as Wren, a New Yorker working for a PR/Advertising/Events firm run by rich siblings who’ve never had to work a day in their life. She is the real brains behind the business which is currently in financial difficulty and has had to relocate to (shock, horror) Brooklyn. Her college boyfriend shows up as a client wanting to launch his preposterous social/charity website. Turns out her Aunt (who she lived with after her mother died) “persuaded” her to not follow Owen to San Francisco where he’s since become successful because the situation reminded the Aunt of the mother who was disappointed by the father. A “work” trip to the Hamptons where Wren conveniently has to wear a colleagues skimpy clothes ends at the hospital when said colleague breaks a leg while attempting to go night swimming. Owen feels responsible and stays behind, along with his heartbroken CFO friend who ends up with the girl. Confusion ensues when Owen thinks Wren is with a guy her Aunt set her up with while Wren thinks he’s with broken leg girl. They quote the letter from Persuasion to each other (badly – yes, the novel exists in the film) and kiss.
Highlights
A snarky pregnant lesbian eating everything, her stomach is literally a beach ball (it’s like they didn’t even try) in a stand out performance by Liza Lapira (The Equalizer)
Bebe Neuwirth (Frasier) who is much too good for this sh*t show as the Aunt who wisely says a woman should not choose a mans career over her own
Awful attempts to integrate fictional social media into the movie and cliché “young girls in the office”
Token racial diversity in stock minor characters (sassy black woman, cold Asian woman)
Critique
The title sucks and is unnecessary
As above Alicia Witt was wooden and flat, there were a few good performances amongst the side characters
A good way to waste 90 minutes and some brain cells but don’t expect anything profound
Some hilarious one liners delivered by the boss (Sir Walter insert) and other bosses wife (Mary Musgrove insert) hidden amongst clunky dialogue
In the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the main couple doesn’t kiss. Why? Even Mr and Mrs Bennet kiss! (Do not get me started on their relationship in this movie.)
The English-Bollywood modern adaptation, Bride and Prejudice, didn’t include a kiss for cultural reasons. It’s pretty standard in an Austen adaptation to get at least one kiss, usually right near the end. Some movies have gone further with minor characters (see 1999’s Mansfield Park).
The proposal scene includes a gorgeous almost kiss, something that came about naturally when Kiera and Matthew read for the roles. But unless you see the American ending there is no payoff. Tension builds in this scene and the second “proposal” where Lizzy kisses Darcy’s hand, the sun rises behind them, foreheads touch. No lips meet.
It’s a weird choice. But so is the “American ending.” It’s overly affectionate and informal, it feels out of place in an Austen adaptation – it might slot quite nicely into Bridgerton (which came later). There are other odd parts to the movie; Lizzy walking alone through Derbyshire back to the inn, the Bennet’s poverty, Lizzy’s gown billowing while she stands upon a Stanage Edge, not to mention the Bennet’s marriage and the Lucas’s who barely appear.
Perhaps the only scripted kiss was that in the alternate ending, which was a push too far for Janeites considering the many other changes.
Bride and Prejudice has a similar “almost kiss” scene with the actors drawing together framed by the sun behind them.
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