Elizabeth Bennet is not a feisty placeholder
Another thing I've been meaning to do for 
month_of_meta . though it's a bit less structured than I planned!
Off-Tumblr, the question I probably get asked the most often is “have you seen the Lizzie Bennet Diaries? What did you think?”
I think it’s okay. During the first half, when I liked it the most, I can’t help but notice that something I seemed to be saying quite a bit was “I really like xyz, Elizabeth’s a bit off but she always is, and these other things are so great.” Towards the end, I found myself saying, “I don’t like xyz AT ALL and Lizzie is really starting to bother me now.”
But really, it wasn’t Lizzie-as-Lizzie that bothered me. It was Lizzie-as-Elizabeth, and without getting into too much detail, it’s the same thing that bothers me about how Elizabeth is often adapted, whether in fic or adaptations or lit-crit. When Elizabeth is just another figure in the line of feisty heroines, largely or entirely undistinguished from the others, her anger and defiance become the cornerstones of her character; often they become her entire character.
And the thing is, Elizabeth’s anger - when she feels it - is very real. And her defiance of various other people, most of whom have either institutional power or personal power over her, is real. But those things are only a small part of her inner life. Here are some others that seem to get overlooked.
- She’s lively and light-hearted and playful. She likes having a good time, she is having a good time. She doesn’t worry about getting married or a future of living off the charity of her well-off uncle. She’s young and pretty and she’s enjoying dancing and flirting.
- She’s good at witty repartee and gets a kick out of it (more than is really good for her, because her pride in her intelligence takes up a good portion of her vanity, but she has a good time and it makes her feel clever and it takes her a bit to realize that she got a bit carried away)
- Despite her assorted flaws, she’s a pretty sweet person; she consciously tries to put things in an inoffensive way, even when the person she’s trying not to offend is super obnoxious, because consideration for other people is deeply entrenched in her as basic decency (this is the single thing that bothers her most about Darcy, and why the revelations of Pemberley are so important - it’s not that he’s an okay guy after all, but that he is actually nice???). This strain in her character makes it difficult for her to offend people even when she thinks she might have.
- Elizabeth thinks other people are a lot of fun, especially if they’re ridiculously stupid and incoherent. She enjoys the weird shit people do, it’s hilarious. At the same time, both the aforementioned considerate streak and a fundamental seriousness when it comes to morality gives her a concern with not making fun of inappropriate things. She’s as sure of her success at never mocking the wrong things as Darcy is of his at never doing things worth being mocked.
- (She is wrong, but she does try.)
- Hand-in-hand with that whole ‘consideration is really important’ thing, Elizabeth cares a lot about civility, as an expression of that consideration. She cares about social conventions - she’s genuinely bothered by how Lydia and Kitty flout them, not just for the sake of pragmatism (though that’s certainly a factor). She cares about being polite and personally pleasant. She thinks hurting people to flatter her own pride is an asshole move.
- She cares about it so much that she confuses being charming and ingratiating with actually being a good person. Whoops.
- Outside of her usually light-hearted, easy-going approach to living, Elizabeth’s reactions are generally proportionate. She’s insulted by insulting things, amused by amusing things, horrified by horrifying things, angered by really offensive things, upset when her worldview gets shattered, nervous in the most awkward accidental meeting ever, sad and worried during Lydiagate, a bazillion different things when Darcy and Bingley visit Longbourn, ecstatic when she gets married. None of these, individually, are things that she’s especially prone to. She doesn’t go around being constantly offended, say, even though Darcy’s offense becomes the lens through which she views him long after it’s ceased to be a reliable one. Her unhappiness after Darcy’s letter doesn’t mean she’s grave in general; we’re even told that it’s pretty much unprecedented for her. Same with Lydiagate; she’s sleepless with worry, not because she herself is a worrywart, but because this situation is ACTUALLY THAT TERRIBLE.
- While caring about social rules, Elizabeth is not an unthinking automaton. She’s completely unflustered to meet Lady Catherine because she’s pretty sure Lady Catherine has no personal qualities to be impressed by, just rank. She has no problem telling Darcy and Lady Catherine and Mr Collins and pretty much anyone that they’re full of shit, and no problem defying her mother and potentially her father.
- Speaking of Lady Catherine, Elizabeth’s confrontation with her is often presented as, say, the middle class asserting their right to individualism against the hegemony of the upper class, or the equality of all people or whatever. Let’s be realistic. Elizabeth does not claim that she is Darcy’s equal on any personal merit of her own, but on her father’s rank. This is a fairly tenuous point in the circumstances, and when Lady Catherine challenges it, she quickly moves on to pointing out not that she is Darcy’s equal in worth (though she is, and there’s no questioning that Elizabeth herself thinks so) but that it’s not up to Darcy’s aunt to make his choices for him and that Lady Catherine’s arguments are just really stupid.
- She still can’t bring herself to refuse to answer Lady Catherine’s questions. That would be rude.
- Elizabeth gets carried away by her own wonderfulness sometimes and comes out with grand proclamations that are just … no. She would never base her happiness on the chance of being proposed to a second time! Random people who are definitely not named Charles Bingley absolutely should go along with their friends’ wishes, that’s part of being a good friend! She would never consider accepting the man who sabotaged her sister’s happiness even if she did like him! Charlotte would never marry for security, never!
- Elizabeth doesn’t brood on things. She laughs and shrugs many things off, while just declining to think too much about others, especially if she can’t do anything about them. It’s only the really bad stuff that she dwells on.
- Elizabeth has a very deep well of self assurance and esteem, and even periods of shame, re-evaluation of her own and others’ merits, adjusting her sense of things, doesn’t really change this. Towards the end of the novel, her thought process goes “well, yeah, I love him, but if he’d rather have his pride than have me when he totally could, hell with him and I won’t regret it.”
month_of_meta . though it's a bit less structured than I planned!
Off-Tumblr, the question I probably get asked the most often is “have you seen the Lizzie Bennet Diaries? What did you think?”
I think it’s okay. During the first half, when I liked it the most, I can’t help but notice that something I seemed to be saying quite a bit was “I really like xyz, Elizabeth’s a bit off but she always is, and these other things are so great.” Towards the end, I found myself saying, “I don’t like xyz AT ALL and Lizzie is really starting to bother me now.”
But really, it wasn’t Lizzie-as-Lizzie that bothered me. It was Lizzie-as-Elizabeth, and without getting into too much detail, it’s the same thing that bothers me about how Elizabeth is often adapted, whether in fic or adaptations or lit-crit. When Elizabeth is just another figure in the line of feisty heroines, largely or entirely undistinguished from the others, her anger and defiance become the cornerstones of her character; often they become her entire character.
And the thing is, Elizabeth’s anger - when she feels it - is very real. And her defiance of various other people, most of whom have either institutional power or personal power over her, is real. But those things are only a small part of her inner life. Here are some others that seem to get overlooked.
- She’s lively and light-hearted and playful. She likes having a good time, she is having a good time. She doesn’t worry about getting married or a future of living off the charity of her well-off uncle. She’s young and pretty and she’s enjoying dancing and flirting.
- She’s good at witty repartee and gets a kick out of it (more than is really good for her, because her pride in her intelligence takes up a good portion of her vanity, but she has a good time and it makes her feel clever and it takes her a bit to realize that she got a bit carried away)
- Despite her assorted flaws, she’s a pretty sweet person; she consciously tries to put things in an inoffensive way, even when the person she’s trying not to offend is super obnoxious, because consideration for other people is deeply entrenched in her as basic decency (this is the single thing that bothers her most about Darcy, and why the revelations of Pemberley are so important - it’s not that he’s an okay guy after all, but that he is actually nice???). This strain in her character makes it difficult for her to offend people even when she thinks she might have.
- Elizabeth thinks other people are a lot of fun, especially if they’re ridiculously stupid and incoherent. She enjoys the weird shit people do, it’s hilarious. At the same time, both the aforementioned considerate streak and a fundamental seriousness when it comes to morality gives her a concern with not making fun of inappropriate things. She’s as sure of her success at never mocking the wrong things as Darcy is of his at never doing things worth being mocked.
- (She is wrong, but she does try.)
- Hand-in-hand with that whole ‘consideration is really important’ thing, Elizabeth cares a lot about civility, as an expression of that consideration. She cares about social conventions - she’s genuinely bothered by how Lydia and Kitty flout them, not just for the sake of pragmatism (though that’s certainly a factor). She cares about being polite and personally pleasant. She thinks hurting people to flatter her own pride is an asshole move.
- She cares about it so much that she confuses being charming and ingratiating with actually being a good person. Whoops.
- Outside of her usually light-hearted, easy-going approach to living, Elizabeth’s reactions are generally proportionate. She’s insulted by insulting things, amused by amusing things, horrified by horrifying things, angered by really offensive things, upset when her worldview gets shattered, nervous in the most awkward accidental meeting ever, sad and worried during Lydiagate, a bazillion different things when Darcy and Bingley visit Longbourn, ecstatic when she gets married. None of these, individually, are things that she’s especially prone to. She doesn’t go around being constantly offended, say, even though Darcy’s offense becomes the lens through which she views him long after it’s ceased to be a reliable one. Her unhappiness after Darcy’s letter doesn’t mean she’s grave in general; we’re even told that it’s pretty much unprecedented for her. Same with Lydiagate; she’s sleepless with worry, not because she herself is a worrywart, but because this situation is ACTUALLY THAT TERRIBLE.
- While caring about social rules, Elizabeth is not an unthinking automaton. She’s completely unflustered to meet Lady Catherine because she’s pretty sure Lady Catherine has no personal qualities to be impressed by, just rank. She has no problem telling Darcy and Lady Catherine and Mr Collins and pretty much anyone that they’re full of shit, and no problem defying her mother and potentially her father.
- Speaking of Lady Catherine, Elizabeth’s confrontation with her is often presented as, say, the middle class asserting their right to individualism against the hegemony of the upper class, or the equality of all people or whatever. Let’s be realistic. Elizabeth does not claim that she is Darcy’s equal on any personal merit of her own, but on her father’s rank. This is a fairly tenuous point in the circumstances, and when Lady Catherine challenges it, she quickly moves on to pointing out not that she is Darcy’s equal in worth (though she is, and there’s no questioning that Elizabeth herself thinks so) but that it’s not up to Darcy’s aunt to make his choices for him and that Lady Catherine’s arguments are just really stupid.
- She still can’t bring herself to refuse to answer Lady Catherine’s questions. That would be rude.
- Elizabeth gets carried away by her own wonderfulness sometimes and comes out with grand proclamations that are just … no. She would never base her happiness on the chance of being proposed to a second time! Random people who are definitely not named Charles Bingley absolutely should go along with their friends’ wishes, that’s part of being a good friend! She would never consider accepting the man who sabotaged her sister’s happiness even if she did like him! Charlotte would never marry for security, never!
- Elizabeth doesn’t brood on things. She laughs and shrugs many things off, while just declining to think too much about others, especially if she can’t do anything about them. It’s only the really bad stuff that she dwells on.
- Elizabeth has a very deep well of self assurance and esteem, and even periods of shame, re-evaluation of her own and others’ merits, adjusting her sense of things, doesn’t really change this. Towards the end of the novel, her thought process goes “well, yeah, I love him, but if he’d rather have his pride than have me when he totally could, hell with him and I won’t regret it.”