Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, and gold-diggers/shallow women.
I binged on the 1995 version of "Pride and Prejudice" with Heather this weekend, which is one of my favorite movies/books, not least because it's immensely enjoyable and fun (as opposed to my usual leanings towards doom and gloom fiction). But one thing that leaves me really uncomfortable with the ending is Lydia being married to Wickham. She's what...16, at MOST, at the end of the book? That's not nearly old enough to be getting punished so harshly for the choices she made at such a young age. I understand that an average 16-year-old woman in the 19th century was probably more mature than an average 16-year-old today, but Lydia is still the youngest of the sisters, which almost necessarily means that she's been spoiled (by her mother, whom I also don't blame. I mostly just *really* dislike Mr. Bennet.) and been allowed to shirk responsibility and I think that while Jane and Elizabeth are responsible, she was somehow allowed to be more under Mrs. Bennet's wing, and I think a large part of that is that no one is really expecting her to end up being married or with any sort of responsibility for a long while yet.
But with a husband like Wickham, Lydia is going to learn some harsh lessons very quickly. Not just in terms of his cheating, but he is going to gamble everything away, and I don't think Lydia would much like being poor or socially disgraced and shunned, which they will be within the year with Wickham's general assholery. In Lydia's case, it doesn't even seem like she's being actively punished as much as Austen just went "They're both shallow and kind of deserve each other." Which, well. Wickham is someone who is willfully malicious and deceptive by design, while Lydia's biggest crime is being thoughtless and shallow...at the ripe old age of SIXTEEN. As opposed to Isabella Thrope from "Northanger Abbey," (whom I adore, BTW), who actually actively drops a well-off man to go after a much richer one with the intentions of marrying up. Isabella's ending is another one that makes me really uncomfortable. Of course, when we leave her at the end of the book, her future is uncertain, but we know enough to know that she's not headed for a good one. And I feel iffy about the conversation between Henry and Catherine that pretty much says that Isabella got what she deserved and/or invited her doom by being ambitious.
This yuletide, one of the things I am most looking forward to asking for is some Isabella fanfic, where she finds her happy ending and satisfies her gold-digging tendencies. Possibly with even Captain Tilney, because I sort of like the idea of her ending up with someone who *knows* she's a gold-digger, but doesn't care. I might have to reread to see how much I actually hate Captain Tilney and if he could be redeemed. I'll never understand how gold-digging in women is somehow WORSE than men wanting to marry pretty girls in these period romances. Both equally shallow (although one is VERY practical and ambitious, and understandable in an era when women don't have career options, and marriage was, in a way, their 'career.'), but somehow, since beauty is a part of you, he really is in love with YOU. As opposed to wealth, which is an external thing. OTBH, I have no idea how this works. Except that all our narratives are from the Male POV so women wanting something out of men and going after it makes everyone freak out, while men can do whatever and it's fine because that's who most people are going to be identifying with. Sigh.
While the "Pride and Prejudice" movie did not cover this part (do any versions cover this part?), and I actually generally love all the bits of interaction that take place between Lizzie and Darcy after the engagement, my only issue with their entire romance narrative takes place during a conversation between the two of them. Elizabeth asks Mr. Darcy what first attracted him to her, to which, he has no specific answer. So she proceeds to analyze his feelings thusly, "The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them."
Now, I like the first part of the conversation (not quoted here), where you get the impression that he loves her because she was snarky to him (he insists that it was for the "liveliness of her mind," which I adore!). And I generally like het romances where the man has to do the emotional work because the woman is either emotionally unavailable/distant/unstable or just plain not interested, in which case, the guy actually has to respect her wishes and back-off (as Mr. Darcy does) when she asks , because other wise, it goes into a creepy territory. So Lizzie/Darcy kind of push all kinds of shipping buttons for me. But this second bit, where Elizabeth sort of...somehow puts the other women down, makes me a bit iffy because it really brings to attention the weird double standard of the Romantic Period, especially when compared to the treatment of Isabella. A successful woman is she who marries well...but the only one who *deserves* to marry well is the one who doesn't actually *want* wealth. So you have a culture that encourages women to find a rich husband that also actually looks down on women for trying to find a well-off husband. This is so...messed up, and how does that even WORK? So Elizabeth is deserving of all this happiness because this is not the happiness she desired, but Isabella, who wants wealth and fortune and actually WORKS for it, deserves to be disgraced and punished. Now, of course, I love Elizabeth dearly and she is probably one of my favorite heroines in all of literature, so I am not putting her down in any way. But...Isabella amuses me greatly, and she's so...deceptive and artful and works SO hard for what she wants that I just...really, really can't help but want her to get her rich husband, who also happens to love her. And as always, I am bothered by how fiction endorses the happiness of a certain kind of woman while denying that to the more unconventional women.
I kind of wish I remembered more of "Mansfield Park" so I could talk about the gold-digger character in there? But as it is, I can't even remember her name, but I do know that there is apparently one and that a lot of you hate her treatment in the text.
So there you have it, more of my issues with Austen and gold-digging/shallow women. One day, I'll know exactly what I think of it in the light of all the things I love about Jane Austen, given that heroines like Elizabeth *were* unconventional back then, and a heroine like Emma Woodhouse is still insanely hard to find even today. But until then, you're all doomed to see these random thoughts as they occur.
In other news, I see that there's a book about Lydia Bennet giving her a happy ending. I am ambivalent on the reviews, but I think I might get it. If only "Northanger Abbey" were popular enough for such a thing to exist for Isabella...
But with a husband like Wickham, Lydia is going to learn some harsh lessons very quickly. Not just in terms of his cheating, but he is going to gamble everything away, and I don't think Lydia would much like being poor or socially disgraced and shunned, which they will be within the year with Wickham's general assholery. In Lydia's case, it doesn't even seem like she's being actively punished as much as Austen just went "They're both shallow and kind of deserve each other." Which, well. Wickham is someone who is willfully malicious and deceptive by design, while Lydia's biggest crime is being thoughtless and shallow...at the ripe old age of SIXTEEN. As opposed to Isabella Thrope from "Northanger Abbey," (whom I adore, BTW), who actually actively drops a well-off man to go after a much richer one with the intentions of marrying up. Isabella's ending is another one that makes me really uncomfortable. Of course, when we leave her at the end of the book, her future is uncertain, but we know enough to know that she's not headed for a good one. And I feel iffy about the conversation between Henry and Catherine that pretty much says that Isabella got what she deserved and/or invited her doom by being ambitious.
This yuletide, one of the things I am most looking forward to asking for is some Isabella fanfic, where she finds her happy ending and satisfies her gold-digging tendencies. Possibly with even Captain Tilney, because I sort of like the idea of her ending up with someone who *knows* she's a gold-digger, but doesn't care. I might have to reread to see how much I actually hate Captain Tilney and if he could be redeemed. I'll never understand how gold-digging in women is somehow WORSE than men wanting to marry pretty girls in these period romances. Both equally shallow (although one is VERY practical and ambitious, and understandable in an era when women don't have career options, and marriage was, in a way, their 'career.'), but somehow, since beauty is a part of you, he really is in love with YOU. As opposed to wealth, which is an external thing. OTBH, I have no idea how this works. Except that all our narratives are from the Male POV so women wanting something out of men and going after it makes everyone freak out, while men can do whatever and it's fine because that's who most people are going to be identifying with. Sigh.
While the "Pride and Prejudice" movie did not cover this part (do any versions cover this part?), and I actually generally love all the bits of interaction that take place between Lizzie and Darcy after the engagement, my only issue with their entire romance narrative takes place during a conversation between the two of them. Elizabeth asks Mr. Darcy what first attracted him to her, to which, he has no specific answer. So she proceeds to analyze his feelings thusly, "The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them."
Now, I like the first part of the conversation (not quoted here), where you get the impression that he loves her because she was snarky to him (he insists that it was for the "liveliness of her mind," which I adore!). And I generally like het romances where the man has to do the emotional work because the woman is either emotionally unavailable/distant/unstable or just plain not interested, in which case, the guy actually has to respect her wishes and back-off (as Mr. Darcy does) when she asks , because other wise, it goes into a creepy territory. So Lizzie/Darcy kind of push all kinds of shipping buttons for me. But this second bit, where Elizabeth sort of...somehow puts the other women down, makes me a bit iffy because it really brings to attention the weird double standard of the Romantic Period, especially when compared to the treatment of Isabella. A successful woman is she who marries well...but the only one who *deserves* to marry well is the one who doesn't actually *want* wealth. So you have a culture that encourages women to find a rich husband that also actually looks down on women for trying to find a well-off husband. This is so...messed up, and how does that even WORK? So Elizabeth is deserving of all this happiness because this is not the happiness she desired, but Isabella, who wants wealth and fortune and actually WORKS for it, deserves to be disgraced and punished. Now, of course, I love Elizabeth dearly and she is probably one of my favorite heroines in all of literature, so I am not putting her down in any way. But...Isabella amuses me greatly, and she's so...deceptive and artful and works SO hard for what she wants that I just...really, really can't help but want her to get her rich husband, who also happens to love her. And as always, I am bothered by how fiction endorses the happiness of a certain kind of woman while denying that to the more unconventional women.
I kind of wish I remembered more of "Mansfield Park" so I could talk about the gold-digger character in there? But as it is, I can't even remember her name, but I do know that there is apparently one and that a lot of you hate her treatment in the text.
So there you have it, more of my issues with Austen and gold-digging/shallow women. One day, I'll know exactly what I think of it in the light of all the things I love about Jane Austen, given that heroines like Elizabeth *were* unconventional back then, and a heroine like Emma Woodhouse is still insanely hard to find even today. But until then, you're all doomed to see these random thoughts as they occur.
In other news, I see that there's a book about Lydia Bennet giving her a happy ending. I am ambivalent on the reviews, but I think I might get it. If only "Northanger Abbey" were popular enough for such a thing to exist for Isabella...