Jean M. Wrote:
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> OK, so I think we all agree that Mr. Bennet is
> doing a poor job as husband, father, master of the
> estate, etc. at the time that the novel is set.
Jean, I am not sure that we all agree he is doing a poor job.
I think he was doing a poor job, I believe Austen intended us to see it that way. We can always debate whether an author makes a good case for her characterizations, premises and plots. I think Austen does. She offers up details that paint Mr. Bennet as smart, sarcastic and removed from his family. One can either assume he is removed because his family is unworthy or because he is failing in his role as the leader and patriarch of the family. The book provides examples of other fathers who do a better job of providing and who are nicer to the people in their lives.
> To me, the question is this: has he always been this
> way (=fundamental character flaws) or has marriage
> to Mrs. Bennet ground down his will to act? Are
> Jane and Elizabeth more ladylike and accomplished
> relative to Lydia and Kitty because Mr. Bennet
> played a more active role in their early
> upbringing, or does their behavior in the novel
> reflect their intrinsic characters (something that
> would not have been altered regardless of their
> father's involvement in their upbringing)?
> -Jean
Austen tells us that Mr. Bennet chose his wife when she was young and seemed lively and good-humored. Closer association with her showed she was not a bright or thoughtful person, and the two had little to talk about. Unlike the example of Sir Thomas Bertram, who similarly found his pretty young wife did not grow better with age, Mr. Bennet chooses to ignore his wife and to make sport of her so-called nerves. Making fun of her is the one pleasure she can provide, apparently, after they have given up trying to have a son.
Now, did Mr. Bennet play a more active role in the early lives of Jane and Elizabeth? I think fanfiction could be written in either direction on that question, but I would fall on the side of the negative. It has been my experience that children have natures that will show themselves no matter the environment. I see it among children as young as three in pre-school but certainly by kindergarten: some children are quiet and thoughtful, others are outgoing and talkative. Some kids listen more easily than others. Guidance by adults can help any child learn rules, discipline and moral values. Some kids need more reminders than others.
It is never a direct equation that a child will turn out exactly as a parent made him or her, but parents can have huge influences. I daresay, some parents can mold their children into killers while some children will reject bad influences and grow up much better than parental influence should have indicated.
In the case of Mr. Bennet, we know he mostly ignored his kids unless he found them amusing. Lizzy according to him had something more of wit about her than did most girls. His satirical eye had always seen Charlotte Lucas and he was pleasantly diverted to find, in her marriage to William Collins, that she was not. In his sardonic observations, Mr. Bennet makes us laugh ("Kitty times her coughs ill." and "While Mary is adjusing her ideas...")
We can just laugh and not think about it too closely. Austen is such a good writer she provides that option. Read this deeply and it is comedy. Beneath comedy often lies pain and harsher truths. We laugh in surprise at the pinprick and may laugh even more deeply when the pin becomes a knife, when light wit becomes dark and sardonic. If we look at Mr. Bennet closely, we can but shudder at his coldness and insensitivity. A girl's first love should be her father; he is the man who tells her she lovable. In the case of the Bennet girls, their father was their first torturer, and they were too young to know or expect that a man should talk to them better. It's no surprise that the intelligent Jane and Elizabeth were wary of marriage, while the younger and seemingly less intelligent Lydia and Kitty had unrealistic romantic fantasies (Lydia is drawn into a rogue who feeds her pretty lies and Kitty is her accomplice because she listens eagerly to Lydia's tales of adventures in love.)
