Jim G.M Wrote:
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> Ref the piano playing, Agnes. I mentioned this
> because I don't recall the book telling us of any
> other occasion when Darcy could have observed a
> specific want of propriety in Mr Bennet. I have to
> assume there were such occasions but I'm just not
> sure where, or when, they would have occurred. I
> can, to some degree blame the TV series which gave
> Lizzie a flashback of the piano event as she read
> Darcy's letter. Possibly that was misleading.
> That apart I know of none other(and I have done a
> cursory search). Mr Bennet's silence was remarked
> upon as they all waited to leave the Netherfield
> Ball and on other occasions, ie visiting, and
> later entertaining Bingley (he did this even
> before the assembley) he seemed to behave with
> creditable propriety. As I've remarked before, a
> saving man he wasn't, but that apart, seemed
> little worse than any other character of equal
> standing?
>
> I think we'll just have to say we'll see him as we
> see him, obviously differently.
I must confess, I have not been in general agreement with Jim G.M. during this conversation, which has digressed from whether he should publish his fanciful pieces on a nicer, kinder and lovingly dufus Mr. Collins; to how bad a parent Mr. Bennet is.
Jim, I encourage you to publish if that is what you wish. An author can never know whether he will find a paying audience until he puts himself out there for sale. So, into the wind, sail on!
Now, regarding Mr. Bennet, is he sometimes drawn in television portrayals as more negligent and apathetic to his family than he really is? This particular passage from the text suggests he is a frustrated man coping with his wife's nerves and inconsistencies (Mrs. Bennet can voice two completely different thoughts as the same time and no degree of explanation can light a candle for her), and his teenage daughter's (Lydia, an unpleasant little piece of business) stubbornness?
Ever had teenage daughters? No one has a pipeline to the truth like a teenage girl who thinks she knows everything and who knows absolutely nothing, because she will not listen. Not all teenage girls, but some of them. In this, I feel for Mr. Bennet.
Quote
They could talk of nothing but officers; and Mr. Bingley's large fortune, the mention of which gave animation to their mother, was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of an ensign.
After listening one morning to their effusions on this subject, Mr. Bennet coolly observed,
"From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must be two of the silliest girls in the country. I have suspected it some time, but I am now convinced."
Catherine was disconcerted, and made no answer; but Lydia, with perfect indifference, continued to express her admiration of Captain Carter, and her hope of seeing him in the course of the day, as he was going the next morning to London.
"I am astonished, my dear," said Mrs. Bennet, "that you should be so ready to think your own children silly. If I wished to think slightingly of any body's children, it should not be of my own, however."
"If my children are silly I must hope to be always sensible of it."
"Yes -- but as it happens, they are all of them very clever."
"This is the only point, I flatter myself, on which we do not agree. I had hoped that our sentiments coincided in every particular, but I must so far differ from you as to think our two youngest daughters uncommonly foolish."
"My dear Mr. Bennet, you must not expect such girls to have the sense of their father and mother. -- When they get to our age, I dare say they will not think about officers any more than we do. I remember the time when I liked a red coat myself very well -- and indeed, so I do still at my heart; and if a smart young colonel, with five or six thousand a year, should want one of my girls, I shall not say nay to him; and I thought Colonel Forster looked very becoming the other night at Sir William's in his regimentals."
And there in a snapshot (not that the Regency has Kodaks or smartphones, LOL) Mrs. Bennet, still a silly teenage girl at heart, and so she will ever be. So, yes, Mr. Bennet is probably as bad a father as some argue here, and Mrs. Bennet is good to offer her daughters some support. But I can see how living with Mrs. Bennet is not fun. Mr. Bennet has a claim to some sympathy from me, although I think he could have done better in insisting upon economies that would had help his daughters' futures. As it was, if he had had a son, the poor man would hardly have the freedom to marry because his first priority would have had to be taking care of his sisters. That hardly seems fair, does it? Mr. Bennet would have been the only one who had an easy ride of it. He married a pretty girl and spent much of his time after in leisure, in his library. His son would not have such an easy life because he could hardly think about marriage with four or five millstones hung around his neck.
