You know what I realize that people underestimate with Pride & Prejudice is the strategic importance of Jane.
Because like, I recently saw Charlotte and Elizabeth contrasted as the former being pragmatic and the latter holding out for a love match, because she's younger and prettier and thinks she can afford it, and that is very much not what's happening.
The Charlotte take is correct, but the Elizabeth is all wrong. Lizzie doesn't insist on a love match. That's serendipitous and rather unexpected. She wants, exactly as Mr. Bennet says, someone she can respect. Contempt won't do. Mr. Bennet puts it in weirdly sexist terms like he's trying to avoid acknowledging what he did to himself by marrying a self-absorbed idiot, but it's still true. That's what Elizabeth is shooting for: a marriage that won't make her unhappy.
She's grown up watching how miserable her parents make one another; she's not willing to sign up for a lifetime of being bitter and lonely in her own home.
I think she is very aware, in refusing Mr. Collins, that it's reasonably unlikely that anyone she actually respects is going to want her, with her few accomplishments and her lack of property. That she is turning down security and the chance keep the house she grew up in, and all she gets in return may be spinsterhood.
But, crucially, she has absolute faith in Jane.
The bit about teaching Jane's daughters to embroider badly? That's a joke, but it's also a serious potential life plan. Jane is the best creature in the world, and a beauty; there's no chance at all she won't get married to someone worthwhile.
(Bingley mucks this up by breaking Jane's heart, but her prospects remain reasonable if their mother would lay off!)
And if Elizabeth can't replicate that feat, then there's also no doubt in her mind that Jane will let her live in her house as a dependent as long as she likes, and never let it be made shameful or awful to be that impoverished spinster aunt. It will be okay never to be married at all, because she has her sister, whom she trusts absolutely to succeed and to protect her.
And if something eventually happens to Jane's family and they can't keep her anymore, she can throw herself upon the mercy of the Gardeners, who have money and like her very much, and are likewise good people. She has a support network--not a perfect or impregnable one, but it exists. It gives her realistic options.
Spinsterhood was a very dangerous choice; there are reasons you would go to considerable lengths not to risk it.
But Elizabeth has Jane, and her pride, and an understanding of what marrying someone who will make you miserable costs.
That's part of the thesis of the book, I would say! Recurring Austen thought. How important it is not to marry someone who will make you, specifically, unhappy.
She would rather be a dependent of people she likes and trusts than of someone she doesn't, even if the latter is formally considered more secure; she would rather live in a happy, reasonable household as an extra than be the mistress of her own home, but that home is full of Mr. Collins and her mother.
This is a calculation she's making consciously! She's not counting on a better marriage coming along. She just feels the most likely bad outcome from refusing Mr. Collins is still much better than the certain outcome of accepting him. Which is being stuck with Mr. Collins forever.
Elizabeth is also being pragmatic. Austen also endorses her choice, for the person she is and the concerns she has. She's just picking different trade-offs than Charlotte.
Elizabeth's flaw is not in her own priorities; she doesn't make a reckless choice and get lucky. But in being unable to accept that Charlotte's are different, and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Charlotte.
Because realistically, when your marriage is your whole family and career forever, and you only get to pick the ones that offer themselves to you, when you are legally bound to the status of dependent, you're always going to be making some trade-offs.
😂 Even the unrealistically ideal dream scenario of wealthy handsome clever ethical Mr. Darcy still asks you to undergo personal growth, accommodate someone else's communication style, and eat a little crow.
I suffer from a disease called "can load the dishwasher correctly" it's incredibly rare, very few people have it
you know that quote "when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail" bc that's how i feel whenever i have a lysol wipe in my hand
for those of you who don't follow basketball, this guy is the best player in the world right now
#basketball#I LEARNED THIS LORE I LEARNED THIS LORE#DUE TO OUR STAR WARS CHAT MELTING DOWN INTO ESPN SPORTZONE#so jokic has been giving these vibes for his team's ENTIRE championship run up to and INCLUDING after the win#at the press conference afterwards (bear in mind he has just won the most PRESTIGIOUS PRIZE in all basketball)#he said to the reporter 'the job is done now we can go home 😐'#and then in the morning presser after someone asked if jokic was excited for the parade#he was like 'parade? when is parade? no no - i need to go home' and put his head in his hands#AND THEN THE PARADE HAPPENED AND THE TEAM WAS PLIED WITH COPIOUS CHAMPAGNE AND ADORATION OF DENVER POPULACE#jokic got on the mike after several Champagne (TM) applications#and said 'HELLO DENVER I KNOW I TOLD I DIDN'T WANT TO STAY ON PARADE BUT I FUCKING WANT TO STAY ON PARADE THIS IS THE BEST'#(yes that is a verbatim quote you can CHECK me on it)#that night the entire team went to a club and jokic got a round of this special plum vodka for the table#it apparently DESTROYED them all bc the next morning one of his teammates did an IG live from his hotel bed#it was super dark and you could see like half the poor dude's face smushed against the pillow#and he said in the most Sickly and Hungover Voice Imaginable#'i want you all to know...this is nikola's fault...he did this to me...#i'm never drinking again...it was that serbian shit...nikola did this to me...' (via @takiki16)
this narrative needs to be exposed to the world and not hidden in the tags. long live star wars espn sportzone chat.
Once again thinking about how galaxy brained they were for moving this scene from the parking lot to the water at sunset like !?!?!??!?
Ace immediately kindly greeting a dead body and introducing himself is peak Ace behaviour
Somebody told me, and I think they're right
There is a change on its way tonight
And I feel it's so
But I fear it though
