[ SECRET POST #5504 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5504 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 26 secrets from Secret Submission Post #787.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Probably because the not-like-other-girls aspects of her heroines usually tend to be their negative quality, and her heroines have usually learned better by the end of her books.

Best example is Lizzy, notably when she has to suck it up when Charlotte marries Mr Collins. She clearly sees Charlotteas her equal, and obviously Mr Collins as vastly inferior. Lizzy reacts badly to Charlotte choosing mundane practicalities over loftier ideals, as Lizzy has done. But she cares too much about Charlotte and learns to accept it.

Same with Emma and Harriet Smith marrying her farmer, and Marianne in pretty much all her dealings with Elinor, Willoughby, and Colonel Brandon.

In general, frivolity and vanity are shown negatively, but then those are not inherently female traits, nor can they be considered good traits for someone to have.

Or were you thinking of something else I've missed entirely, OP?

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I'm talking more of like even when Lizzie is a little disappointed in her father, it's never clear that her mother's focus on getting her daughters married isn't silly. Both Lizzie's mom and dad really fucked up in spending instead of saving for dowries, but only her mom is aware of how little time they might have before that comes to roost.

The contrast between Lucy and the Dashwoods is that Lucy is straight up mercenary, where as Marianne and Elinor are more concerned with compatibility, which fair! But it seems clear that Lucy isn't in the Dashwood's class and it really smacks of despising any attempt to be above your class as a primary goal but specifically through the female sphere, rather than the mild commentary on the ways men attempt it.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT, but I think that you can chalk some of this up to the cultural norms of the era. Austin didn't have to make it obvious that Mrs. Bennet's focus on marrying her daughters off is practical, because that's the world her readership lived in. Her obviousness about it is embarrassing, and it's not romantic, but it's not silly.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

the narrative voice is disparaging imo.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

^This. Nobody from that time period would be thinking, "Marrying off your daughters is really important to you? How absurd!" They would've understood the importance without being told, and frankly, if Austen had gone out of her way to "make it clear" that marriage wasn't silly, her audience likely would've been very puzzled as to why she was doing that.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, everyone knows why the poor girl’s mom doctored up a thrift store bridesmaid’s dress for prom. It’s portrayed negatively because it’s socially awkward and doesn’t live up to a romantic ideal, not because the audience is supposed to think the mother is ridiculous for not being rich.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Marrying outside of your sphere was seen as a sure path to unhappiness though. If too low you'll be without the things you used to enjoy and be unhappy, if too high you'll make a fool of yourself and be shunned and be unhappy.

And I'm ALL ABOUT dragging Mr. Bennet for not saving more for his daughter's dowries (even if he'd had a son that son would have needed to support his mother and sisters which is a huge burden and their marriage prospects would still have been awful) but Mrs. Bennet's behavior is both completely understandable and an impediment to what she wants/the happiness of her daughters. Two things can be true at once.

But no really, I want to rag on Mr. Bennet all day.