As I sit here drinking my mint tea on this bizarrely cold April day, I listen to the soundtrack of Pride and Prejudice and ponder the question "What did I learn from Jane Austen's most famous work?" Now, normally, I would not be pondering this. I would be writing case briefs or memorizing brain structures or drawing graphs of different types of economic markets. But today it has occurred to me that my last ever English paper is due next Thursday, and that I had probably better do something about that. So I wonder, what did I learn from Pride and Prejudice? A multitude of things, none of which I can get 5-7 pages out of.
1) Don't be an obnoxious flirt. Caroline Bingley is one of my favorite antagonists of all time, in that there is not a single scene is which I don't want to slap her and yell "HE DOESN'T LIKE YOU GIVE UP ALREADY!" Why do I hate her so? Because she is one of those girls. Everyone knows at least a few of them-the ones that listen with rapt attention to every word that falls from the attractive guy's mouth, no matter how inconsequential. The ones who compliment them for breathing. The ones who walk around is short skirts and high heels, then pointedly flip their long shiny hair to get attention. These modern day incarnations of Caroline Bingley are the bane of my existence, as I would like to walk down a hallway without getting a faceful of fruit-scented hair. These ladies also make it difficult to be just friends with a guy, as all men are now inherently distrustful of any girl who spends any significant amount of time around them. I can attribute all of this to the overly attentive Caroline Bingleys of the world.
2) Don't be a pushover. How much easier would Jane and Bingley's lives have been if only they had been a little more vocal and forceful with their wishes? If Jane had shown more interest in Bingley, Darcy would not have had as much ground to persuade Bingley to go back to London. If Bingley had more of a backbone, he wouldn't have listened to Darcy, and he and Jane could have been happy for the whole book.
3) Manners matter. Most of the Bennet family's problems could have been avoided through proper conduct. If Mrs. Bennet wasn't such a busy body (and a loud one at that), Mr. Darcy would not have had such contempt for her and her family. If Lydia was a well behaved young lady, she would not have attracted the scandalous attentions of Mr. Wickham.
4) Being stupid gets you a stupid man. Lydia, Lydia, Lydia. Why. Because of her foolishness and her refusal to follow the proprieties, she ends up saddled to George Wickham, the cad to end all cads. You can just tell that won't be a happy relationship.
5) Avoid hot guys who just want money. While Georgiana learned her lesson in this realm, Lydia clearly did not.
6) Don't run off with people's little sisters. They will get mad. And hate you.
7) There have always been "frenemies". Caroline-the original "frenenemy". Sweet to your face, but can't wait to talk bad about you the second you are out of the room.
8) Don't believe everything you hear. Everyone tells stories in the way that is most flattering towards themselves, but some are distinctly more biased than others.
9) Everyone has good and bad qualities. (Except possibly Wickham-still haven't found anything good there, unless we count "extremely hot" as a good character trait.)
10) Sometimes it requires a grand gesture to set things in motion. Now, I'm not saying that in order to ask your not-yet girlfriend for coffee you have to rescue her little sister from a ruined reputation, but sometimes it takes a little bit to get noticed. Staying up on Skype with her when she has a big exam and needs to stay awake (and a nice cup of coffee in the morning to counteract the side effects of the all nighter) should be sufficient.
11) Pride and Prejudice is a cult. Have you SEEN how many spinoffs there are? It's kind of ridiculous. My personal favorites would include Bridget Jone's Diary by Helen Fielding (and the movie!), and the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which is a YouTube series that tells a modern day interpretation of the story through Lizzie Bennet's vlogs. As far as the movie versions go, I've seen it come to near bloodshed over which is better, the Keira Knightley or the Colin Firth (I go back and forth. Colin Firth is my favorite Darcy, Kiera my favorite Lizzie. Her version also has the better soundtrack in my opinion.) There is a Jane Austen Society, that holds tea parties and balls and lectures. It's a world-wide phenomenon, and why not? Jane Austen changed the culture when she wrote Pride and Prejudice. She showed that the poor girl could get the rich guy, no problem. After all, the rich guy was kind of a jerk and needed to be reformed before the poor girl would deign to have him anyway. She showed the world that being smart and well read was far more important than where in society you were born. She showed how manners make the man, not the rank. In short, Jane Austen was a revolutionary.
Now if only I could write my paper.
*NOTE: YOU MAY HAVE SEEN THIS POST ON www.romanticpremed.blogspot.com THIS IS MY POST (THAT WAS ANOTHER BLOG I CREATED AND DECIDED NOT USE AND THEREFORE DELETED, BUT NOT UNTIL I WROTE THIS POST)
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