#And Caroline Bingley

[bethanydelleman]

Why Jane Austen Rules

[Imagine description: Drake Hotline don't like/like meme: panel 1, Characters doing things because the plot demands it or just because they are EVIL and SCARY. Panel 2, Characters acting based on self-interested goals, often without reference to the main characters.]

[firawren]

Pride and Prejudice 1995 text posts, part 1 of ? - next set

More: Persuasion 1995 text posts | Sense and Sensibility 1995 text posts | Northanger Abbey 2007 text posts | Emma. 2020 text posts

[rohirriiim]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2005) dir. Joe Wright

[aftermyownart]

Get Wrecked, Caroline!

From that thing I have watched a few too many times. This is definitely how that went

[aquitainequeen]

I've always liked the establishing character moments in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice; e.g. Bingley is jolly and friendly but tends to be a little too reliant on Darcy's advice and approval; Darcy's rich and snobbish while also a good friend to Bingley; Elizabeth is cheerful and independent; Mr. Bennet is scholarly and clearly isn't that fond of his wife and younger daughters, but obviously loves Elizabeth, etc.

But I've only just now realised that Georgiana Darcy has three such moments.

The first is when Caroline is telling Jane via letter that the Bingleys are going to stay in London for a while, and that she's hoping that her brother will marry Georgiana. We've heard her mentioned before by Darcy, Caroline and Wickham; now we see her in person for the first time, standing arm in arm with her brother before confidently going to meet Bingley:

This is a really interesting moment, because it could be what happened in reality - but that's highly doubtful; Georgiana is far too confident here compared with what we see later in the story and it's very unlikely she'd be interested in a new suitor after what happened so recently with Wickham. Thus it's either Caroline playing up their meeting in her own mind, anticipating their courtship and marriage, or it's Elizabeth picturing what happened, fuelled by her own resentment of how Wickham was supposedly treated by the proud, selfish, unfeeling Darcys. So the first time we see Georgiana is deeply influenced by what two other very biased characters think they see.

The next moment is here:

This time around Georgiana doesn't say a word or take the initiative; it's Wickham who takes her hand to kiss it, flirts excessively with her without saying a word, and strides off while she looks after him longingly, the beginnings of her smile fading as Darcy's handwriting takes over the screen. This is a rather biased moment as well; it's Darcy's flashback and he wasn't here for this bit, so he'd inevitably picture Georgiana as a sweet innocent completely swept off her feet by the charming man he so despises - but Darcy also knows his sister far better than Caroline and Elizabeth do, and she confesses everything to him once he discovers them at Ramsgate, so this is very likely how it went down in real life. And thus we get that much closer to the real Georgiana.

Finally, at the beginning of the fifth episode, we meet Georgiana in the flesh,

waiting nervously to be introduced,

smiling as soon as Darcy steps aside,

so nervous but so very pleased to meet Elizabeth,

hesistant and selfconcious but very interested in learning more about Elizabeth, coming further out of her protective shell, full of love and praise for her brother, earnestly saying that she should have liked to have had a sister. And Elizabeth, like the audience, is charmed by the real Georgiana.

[buddyhollyscurls]

Trying to sleep and was looking at books and that eventually led me to think of Pride and Prejudice and yk what moment we need to appreciate more?

That scene where Caroline is doing her pick me shit and joking with Darcy about Elizabeth's pretty eyes and she's like when you guys get your marriage portrait done do you think any painter could do her eyes justice?

And our boy Fitzy doesn't even HESITATE he's like I think a painter would do a great job at getting her eyelashes and the way they look in the sunlight and it's just like

MY GUY HAD U ALREADY BEEN THINKING ABOUT THAT??? U HAD THE ANSWER LOCKED AND LOADED WERE U ON YE OLDE GOOGLE LOOKING UP WEDDING PORTRAIT ARTISTS NEAR ME??? DID U HAVE A REGENCY ERA PINTERST BOARD OF UR DREAM WEDDING TO LIZZY ALREADY MADE UP????

[didanagy]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1995)

dir. simon langton

[lauramkaye]

Hot take on a 200-year-old book

At the start of Pride and Prejudice, Darcy liked Caroline Bingley, and Caroline isn't completely irrational to think that she might get him to propose eventually.

Oh, he WON'T, not with her connections in TRADE, but it isn't so very wrong of her to have hopes of him. He doesn't like meeting new people and he's used to her because she's his friend's sister, he's had her to stay at Pemberley at least once and is now staying with her family so he must not have hated it! Plus, she has fashionable manners and appearance, she's generally fairly savvy and clever, and they have a great time being bitchy to each other about people they don't like. She's funny in a mean way and SO IS HE - "She a beauty? I'd as soon call her mother a wit." For Darcy, Caroline makes a fairly amusing person to trade zingers with, roast vulgar people, and probably to use as a shield against other husband hunters that he knows less well. I suspect that Caroline's plan when they come to Netherfield is to just keep being in his orbit, showing off her society hostess and witty one-liner skills, and eventually he'll realize he has to get on with producing an heir and will decide that as far as eligible known quantities go, better Caroline than Anne De Bourgh. (Which, I mean, at least Caroline brings more pleasant in-laws and you could actually have a conversation with her.) It's not a terrible strategy for somone as antisocial as Darcy, honestly, though I think that pre-book Darcy is okay with being FRIENDS with the Bingleys but wouldn't be polluting the shades of Pemberley with them, so to speak - that's a bridge too far for his sense of what is due to his family.

(In fact when you think about it, the way that Elizabeth and Wickham enjoy dishing dirt about Darcy is kind of a mirror of the way Darcy and Caroline start out!)

I think part of why Caroline gets so very desperate and blatant is that Darcy stops playing along with their usual games as he starts to fall for Elizabeth. It's not so funny when it's about his crush, and instead of giving back another quip about how inferior these country bumpkins are, he not only shuts her down but does it in a way that is complimentary to another woman. I think the first time he does this is at Lucas Lodge with the infamous "fine eyes" comment. You can SEE Caroline getting more and more frantic to re-establish their prior rapport and Darcy just doubling down on taking every one of her attempts and turning it into a way to say something nice about Elizabeth, to the point where by the end of the Netherfield trip he is deliberately fucking with Caroline and I think is kind of enjoying it in a "hah hah, you can dish it out but you can't take it" sort of way.

If Caroline was a little smarter and more devious - a bit more like Wickham - she would have eased off and focused her comments not on Elizabeth but on her family, especially Mrs. Bennet and Lydia, who DO behave in a way counter to propriety and good manners and are genuinely embarrassing to their better-mannered sisters. That way, she could have reinforced his feelings against the match. Continuing to push him and doubling down every time he pushed back activated his Lady Catherine-Tuned Stubbornness Circuits (aka "I am the master of Pemberley and you don't get to tell me who I can or cannot marry").

Caroline and Elizabeth are both witty and fun to talk to, but Elizabeth is witty in a playful and sweet way that doesn't offend people (even when she might WANT to, see pretty much every conversation they have at Rosings). And most important, in the long run, Caroline encourages Mr. Darcy to indulge in his worst self (much like Fanny Dashwood does to John Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility) while Elizabeth challenges and inspires him to become his best self, and that's the most important difference between them.

[welldonebeca]

I've been reading Pride and Prejudice and I really wish I could find just a group of people and we could record it chapter by chapter, a narrator, each character and just... You know, have fun.

Not a money project, just a hobby.

"Oh, we recorded Pride and Prejudice together in a podcast format, chapter by chapter."

[bethanydelleman]

Darcy: I think that girl has pretty eyes.

Caroline: Should I order my gown for your wedding?

Darcy: Women! Always jumping straight from interest to matrimony.

Appx. five months later...

Also Darcy: Entirely different season of the year, Caroline would have been daft to order the gown that early.

Appx. five months later...

Caroline: Do you have a specific cut or colour for a bridesmaid's gown that would convey "I told you so?" But that would also show my general distaste for the match...

[thoumpingground]

So I've been pondering on how the Darcy-Bingley friendship came to be for a while, and like most people, I imagine that it was Bingley driven. I have now decided that when Bingley met Darcy - haughty, moody, catty man - he either unconsciously or explicitly reminded him of Caroline. "I must befriend him, he feels like home".

[theweirdolife]

You know how Caroline Bingley is anyways depicted as being very vain and selfish and pathetically territorial of Darcy?

I want an adaptation where we see that really she is trying to do what's best for her brother (not out of shallow judgment, but out of true social decorum).

Where she and Darcy are truly friends, where they once bonded over their shared snarkiness which was born of insecurity (due to the knowledge of their roles in their families) and of the hollowing exhaustion of the endless stream of people trying to get close to them for their money.

I want an adaptation where Caroline sees Darcy moving on, healing, growing, where Caroline is dealing with confusion and shame because Darcy is breaking the unspoken pacts they had to carefully never examine their own shortcomings, where Caroline is lashing out and needy and she sees it and she hates it but she can't stop herself because he's leaving her alone after they had found each other.

I want to see Lizzy from Caroline's eyes - somebody who clearly thinks herself clever and better than everyone, someone who disdains Darcy, someone who is charmed by Wickham (who hurt Darcy so badly that Darcy won't even share what happened with Caroline), someone who doesn't hide the fact that she thinks Caroline is stuffy and clingy, someone who doesn't ever stop to wonder what it would have been like to be raised in a household that did not care for your thoughts or your opinions and only expected you to be stylish and to marry well and to preserve the family reputation at all costs.

I want a sequel not about Lizzy and Darcy's sex lives, but of Jane's kindness and Lizzy's authenticity and Charlotte's practicality helping Caroline find herself.

I want a sequel of Caroline confronting Darcy about his disdain and mansplaining. I want a sequel where Lizzy finds some humility, where Caroline finds some courage.

I pretty much want all female rivalries in stories to be rewritten.

I just have so much sympathy for Caroline. Like probably she can see what she's doing, how her desperate attempts to draw Darcy's attention are actually driving him away, but she can't stop herself. How she is so afraid of being abandoned, of being judged, that she judges people before they can do the same to her.

[anghraine]

Hello, i want to ask about an exchange in Pride and Prejudice between Darcy and Miss Bingley about "fine eyes". Why did Darcy tell Caroline ? I know by "he was thinking of her with some complacency" that he is saying the truth but why did he tell her?And what does "great intrepidity" mean? I am SO confused

In context, Caroline is trying to establish a sense of rapport and bonding between herself and Darcy as part of her general pursuit of him. In this scene, she's emphasizing her familiarity and understanding of him by telling him that she knows what he's thinking. Darcy warns her that she probably doesn't. Caroline then vents her own feelings of contempt that she assumes he shares (not altogether irrationally, though she does completely ignore his reply) and emphasizes their total agreement.

Her attempts are generally pretty transparent, and undoubtedly are very obvious to Darcy here. His reactions to Caroline seem to range from "she's a somewhat irritating but at least familiar and tolerable fellow hater" to "something between sardonic amusement at her expense and active annoyance" to "I am genuinely offended." I think at this point that he's not seriously offended, but does find the whole maneuver pretty contemptible and annoying.

Basically, revealing that he's thinking of something entirely different—the pleasantness of a pretty woman's "fine eyes"—directly rejects Caroline's attempt to claim rapport through understanding him without providing specifics. Caroline does not really pick up on the implicit rejection of what she's trying to do, and deliberately fixes her eyes on him, clearly hoping for some hint that he's referring to her and this is an elaborate form of flirtation. Darcy's identification of the woman with fine eyes as Elizabeth immediately shuts that down.

We know that Darcy will be concerned about the possibility that he's led Elizabeth on after their Netherfield debates, in a way that's both comically arrogant in terms of their actual interactions and severely principled in terms of his sense of appropriate conduct towards women. So I tend to think what's going on here is a mixture of feeling it would be pretty shitty to let Caroline imagine he was thinking about her while, at the same time, being simply annoyed with her.

The "great intrepidity" is tongue-in-cheek, I think—to be intrepid is to be daring and unconcerned with danger. So on the literal level, Darcy is being very daring in revealing his (low-grade at this point) attraction to Elizabeth to Caroline, someone who will obviously be hostile to the idea and be petty and annoying about it. The tongue-in-cheek aspect is that this is all honestly pretty trivial at this point and the only danger at hand is Caroline being slightly shitty. I think it's later suggested that Darcy didn't realize at the time just how irritating this would be, so in terms of his consciousness of danger, the "daring" here is ... real as far as it goes, but the stakes are comically low for him.

[aquitainequeen]

[nerdyrevelries]

Okay, so I have had this idea for a crack pairing, and I need to share it. 

The year is 1816. Napoleon has been exiled on Saint Helena and mainland Europe is once again safe to travel. Caroline Bingley, her sister Louisa Hurst, and her brother-in-law Mr. Hurst decide to summer in the Carpathian Mountains, which have been relatively untouched by the recent conflicts. While there mingling with the local nobility at a ball, Caroline meets Count Vlad Dracula. The two marry after a short courtship where others applaud the suitability of the pairing of Caroline’s fortune and Count Dracula’s land and title.

Caroline arrives at her new husband’s castle for the first time and finds it a mess, but Caroline Dracula is not to be daunted. With all the experience of a woman who has been assisting her brother in his estate running for years prior to his marriage, Caroline sets about getting the castle in tip-top shape. New furniture and upholstery is ordered, stonework is repaired, and styles are updated. If the Count is adverse to these updates, Caroline is not inclined to notice. She is mistress of the house now, she need not consult her husband in its appointment. 

Dracula is puzzled by the reactions of his new wife. When she encounters his wolves, she refuses to be frightened and simply cites her prior experience with her brother’s hunting dogs as she tells the wolves to heel, and they actually listen to her. If he crawls about the walls, she chides him for his behavior, saying that he is displaying a lack of manners. No matter what he does, though either a self-centered obliviousness or a prideful and bossy manner that refuses to accept that she might be less than prepared for anything, Caroline will not be frightened by Dracula. The Count is at a complete loss for how to handle her.

Anyway, time passes, hijinks happen, and eventually Count Dracula falls in love with his Countess and ends up changing to conform to her. The two possible endings that I see for this are that either Caroline remains completely oblivious to what her husband is for her entire life or she becomes a vampire and the two of them terrorize the country as equals. 

The end.

[didanagy]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2005)

dir. joe wright