Friday, February 10, 2012

Parade of Fools

Something I found really striking about Pride and Prejudice was the neverending array of idiots and jerks (I know, I'm pulling out the big literary terms for this). I'm not referring to Mr. Darcy, though his manners could qualify him as a jerk to some--rather, I'm referring to the more obviously unlikable (and I use that for lack of a better term) characters: Miss Bingley, Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins, and Lady Catherine.
Each of these people seems to exist solely to infuriate the reader: Miss Bingley's disgusting rudeness towards Elizabeth and her family, Mrs. Bennet's equally poor manners as well as complete lack of sense and tact (her loud complaints about Mr. Bingley's treatment of Jane within earshot of her daughter were hardly sensitive to Jane's feelings (94), Mr. Collins' pompous airs and buffoonish fawning, and the most infuriating (for me), Lady Catherine, who literally could not see people talking without feeling the urge to insert herself rudely into the conversation and give everyone the "benefit" of her aggressive opinions (115).
What I want to know is, why are there so many of these kinds of characters, and why are they shoved under the reader's nose one after another, with hardly room to breathe in between? As we discussed in class today, part of the reason could be satire, but is it necessary to bombard the reader with such irritating people to get the satirical point across? What are your thoughts?

5 comments:

  1. I think they're supposed to be funny. I think we're supposed to enjoy and admire Lizzy's wry observations and her character's ability to resist and rebuke these people making fools of themselves by trying to put down people who are actually better than they are. It has something socially relevant to say about class that being born into privilege or worshipping it at the expense of the individual will "entitle" a person to much less in the long run.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I personally think they were put in there so people would want to know what crazy and horrible thing they are going to do next. All four of the characters mentioned just get worse and more crazy as the book goes along.

    ReplyDelete
  3. They are characters that we love to hate, which is actually pretty entertaining. I think that Austen lends Darcy, Bingley, Lizzie and Jane more depth so that we can choose to dislike them or not rather than just spelling it out for us. I would have liked to see a little more depth from that "hatable" characters though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just to clarify my own position, I'm not really criticizing the book for the inclusion of these characters, I'm actually just curious as to why Austen wrote that way.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Terrific post, Bennett, and some good comments, too.

    ReplyDelete