In ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ the mother, Mrs Bennet, becomes a caricature of motherhood, desiring for her daughters first and foremost a “secure” marriage—by which she means one which is monetarily advantageous or raises the family’s social standing. Her primary objective following the first ball at the local assembly rooms, is to show off that her daughter Jane had three dances with Mr Bingley, quite overtly to Mrs Lucas, even putting on a show of pity for Caroline Lucas’s being plain. Mrs Bennet’s monologues are full of the kind of thoughtless juxtapositions of concern for her Lydia’s honour and concern for Lydia’s wedding outfit. She cried about “Such flutterings all over me” but quickly follows it with the direct command “Lydia [is] not to give any directions about clothes”, suggesting it could cause a disaster similar in scale to that of her running off with Mr Wickham. However, even that which could be seen as a positive caring for the daughter’s honour could be a simple act of vanity, worrying that “we will be much talked of”. Her theatricality means that the reader must continually doubt whether anything she says is true t oho she feels. Mrs Bennet first exclaims that she is “sick of Mr Bingley” but six lines later says she “Always knew I should persuade you at last” to visit Mr Bingley such that the Bennet daughters may be introduced.
Though usually unaware of what she is doing, Mrs. Bennet consistently promotes connections threatened by her daughters’ modesty or pride. Early in the novel she forces Elizabeth to defend Darcy by responding at such length to an imagined slight that Elizabeth feels compelled to intervene: “Indeed, mamma, you are mistaken,” said Elizabeth, blushing for her mother.
”You quite mistook Mr. Darcy. He only meant that there was not such a variety of people to be met with in the country as in town, which you must acknowledge to be true.”
This defence anticipates the broader support of Darcy which Elizabeth undertakes toward the end of the novel and it presents Mrs. Bennet as a useful, though inadvertent, instructor. Unwittingly, Mrs. Bennet offers her eldest daughters a flattering contrast. Darcy assures Elizabeth in his explanatory letter, that her and Jane failing to act like their mother has reflected very positively on their prospects.
Mrs Reed’s treatment of Jane is what is often presented as the source of Jane’s anger or desire to rebel, the memories of Mrs Reed and her abusive son John erupting in an incendiary manner, common with imagery of fire throughout the novel. The position she places Jane in the household does not belong to either the family since “she is not a gentleman’s son” nor do the majority of the servants look kindly on her. In fact, Abbot considers Jane even below her status in the household, since she does “no work for her due”. From the beginning of the novel, Jane is made to suffer from isolation which mirrors the very same isolation of Bertha, Rochester’s wife and prisoner. Jane very noisily and with much resistance suffers her punishments wanting “Escape from insupportable oppression” however Helen teaches her at Lowood that by submitting to punishment and taking it silently, as she does when Miss Scatcherd canes her in front of the whole school and she stifles tears, does she claim the most power. This paradox, whereby submission causes a gaining of agency, is one that Jane wrangles with and never fully accepts shown by her not being able to trust in a god who loves her, yet one that she learns to value once she is admonished by Mr Brocklehurst and yet receives the support of all her peers and teachers.
Wanting to identify with high society is a facet of Clarissa’s insecurity about her identity, and how she fits in, and therefore whether she should conform to society’s expectations of her. This cause a real feeling of isolation as she remains trapped between different lifestyle and ultimately struggles to be completely content with the path she has chosen. Highlighted by her marriage with Richard Dalloway, a politician, who cannot even say ‘I love you’ to his wife. He is by no means unloving rather showing affection through flowers and gifts, but Clarissa has chosen for herself an incredibly conventional marriage. Reminded by the arrival of Peter Walsh, she has repressed significant desires and as a result “had the oddest sense of being herself invisible…being Mrs Richard Dalloway.” Peter presents himself in opposition to Richard, as a “bucaneer” who was an “adventurer, reckless…swift and dareing”. She demonstrates restraint within her marriage, and the meeting with Peter Walsh evokes sadness at what could have been, since she cries when Peter calls her “the perfect hostess”, summarising the domestic role she has taken up in this life. Nonetheless, she has entirely constructed this obdurate alternate reality with Peter who is in truth lame: he has his own faltering relationship with Daisy, he criticises everything, such as the British in India, yet comes from an entirely mainstream and ignorant perspective and he fidgets with a pen knife.
8.1.2019