Appreciation For The 1990s Pride And Prejudice

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

It's never been equalled as novel adaptations go!! Everyone is perfect !

Apart from Mrs Bennett, Alison Steadman played her as though she was in a pantomime. One thing that was better about the film was the Mrs Bennett played by Brenda Blethyn.

I’d like to see a less broadly comic Mrs Bennet, where we see, not only her silliness, but also the genuine anxiety about the girls’ future that underlies her cartoonishly inept marital plotting. The oddity of her character being that she doesn’t have her head stuck in the sand like Mr Bennet, and is a hard-headed realist about at least one or two of her daughters needing to marry well in order to support the others after Mr B’s death, BUT she’s too silly to grasp that her schemes and her loud-voiced plotting are hampering rather than helping their chances.

The irony is that the stupider parent is more clear-sighted in her view of the girls’ options than the clever one.

It is a balancing act with playing Mrs Bennet as she really does need to be pretty vulgar - obviously a vulgarity resulting from financial insecurity because of her perpetual matchmaking and talking about money. Mrs B and any unmarried sisters would be dependent on the generosity of the married daughters' husbands so she needs them to marry well. If Mr B dies first then she will go from a household earning £2,000 a year to £200-250 (interest on her own dowry) as Mr B does seem to have saved for a widows settlement

I thought Brenda Blethyn underplayed the role a tad as it was a bit of a struggle to work out what was so truly awful and vulgar that Darcy would advise Bingley to avoid marriage into the family.

I'm vaguely dreading Olivia Colman's take on Mrs B in the new Netflix version. I can imagine it being a screeching horror.
Also, much as I love Jack Lowden, he's more of a Bingley than a Darcy to me.

Olivia Coleman will be awful - a gloomy Mrs bennet. I really can't understand her success.

Mrs. Bennet wasn't looking for her sons in law to support her - she already had money even if it wasn't very much. She was looking for her daughters to land somewhere safe in life. which is more than her husband cared about. Mr Bennet is in effect emasculated by not being able to provide for his daughters by inheritance and not caring enough to save for them. Mrs. B is the economic brains of that operation to me.

What I liked about the 1990s series also is that Mrs. Bennet is attractive and flirtatious- makes you understand why Mr. B was infatuated with her back in the day (and by the way that's another thing about that man - I married a woman because I found her sexy, she never hid anything from me, I made a choice but oh dear how sad I am that I am now married to ... the woman I chose)

The thing about Mrs. Bennet is any money her daughters had to keep them from the workhouse came from her - not their father. he was too busy sipping sherry and reading Ovid in his library to think about saving for his children's future.

can't remember if I mentioned this already, but has anyone watched lost in austen? Yes its a modern remake but I really liked Alex Kingston as Mrs Bennett and the series presented the character much more as I see her. A "ball breaker" as the story says. I like Mr Bingley in this series too - not so much of a wimp.

Lost In Austen is a joy. I love Jemima Rooper "Elizabeth Bennett is borrowing my mobile!".

The Elopement by Gill Hornby, a spin off of Miss Austen and Godmersham Park, is currently 99p on kindle.