"'If I had been able,' said [Mrs. Bennet], 'to carry my point of going to Brighton with all my family, this would not have happened; but poor dear Lydia had nobody to take care of her. Why did the Forsters ever let her go out of their sight?I am sure there was some great neglect or other on their side, for she is not the kind of girl to do such a thing [...] And now here's Mr. Bennet gone away, and I know he will fight Wickham wherever he meets him, and then will be killed, and what is to become of us all?'" (Austen 240)
Mrs. Bennet is probably the most ignorant character ever created in a novel: she blames everyone but herself for allowing Lydia to run of with Wickham, when if is wasn't for her terrible parenting and her begging Mr. Bennet to allow Lydia to go with the officers, this would not have happened. Mrs. Bennet is the one who precipitated these odious events, and yet she cannot figure that out for herself. Even worse, none of the other characters seem willing to remind Mrs. Bennet of her unpropitious actions. Maybe they feel sorry for Mrs. Bennet because she is in agony over these events, but I feel like Lizzy should have said something to the effects of "Well, you shouldn't have encouraged her..." Maybe this could knock some common sense into Mrs. Bennet, and maybe she'll stop being such an ignorant character.
Yeah, not gonna happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment