#the bennets

[firawren]

Sometimes Darcy gets accused of not actually being in love with Elizabeth at the time of his first proposal, that he just proposed out of lust, and like yeah lust was definitely a part of it, but I believe him that he truly loved Elizabeth.

Marriage was a big deal. He'd never really be able to divorce her. This was gonna be it for life—and while Elizabeth for life might be wonderful, he's also getting the Bennets for life.

I don't know how much he knew about the Bennets' financial situation beyond the entail, but he had to have known there was a strong chance Mrs. Bennet would end up living with him after Mr. Bennet died. He could afford to set her up in her own house, but they'd still have to spend a lot of time together. And it wasn't just Mrs. Bennet—he'd be saddling himself with the lifelong care of potentially multiple of Elizabeth’s relatives, which is bad enough when you actually like the people, but these are people who he can't stand, and rightfully so! I'd despise living with any of them except Elizabeth and Jane, and maybe Kitty. He's not being a snob when he criticizes them—they legitimately suck. (Well, he is being a snob and dumbass by saying it out loud, but Elizabeth herself knows the criticism is justified.)

On top of all that, he knows marrying Elizabeth is gonna piss off his own family, and potentially jeopardize his friendship with his bestie Charles.

And you're telling me that Darcy was willing to take on all of that shit just for sex?? Sex is easy to get. Hell, even sex with a pretty, kind, smart wife would be easy for Darcy to get. Elizabeth is not his only good option.

I know people's genitals make them do all sorts of wildly stupid things, but I don't think even Darcy's penis is powerful enough (and I've read fanfic, I know how powerful Darcy's penis is) to make him propose to Elizabeth Bennet if he didn't truly love her.

[dionysiaproductions]

Today at Pemberley, The 28th of January:

For the second time in as many days, Mr. Darcy spotted his wife having an amicable conversation with her younger sister, Miss Mary Bennet. On this occasion, Miss Catherine Bennet and Miss Georgiana Darcy joined them. The strangeness of it could not be denied. Only days ago, Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy had been convinced the younger women were involved in some inadvisable scheme and now her sentiments seemed quite the opposite.

Mr. Darcy lingered in his position, waiting for the gathering of women to disperse. Once his wife was alone, Mr. Darcy approached her with a direct expression of his thoughts, “You seem to have joined your sisters’ plot.”

Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy was surprised to be caught by him, but welcomed his presence all the same. “That may be so,” she conceded, “I was not thinking of it that way myself but it does seem an apt description.”

“Then, you are no longer concerned the scheme could be dangerous?”

Mrs. Darcy took a moment to think before answering, “I have come to remember that it is the prerogative of young women to barrel carelessly into danger.”

To that Mr. Darcy made an expression of consternation and asserted, “It is not Georgiana’s prerogative. Certainly not while I am her guardian.”

Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy laid a soothing hand on her husband’s arm. “I did not mean to imply that our sisters were in any danger themselves. I will tell you the sum of it if you ask me to. But, I think you would prefer to remain uninvolved until it all comes to light.”

“Which will be soon?” He asked.

“Which will be soon.”

He offered her a small bow, “Then I defer to your excellent judgement.”

Previous days at Pemberley here

[burningvelvet]

top lydia bennet moment

[himbotimbo]

Inspired by fics continuously saying Jason Todd’s favor book in pride and prejudice, I finished it last night. Now for an observation on the relation of the Wayne children and the Bennetts

Jane = Dick Grayson (kind, loved by everyone, golden child, good)

Elizabeth = Jason Todd (driven by a hatred for a man that upended the happiness of their family, but privately loves him)

Mary = Damian Wayne (single minded in the focus of their passion and quite disinterested with the goings on of the family because it seems frivolous)

Kitty = Tim Drake (fun, observing, besties with Lydia but doesn’t take it as far as her, loves a good boy in uniform)

Lydia = Stephanie Brown (loud, boisterous, follows trouble, gets into really messy situations, life interrupted by an affair)

[nothandsomeenoughtotemptyou]

Pride & Prejudice 2005

[ladymsinclair]

Sooooo, who's going to be the kind and amazing person in the US greencreek fandom 😇 to help out their fellows in Europe that can't buy their third edition because it's not sold nor delivered in their county? 😭

I don't want more packpackpack content.

I NEED IT.

[prismaticxchromatics]

Pride & Prejudice (2005) Director: Joe Wright

“Only the deepest love will persuade me into matrimony, which is why I will end up an old maid.”

[thecoffeelorian]

First day as a 19th-Century Landlord--

Yeah Mr. Darcy’s proposal was a complete turd and a half but you gotta understand. You got your life together. A good career, stable income, retirement plan, all that shit together. And you meet this girl. And she’s everything. Clever, outspoken, funny, calls you on your bullshit. Grade A cutie, right? And she doesn’t go out of her way to spend time with you but she’s nice, and sometimes you catch her looking your way in a way that makes you think you might have a shot.

But her family. Holy shit.

First off, it’s p much ALL women, and mostly UNMARRIED women, which at this time means of something happens to her dad then you’re financially responsible for like. Four grown ass adults, potentially forever

Because mom in law is DEFINITELY gonna need someone to take care of her when dad in law kicks it, and they have like. NO money. So already you’re accepting that if all goes well, you’re gonna be one random old bag’s retirement home. That’s expensive and exhausting, yeah? Imagine asking someone on a first date knowing that if they say yes and things go good her high-strung chihuahua mother is gonna move in with you. IMAGINE.

And girly’s other sisters. Well, one is a sweetheart, yeah, so she probably won’t be an issue, but that still leaves three more, and two of those ones are INSUFFERABLE. Never went to school, dumb as rocks, spend cash like it’s toilet paper

And while one of the two is young still and might grow out of it the OTHER one is actively torpedo’ing her entire family’s reputation by wandering off with random dudes and chasing ass. She’s never gonna work, she can’t build connections, she’s a fucking sinkhole, and she’s being led on by the same goddamn con man ass leeching tit who’s been bleeding you dry while telling anyone who’ll listen that your family is full of ratty thieving bastards.

And if he dumps her after a week- WHICH YOU KNOW HIS BITCH ASS IS GONNA- you’ve got a SECOND UNMARRIABLE GROWN ASS ADULT TO PROVIDE FOR. And you KNOW she’s gonna be a tantrum-throwing little shit about it, and it’s not like you can lock her in the basement or something, you’re gonna have to bring her fucking. Everywhere. And give her an allowance and shit while she contributes zero, because again, she NEVER GOT EDUCATED AND HAS NO MARKETABLE SKILLS. She’s not even good to TALK to. FUCK

And you’re looking at this girl’s father like “please for the love of fuck get your spawn under control, marry them off, get them working on their résumé, learning to sew or be nursemaids or manage staff or SOMETHING, yall got no money and one foot in the grave” and that old man just laughs like “haha yeah, what can you do. lol”

So you’re looking to the mom and finally it’s making sense how she got that twitch in her eye and as MUCH as she is you’re starting to realize she’s the SMART one, desperately throwing her armloads of girls at random men like they’re a bunch of fucking lifeboats bobbing around a sinking ship, like yes Jesus Christ sweetly that life boat IS old and ugly and kind of boring but for FUCKS SAKE PICK ONE

And you look back at this girl who is ALSO REFUSING THE LIFE BOATS BY THE WAY and god damn it she’s still the most radiant thing you’ve ever seen so fine, fuck it, Christ alive, you’ll do it. You’ll shoot your shot. She’s everything you’ve ever wanted in anybody abut it’s not even just about that anymore, it’s about being her best fucking shot at a future, and even if she doesn’t like you all that much she’s still gonna say yes and that might break your heart a bit knowing it’s about the money but who knows, maybe it will at least be civil, or companionable, and even if she doesn’t LOVE you at least you’ll know she’s well and cared for

And so you’ll do it. You’ll take on the neurotic stress mess mother in law, the absent father, the broke ass wingnut no brain no money no future airhead sisters, the bad mannered relatives and the embarrassing behaviour and the impending future of sharing your entire shit with a clown parade of freeloaders, you’ll risk it all and accept the absolute certainty of financial ruin and emotional exhaustion for the rest of your whole ass life and you’ll make your own family deal with it too, you’ll do it, you’ll fucking DO IT, you stupid lovesick motherfucker

And so you go to this chick like “look. Your whole family’s a shitshow. You’ve got fucking nothing and you’re gonna die on the street. But for some reason- and I don’t get it either- I’ve fallen in love with you, and I wish I didn’t, but I did, so I’m telling you that whether you like me or not, I’ll give you everything. I’ll give you everything even if it’s the dumbest shit I ever done. Fuck my stupid Baka ass, I’ll marry you.”

And she looks at you- having heard or considered absolutely none of your months-long internal debate and monologue- and goes “The fuck did you just say about my family, you son of a bitch?”

And the shock of that is enough to jolt you back into a reality where you are able to actually hear and process what just came out of your damn mouth And yeah

Yeah, I think I kinda get it

[peppermintsandbones5]

RIP Lydia Bennet you would’ve loved watching tik toks at full volume in public

[firawren]

Why do you think there are so many stories where, after Mr Bennet's death, the girls end up working as maids or even in brothels?

A few reasons:

A: Fans of P&P often think the Bennets are poorer than they are, probably thanks to the 2005 movie, but also just anyone who hasn't read the book multiple times could easily make this mistake. The Bennets are rich, and yes, they don't get to keep any of the estate's wealth when Mr. Bennet dies, but Mrs. Bennet has 5k of her own that they will live off of. It's not much for 6 adults, but it's an income, and her brother Mr. Gardiner will doubtless help them by taking in one or two of the daughters or supplementing their money a bit if possible. Who knows, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips might be in a position to lend a hand a tiny bit too.

2: If you're not super familiar with the time period, you would have no way of knowing that girls of their class would never go so low as to take such jobs. Look at Miss Bates in Emma, who has fallen from gentility to real poverty. Even she wasn't forced to get a job. Her community protects her.

D: It's just dramatic, and people like drama. This particular trope isn't to my tastes, but I get it and I won't complain about it, because to each their own.

[dionysiaproductions]

Today at Pemberley, The 22nd of January:

Mr. and Mrs. Darcy feigned polite attention as Mrs. Bennet described Mrs. Phillips most recent trip to town and the colored lace she purchased there. They were given a detailed review of the lace’s design and how it did not seem worth the expense.

During this conversation, Mr. Bennet walked about the room. Though, he never lingered in the drawing room for more than half an hour after breakfast, he always made an attempt at sociability.  Inevitably he would vacate for the solitude of the library.

Today, he was examining random items in the room, inspecting them, then returning them to their place. When he picked up a letter which had been left carelessly on a table.

Mr. Bennet interrupted his wife’s rumination on Mrs. Phillip’s spending habits by asking The Darcys, “What’s this now?”

Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy turned to her husband. “I haven’t seen that.”

“It is a letter from my aunt which arrived about a fortnight ago,” Mr. Darcy explained to them both.

“Have you answered it?” Mrs. Darcy’s question was more of a demand.

“Of course, not. It has only been a fortnight.”

Mr. Bennet laughed. “Thought it a case of some delicacy?” He said. “I too ensure that all letters from Kent receive early attention.”

Mrs. Bennet, desperate for her part in the conversation, said, “Is that from your Aunt who visited Longbourn shortly before you and Lizzie were engaged? She may be a lady but to speak to our Lizzie so.”

With the air of cat who just discovered the cream, Mr. Darcy said, “Yes and she has some definite opinions on lace which she has expressed to me.”

The party then spent an unusually agreeable hour recounting Lady Catherine DeBourgh’s opinions to Mrs. Bennet for comment.

Previous days at Pemberley here

[repostedpoliticalarts]

If none of them married, how desperate would the Bennett girls actually have been?

Well the only dowry they have is £50 apiece from their mother’s small inheritance, per year; so that’s a total of £250 generated by Mrs. Bennet’s inherited investments per annum.

The Dashwoods (four women) are living on £500 a year when they are forced to live in Barton Cottage (with good-will making the rent presumably ridiculously low thanks to Sir John Middleton’s good nature, to say nothing of all the dinners and outings he invites the ladies to, which will help them economize on housekeeping costs for heavier meals.)

So there would be six Bennet women left to live on half as much as the Dashwoods are barely scraping by on. £250 is roughly considered enough to keep ONE gentleman at a barely-genteel level of leisure (presuming he does not keep a horse or estate or have any major expenses beyond securing his own lodgings/clothes/meals at a level becoming of a gentleman.)

None of the Bennet girls have been educated well enough for them to be governesses to support themselves, so…yes, their situation would heavily rely on mega-charity from others to just help them survive, much less maintain them in the lifestyle they’ve been accustomed to. The Dashwood women have NO social life beyond the outings provided by Sir John and the offer of Mrs. Jennings to host the older girls in London–otherwise they’d be stuck in their cottage, meeting absolutely no eligible men, creating a cycle of being poor and unmarried and too poor to meet anyone with money they could marry.

If the Bennet girls don’t at least have ONE of them marry well enough to help the rest before their father dies, they are really, truly, deeply fucked.

They may joke about beautiful Jane being the saviour of the family, but…it’s true. Mr. Bennet failed his daughters several times over in A) presuming he’d have a son, B) not saving money independently from his income to support his family after his death when it became clear he wasn’t going to have a son, C) not educating them well enough to enable them to support themselves in even in the disagreeable way of being a governess, D) not making any effort to escort his daughters to London or even local assemblies to help their matrimonial chances because he just doesn’t feel like it, E) throwing up his hands and shrugging when faced with the crises of Mr. Collins and Wickham.

Much as we are relieved on a romantic level that Mr. Bennet’s support of Elizabeth saves her from parental pressure to accept Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet is NOT A DICK for pushing for the match, because on a material level it very much means they get to KEEP THEIR HOUSE and gain a connection to the powerful patron Lady Catherine de Bourgh, which could be VERY advantageous for the other unmarried girls.

And the scandal of Wickham very nearly scuppers the chances of ANY of the other girls, and Wickham is a further DRAIN on the family finances, not a man who is going to substantially be able to support them. It is SUCH a disaster, and of course there’s not much Mr. Bennet can do until they are found, but he’s away in London and doing…what, exactly? Mr. Gardiner takes over and manages everything and Mr. Bennet seems happy to just let him.

Mr. Bennet does the ABSOLUTE LEAST, and actively damages his children’s futures by his inaction AND by his one action to support Lizzie’s individual needs being prioritized over the collective gain, which…I mean, Lizzie is going to be JUST as homeless and destitute as her sisters when he dies, so much good being Dad’s Favourite is going to do her. :/

[beebeedibapbeediboop]

Mr. Darcy is my little meow meow

[nothandsomeenoughtotemptyou]

Wickham and Lydia return for dinner.

Mr. Bennet's inner thoughts: Are these the serpent and Eve from Genesis at my table or is it just a regular lowlife with my stupidest daughter now as his lawful wife?

[linusbenjamin]

Pride and Prejudice 2005 ☼ dir. Joe Wright

[tyrannosaurus-trainwreck]

Actually, I know damn well Darcy never sat down and thought about marrying Lizzie. If he had, it would have been a week before he was rounding up Bingley, sitting him down, and looking him in the eye like he was about to propose high treason and going, "Jane. You still down bad for her?"

Coin toss whether Bingley would actually get to answer before Darcy turned around and flipped over a whiteboard like

and launched right into the most detailed migration pattern known to Regency England to keep the extraneous Bennets as contained as humanly possible by rotating them between various Bingley/Darcy estates. Like, we're talking about trading them off for minor holidays a decade out kind of detailed.

"If you and Jane take them for Lady Day ten years hence, Elizabeth and I will take them for Michaelmas. We'll all be together for Christmas and Midsummer, so we'll divide the responsibility individually on those days."

This would be followed by thirteen different spreadsheets projecting joint expenditures so Bingley knows what sort of financial commitment he'll be shouldering and how to minimize it, what proportion Darcy will take care of, what the estate plans are in case Darcy predeceases anybody, when they should probably roll out various stages to keep it from affecting their respective sisters' ability to maximize their own husband-hunting--whole nine yards.

Darcy does not know that he'll probably be murdered when the Bingley sisters find out why he asked for their social calendars. He'd be marginally fine with that at this point, because the fucking Napoleonic War campaigns were not as meticulously planned as his roadmap to getting the other three Bennets satisfactorily married, and Darcy feels about as able as if he'd spent the last year on Elba.

It takes Bingley a few minutes to realize why this is happening, then he's like

"You proposed to Elizabeth?! Congratulations!"

Darcy... knew there was something he was forgetting.

That man would have kicked the Collins's door open with four binders tucked under each arm, dumped them in a pile in front of Elizabeth, and loudly announced that if they get married tomorrow he can have her entire family except for Jane extraordinary renditioned to the Scottish moors by Sunday and then been like

"Why are you yelling at me?! I promise you, it will work! You'll never see anyone in your family except for Jane again, I swear it!" when she starts yelling at him.