Why there was no post on Monday

so while im wiping down the bookshelves with the vinegar and borax and lemon juice and baking soda and paint mixture you all recommended it fell over on top of me and there sailor boy found me trapped by my own love of literature.

im in a full body cast and am typing this with my nose.

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Or, um, I’ve got some sort of mystery ague, which resulted in me spending the day wrapped up in an afghan on the couch, watching the DVD of the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice for the two hundred and seventy-eighth time. Doesn’t matter how many times I watch this film. I always find something new to chew on.

It occurs to me that although we hear an enormous amount about people’s income in the story, we never know what the Bennets have. I know some of the people who read this blog know much more about life in Regency England than I do. What do the Bennets make? Mr. Darcy clears 10k per year, Mr. Bingley 4k/year, Mary King has a 10k inheritance coming her way (in passing, what’s the expected income on that? Is it enough to live on?) and of course, Georgiana’s 50,000 pounds. Mr. Wickham gets 3,000 pounds in place of the living the elder Mr. Darcy had wanted for him, which makes me wonder how much the living was worth (did he go down in the way that the “lump sum” lotto winners take a huge pay cut?) And if so, how much are the Collinses living on while waiting for Mr. Bennet to kick it?

When watching the scene where Lizzie turns down Mr. Collins, I always wonder what I would do in her position. I feel as if my experience is so vastly different than a Regency miss that I wouldn’t be able to relate. But I do see Mrs. Bennet’s position here. She’s looking ahead to that day when they are all shoved out onto the street. No one wants to end up like the Dashwood girls, you know?

Of course, at the place where the proposal occurs (at least in the movie, it’s been years since I’ve read the book) all the Bennets figure that the proposal from Mr. Bingley to Jane is imminent. There’s no reason to think that Jane and her husband’s 4k per year won’t be able to keep their family in the black without assistance from the inheriting cousin. So Mrs. Bennet can chill, thinking that Jane will save everyone from destitution should Mr. Bennet die.

That being said, I also see why Mrs. Bennet would be into the idea of keeping the family money in the family. That’s why they all married their cousins to start with. (Remember, Lady Catherine wants her daughter to marry Mr. Darcy, and they are first cousins.) But I think that Lizzie and Mr. Collins are actually second cousins, since his name is Collins, and his father is the one who had a “disagreement” with Mr. Bennet. If they were first cousins, wouldn’t he be a Bennet as well?

But I digress. I’ve always understood Charlotte Lucas’s choice to marry Mr. Collins. He’s not a mean man, he has good prospects, and her options are to a) get married or b) be forever a burden to her brother. The draw of being mistress of her own estate (in the same neighborhood as her family) with a family of her own must have been very inviting — no matter who the husband was that came along for the ride.

I think that Lizzie, in her decision not to marry Mr. Collins, is also relying a good deal on what she believes is the inevitable Jane/Bingley marriage. If Mr. Collins had delayed for a few days, would Lizzie have hesitated more? Would she have been so very adamant about not marrying him? (Though perhaps, if he’d delayed a few days, he may have directed his advances towards Jane instead, who I think might have snatched him up, out of duty to her family alone.)

Would I, in Lizzie’s place, have married Mr. Collins? Hmmm… food for thought.

Fortunately, I live in a world where I can make my own money and don’t need to get married unless I want to. Yay for women’s rights.