<p>What character did you put for the Barnard supp question? I used characters from Pride and Prejudice (my favorite book)</p>
<p>characters from the scarlet letter (my fav book)</p>
<p>I hope you put that Mr. Bennett was the hero.</p>
<p>No?</p>
<p>haha... hero, perhaps (I love that man!), but not exactly the person who's influenced me the most...</p>
<p>well they didnt talk about influence right..these women intrigue me..hehe i used sydney bristo from ALIAS hehe and Edna Pontellier from The Awakening</p>
<p>Well, Mr. Bennett is horribly improper as to his wife, exposing her to ridicule, as Lizzie finally comes to observe when reflecting on the long letter from Mr. Darcy, but he is nowhere the embarrassing airhead that Mrs. Bennett is. Moreover, he is the only one, other than Jane, who appreciates Lizzie fully for who she is...and his take on the other girls--Lydia and Kitty as silly tarts (my words, not his) and Mary with a stick up her...--is spot on.</p>
<p>This Off-Topic post has been brought to you by...TheDad (sorry...we were just watching a production of PERSUASION last night)</p>
<p>I'm doing Antigone... I'm nuts about classical literature!</p>
<p>Perhaps Mrs. Bennett would not have been an embarrassing airhead had she wedded a better man, who paid attention to her and perhaps even tried to improve her, as Mr. Knightley does Emma.</p>
<p>I've never been a fan of Mrs. Bennett, but I think that Elizabeth Bennett is one of the greatest female literary characters of all time!</p>
<p>SearchingAvalon, nope: Austen's point is pretty explicit that Mr. Bennett committed the folly of someone who fell for youthful good humor and charm without much else to back it up...which is one of the reasons that P&P wears so well with its observations that are as applicable today as when written. Mrs. Bennett is the Ghost of Christmas Future for Lydia and Kitty...there I go, mixing my authors, but I think you see my point.</p>
<p>Lefty, I'm very protective of Lizzy because I see so much of her in my D...or maybe it's vice versa. Btw, there are two different BBC TV versions of P&P, done about 20 years apart iirc. Colin Firth is Darcy in the later, which also has better production values overall (you can tell they had a bigger budget) but the Lizzy, Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Collins are all cast much better in the earlier, imo, and Charlotte is treated more kindly. Dinner table arguments about the two are a perennial occurence here. </p>
<p>The earlier one has paired production of S&S that I like very much as well. Alas, both earlier ones are currently out on loan. Last night we watched a production of PERSUASION and tonight, if my father who tends to dislike movies without ammunition budgets does not object, we will probably watch the Paltrow/Grant version of S&S.</p>
<p>TheMom and I made a bit of a cross-stereotype visual sight gag when flying back to D's school for Parents Weekend a couple of months ago: I was reading P&P, she was reading a Larry McMurtry Western.</p>
<p>I love the Colin Firth version, and I thought that Elizabeth was very well-cast. I want to marry Colin Firth... :-) Reading this board makes me want to re-read Pride and Prejudice (my favorite novel, but I haven't read it for a few years)!</p>
<p>I love Jane Austen and I'm a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice. I just finished watching the BBC version last night in fact. I thought that although Mr. Bennett is an admirable character, he does have certain flaws. Especially at the end of the book (it wasn't as apparent in the BBC series), he seemed rather useless, going to London to look for Lydia but just coming back in defeat.</p>
<p>BTW, TheDad, I think you meant the Emma Thompson/Hugh Grant version of S&S. Gwenyth Paltrow was in Emma. Also, how was Persuasion? I also LOVED that book and I'm wondering if the movie's any good.</p>
<p>But, TheDad, surely no one is inherently an airhead with no hope of ever changing. Yes, it's likely that culture and family reinforced those charming cheerful bubblehead characteristics in Mrs. B from Day One, on the likely assumption that men prefer that type of women for marriage purposes to intelligent ones. And if, during a woman's entire life, only those characteristics are reinforced, then the better possibilities can die. Jane's good sense and Elizabeth's intelligence probably both blazed enough that Mr. B paid attention and nurtured those qualities. The small sparks the younger three might have shown were probably more unlikely to be noticed by him and thus snuffed out by disinterest.</p>
<p>The statement in this thread that is totally unarguable is the wish to be married to Colin Firth. :)</p>
<p>Isn't Colin just a dream?</p>
<p>I used Oedipus Rex</p>
<p>Lefty, see the earlier version before you cast your judgments in stone.</p>
<p>Jenz: gah! Brain cramp! You're right, Thompson/Grant is an S&S. To keep this remotely on topic, my D sat through this speechless in the theater when she was 10...I used this incident to illustrate a point in the optional Parents Rec for Smith. As for PERSUASION, well, it is TheMom's favorite but I don't like the google-eyed Anne and the story is not to my liking nearly so much as P&P or S&S.</p>
<p>I'm not qualfied to comment on Colin Firth's attractiveness as a potential mate. (Odd side note: I don't find Paltrow attractive but she's in two of my most favorite movies, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and SLIDING DOORS.)</p>
<p>SearchingAvalon, you carry your argument well but I still think you're wrong in that you're swinging overly heavily to the nurture side of the equation...and people generally change much less from 20+ than they might from 5-20, i.e., Mrs. Bennett's character was pretty much set when she and Mr. Bennett married. A pity that we can't have you over for dinner to continue this discussion!</p>
<p>Actually, I consider your premise in light of a couple of D's hs classmates and no, for some airheads there is no hope...I've met their counterparts at 50.</p>
<p>I really should see Persuasion...</p>
<p>Shakespeare in Love is one of my favorite films as well. :-)</p>
<p>I wrote about Fiddler on the Roof haha</p>
<p>I agree with TheDad on the nature Vs. nurture question. I am also addicted to Jane Austen and to the Colin Firth P&P. I also think Mr. Bennett is the hero. (Probably a common delusion among fathers with bright daughters)</p>
<p>Heh, MarDad. Partially impelled by this thread, we watched the first half of the Thompson/Grant S&S tonight. (Well, D deferred until the second half tomorrow night...she can't stand the scene where impetuous Maryanne twists her ankle....)</p>
<p>I had forgotten one particular thing about this production: it's fun to see Colonel Brandon played by Professor Snape.</p>
<p>Then there's Hugh Grant: proof that what a person does with their personal life should have no bearing on how their professional life is regarded.</p>
<p>Another thing about this particular S&S: Margaret Dashwood, about age 10, is about the same age as my D when she first saw it. Some of the non-physical resemblances are startling, starting with the precocious mouthiness and love of atlases.</p>