The movie is the adaptation of the novel written at the beginning of the 19th century. At a first glance, it seems a simple moralistic story about a rich and influential man, who, because of his prejudice and arrogance was about to destroy the happiness of his friend and his own. However, ultimately a good person, and under the influence of his love interest, he repented and with his successive actions was able to repair the damage. So that he and his object of romantic interest, could live happily ever after.
That’s would have been a skinny of the move, if not for a couple more interesting moments to my taste, that Keira Knightley (she plays the protagonist Elisabeth Bennet) was so instrumental in disclosing.
That’s would have been a skinny of the move, if not for a couple more interesting moments to my taste, that Keira Knightley (she plays the protagonist Elisabeth Bennet) was so instrumental in disclosing.
Usually, rich people marry rich. For one thing, this is a natural desire not to disperse the wealth received from ancestors and pass it along to the descendants. Secondly, it is a constant fear of a rich man that a woman is being with him only because of his money and position. This might not seem like a big thing if this is the only affair. However, when it comes to marriage, this attitude could provoke all kinds of complications, starting from spousal infidelity and ending with premeditated murder.
In the movie, a couple of support characters Elisabeth’s sister Jane and Mr. Bingley fall in love. Bennet's family is comparatively much poorer and stands lower in social latter than Bingleys', and since Jane by nature is shy, Mr. Bingley’s friend Mr. Darcy decides that this marriage not only a mismatch but also that Jane is only after Mr. Bingley’s money. Later, in the scene that I cut off from the movie, he explains to Elisabeth that his reason was the impropriety of her family. However, I think this was no more than a decoy. Should this be indeed the main reason, Mr. Darcy wouldn't have to mention the fact of Bingley being more in love with Jane than he was.
The saddest thing is that Mr. Darcy extrapolated his judgment from his own bad experience with his sister whom his antagonist Lieutenant Wickham tried to seduce because of her fortune. That misjudgment eventually becomes a sticking point in his own relationship with Elisabeth.
We all probably feel contempt for gold diggers. On the other end of the relationship spectrum is the behavior of burning all the bridges and making all the sacrifices for the sake of “true love.”
Between these two extremes, there is much gray area.
Indeed, many girls would probably wish that a rich and handsome man, taken by her beauty, good soul, and a bunch of other merits, would pick her out of the entire pool of other competitors for his attention. Mind that the novel is set at the beginning of the 19th century when a feministic movement didn’t spread its wings yet, and a god marriage was the only available option for a woman.
The question, of course, is how to attract that attention without losing a girl’s dignity. And that is what another narrative thread in the movie is all about. No matter how rich and stuck up a man is, underneath that façade, there is still an ape, moved by the instinct of procreation and, if cards are played right, female beauty and instinctive behavior can penetrate this protective armor of snobbism and arrogance.
Elisabeth Bennet is an attractive girl, good at dancing, and pleasant, and quick-witted in a conversation. She’s interested in Lieutenant Wickham, who is the male variety of a gold digger. He is handsome, cynical, has attractive manners, and success in the woman’s department. Yet, Elisabeth doesn’t allow herself to fall for him. She has her eye set on Mr. Darcy.
What was so special about Mr. Darcy? Was he so rich that he’d be worth breaking spears over? You bet. The movie mentions his income to be 10,000 pounds per year.
Nowadays it seems like a relatively small sum. However, one should realize that accounting for 200-year inflation that, his yearly earnings were close to 25 million dollars per on modern course. That puts things in the proper perspective. ( In 1820 British Pound Sterling (GBP) was equal to 2,384.9608 of today's United States Dollar (USD)
When it comes to gold diggers the movie offers us a female variety as well. Caroline Bingley, the sister of Mr. Bingley, literally glues herself to him and doesn’t let go even if he treats her without the proper respect.
She acts awkwardly, and Mr. Darcy can easily see through her plotting. Her mediocrity comes through especially when Caroline is trying to put down Elisabeth, during her appearance in Bingley’s house. Elisabeth, being the smartest person in her family, can turn the situation to her advantage and be able not only to parry Caroline’s mosquito bites but also impress Mr. Darcy with her quick wit.
Elisabeth Bennet though … she is natural. You cannot call her a gold digger, because she isn’t. However, she maneuvers quite admirably in that “gray area” of which I talked earlier. Not only that she consciously tries to attract Mr. Darcy, but she thinks she hates him, especially after overhearing his scornful opinion about her.
Nonetheless, as soon as she sees Mr. Darcy, she immediately takes an interest in him. She didn’t know whether he was rich from the get-go, but she sensed that he was an important person, because the host of the ball stopped the dance while he was passing by.
Subsequently, her gaze always glides over him. Or ever so inadvertently. )))
Add to it her romantic appearance, it’s no wonder Mr. Darcy was shaken once he crossed his eyes with her the first time.
That was well played even though he kept his composure and the indifferent expression of his face for everybody else. Likewise, he hides his true impression about Elisabeth's assets when telling Mr. Bingley his opinion about her “She is tolerable.”
One might think Mr. Darcy wasn’t the only one who notices Elisabeth’s assets. Still, we don’t see a swarm of wooers around her in the movie, as it normally happens in real life around every pretty woman. Maybe because in that town everybody knew about her poor financial state and didn’t want to pursue her hand. Or maybe she was the one that instinctively pushed them away waiting for a bigger fish to fry.
In a roundabout way, Elisabeth invites Mr. Darcy to dance. As Oscar Wilde once said, “dance is a vertical expression of a horizontal urge.”
“Do you dance Mr. Darcy?”
“Not if I could help it.”
Nevertheless, during the next ball, and after marinating in his own juice, Mr. Darcy is eager to invite her to dance. And it looks like the action came from him as she agrees to dance despite herself.
Notable was a central scene in the movie when Elisabeth and Mr. Darcy meet in the outside gazebo during the rain, where he first proposes to her.
He opens up about his love, but also, being sincere, he tells her all the additional considerations that he had to burst through to eventually propose. “Against his better judgment” Deep down inside he believes that she’s a gold digger, but in his present wounded condition lets it slide.
Elisabeth, however, full of righteous anger, lets him have it. Especially she straitens him out about her sister. Poor Mr. Darcy is completely smitten by the contradiction of what falls off her tongue and the language of her body that tells exactly the opposite of her words. That moment Keira Knightley plays beautifully.
Essentially, it’s a bargain as Elisabeth inadvertently puts Mr. Darcy onto the defensive and compels him to invest in the relationship.
Not only has he backtracks on his veto over Jane and Mr. Bingley’s relationship, but he also pays a considerable sum to straighten the shameful situation with another Elisabeth’s sister. The sum was so significant that it was completely out of reach of Elisabeth’s father or any of her relatives.
In other words, she was able to make Mr. Darcy to invest in this relationship not only hormonally, but also his efforts, time, and money.
And once one invests in the project so much, it becomes his baby. It’s hard to back out of it.
Interestingly that during the aforementioned scene, Elisabeth put herself in a vulnerable position, which played so well with emotionally shackled Mr. Darcy. A more relaxed and more experienced man would have taken advantage of her weakness and ended the deal right there.
However, I think Elisabeth would have behaved differently in a similar setting should instead of Mr. Darcy it was said, Lieutenant Wickham.
The best thing is that all that happened not by deliberation, but by instinct and Keira Knightley did a superb job of delivering performance, exemplifying this type of emotional behavior.
Another interesting moment in the movie was its language. Perhaps because I am not a native speaker it produced the most charming impression on me. In that respect, the most notable is the scene when Lady Catherine the wealthy aunt of Mr. Darcy, enraged by the possibility of Elisabeth frustrating her on plans on Mr. Darcy’s marriage with her daughter.
Nowadays, it probably ended up with the exchange of insults of the type “Who do you think you are, bitch!?” Instead, in the movie, it turned out to a beautiful word fencing duel, where although Lady Catherine insulted Elisabeth in all possible ways to Elisabeth's own assertion, none of the swearing words was uttered on either side. Below, I am including almost their entire conversation.
What a marvel of a dialog!
Lady Catherine
You can be at no loss, Miss Bennet to understand why I am here
Elisabeth
Indeed I cannot account for this honor at all.
Lady CatherineLady Catherine
Miss Bennet, I warn you, I am not to be trifled with. A report of a most alarming nature has reached me that you intend to be united with my nephew, Mr. Darcy. I know this to be a scandalous falsehood, though not wishing to injure him by supposing it possible, I instantly set off to make my sentiments known.
Elisabeth
If you believed it to be impossible, I wonder you took the trouble of coming so far.
Lady Catherine
To hear it contradicted Miss Bennet.
Elisabeth
Your coming will be rather a confirmation, surely, if indeed such report exists.
Lady Catherine
If? Do you then pretend to be ignorant of it? Has it not been industriously circulated by yourself?
Elisabeth
I’ve never heard of it.
Lady Catherine
And can you declare there is no foundation for it?
Elisabeth
I do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your ladyship. You may ask the question which I may not chose to answer.
Lady Catherine
This is not to be borne. Has my nephew made you an offer of marriage?
Elisabeth
Your ladyship declared it to be impossible
Lady Catherine
Let me be understood! Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter. Now, what have you to say?
Elisabeth
Only this. If that is the case, you have no reason to suppose he can make an offer to me.
Lady Catherine
You selfish girl! This union has been planned since their infancy. You think it could be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth whose own sister elopement resulted in a scandalous patched up marriage, only achieved at the expense of your uncle? Havens on earth are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted? Now tell me once and for all, are you engaged to him?
Elisabeth
I am not.
Lady Catherine
And are you promise never to enter into such an engagement?
Lady Catherine
I will not and I certainly never shall.