anghraine

beatrice_otter responded to this post:

Elizabeth is very sheltered, young, and relatively privileged compared to 99% of the people in England. She’s probably never really thought about power, that much, or how easily it is abused. Well, she’s probably seen abusive husbands and definitely seen neglectful/rude husbands (her dad), but there’s a gap between “this specific relationship can be Bad” and “there are a variety of relationships that can be Bad because there is a common factor (power) and how a person treats people in X circumstance is a pretty good indicator of how they’ll treat people in Y circumstance.”

And then she goes to Pemberly, and meets Mrs. Reynolds, and Mrs. Gardiner points out obliquely why Mrs. Reynolds’ report is worth considering, and Elizabeth puts all the pieces together. She’s smart, just sheltered.

“Oh, yeah! A guy who has power over a lot of people and takes care to treat them well, will probably treat other people in his power well. A guy who treats his servants and his sister/ward in such a way that they love and respect him would probably also treat his wife in such a way that she could love and respect him.”

It’s an important point.

I replied:

I sort of agree (though I don’t think Elizabeth’s epiphany here actually owes anything to Mrs Gardiner beyond what she generally owes the Gardiners; she gets there on her own). But I would disagree a bit about the significance that she sees in the extent of his power and how he uses it.

I don’t think his treatment of the vulnerable people within the range of his power—his underage sister, his housekeeper, his other servants, his tenants, the local poor—operates purely (or perhaps even primarily) as an index for how he’d treat his wife, even for Elizabeth. I’d argue that what strikes Elizabeth here is that how Darcy treats those people—people whose welfares she’s never really thought about before—matters enormously in its own right and thus, says a great deal about his general character. That’s certainly relevant to how he might act as a husband and I think she’s aware of it, but her overall thought process here is not particularly self-centered IMO.