Earlier this year the wonderful writer Kirsten Odegaard published this post Jane Bennet Married DOWN: A Peek at Social Class in Pride and Prejudice and if you haven’t read it, you should check it out.
She points out that as member of the landed gentry, Jane is decidedly upper class compared to Bingley who has no estate and merely rents–placing him in the upper middle class. His fortune is greater than Jane’s, of course, but it was widely understood that land = upper class. Bingley’s sister, Kirsten points out, definitely knew that and was eager for her brother to purchase or build an estate and elevate them with it!
If we reframe it this way, Darcy’s actions to separate Bingley from Jane take on a slightly different flavor. This is still arguably the worst thing Darcy does in the book, and I’m not excusing it, but I tend to think of Jane as being clearly lower class than them.
Jane Austen, and therefore Darcy, wouldn’t have thought of it in such simple terms. In comedy, they refer to “punching up or punching down” in terms of making jokes at someone’s expense either above or below you in class, power, authority, etc. So, using that terminology, if Darcy considered Jane upper class, and his friend still technically middle class, he’s not punching down so hard as I thought.
Now, don’t get me wrong, he’s still punching down to some extent… or maybe sideways. He knows Bingley’s fortune is far greater than the Bennets, but money did not equal class in Regency England. Jane has one plus and one minus (daughter of a landed gentlemen, not rich) and Bingley has one plus and minus (rich, no land). So, Jane was at least on Bingley’s level, if not slightly above class-wise.
Now Darcy’s interference feels a little less cold-natured. He looked at this woman who was at or above Bingley’s level and still thought, “Yeah, but her family is a mess and her mom is trouble. And does she even really like him? This has heartbreak written on it one way or another.”
Now, Caroline Bingley was both arrogant and hypocritical and she definitely was punching down, at least emotionally, whenever she made fun of Elizabeth or Jane. Darcy shouldn’t have listened to her. However, I can understand how he heard her worries about Jane and interpreted them through his own unselfish concern for Bingley.
Thanks to Kirsten for kickstarting my thoughts! What do you think? Does it make a difference if Darcy thought of Jane as socially superior or lesser than Bingley?
Much love to you all this rainy Thursday,
Corrie Garrett
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