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4 responses to “Lady Catherine, A Sympathetic Character?”
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Another clever blog from Bethany Delleman. The trouble here is, some JAFFers love-to-hate as well as love-to-love.
Just as Darcy/Lizzy can do no wrong (beyond misunderstanding each other), Lady C de b can often do no right (and don’t get me started on Caroline Bingley!) I sometimes wonder if these judgemental Janeites have themselves never done something they now regret – say, out of nearly unbearable jealousy. I also wonder if they’re as hard on their real-life acquaintances as they are on Austen’s fictional characters – I honestly hope not!
Lady C – whom I always thought WAS a real magistrate, but I trust Bethany’s research – was indeed rather a pitiful character, to some degree. Rich and powerful as she certainly was, she still couldn’t control her daughter’s fate, and might very well have been fearful of her not surviving, as so many died young, in the period. She might also have feared that the fragile hold his own mother’s wishes possessed over Darcy was Anne’s only chance of a good marriage… None of this EXCUSES Lady Catherine’s rudeness, arrogance and bad behaviour, but it does make it somewhat more understandable.
The bottom line: Out-and-out villains are boring, and Austen was never boring. She didn’t write pure villains, is one reason why.
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That is why I love Austen, almost every “villain” has resonable motives and you can usually find a way to understand them.
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Interesting post! I like finding a,back story to characters! Lady Catherine does warrant some sympathy.
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That’s how I feel. We don’t get that much information on Lady Catherine, but from what we have I can find some sympathy for her.
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