In the 99th episode of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Darcy, in discussing his prior views of Jane, tells us, “it just took a while for me to see the similarities; to see anything other than my first impression.”
Although the character is only speaking from his own point of view, and about one other person specifically, this line could have come from any number of characters in the series. Lizzie is obviously neither innocent of prejudice in the novel nor the adaptation. Since much like the novel, the YouTube series is presented from her perspective, her first impressions tend to be our only impressions – especially when it takes considerable time for her to move past them. Whether holding onto her first impression of Wickham as handsome and personable (although the series does a great job at portraying his low intelligence), or of Darcy as stuck-up and self-centered, Lizzy never allows viewers a new perspective on people. The rare instances where Charlotte or Jane stand up for an absent character are quickly brought to an end by our protagonist.
But I do think the editing and interventions by Charlotte, Jane, and even sometimes Lydia do a good job of reminding viewers that Lizzie's perspective is one-sided. I love the episode (no idea which one it was) when Lizzie is complimenting Charlotte on handling Mr. Collins, despite how difficult he is to deal with, and Charlotte says something like "Wonder where I learned that from." Those kinds of comments remind us that Lizzie is far from perfect, and that her friend and sisters show her a kind of accepting love that she isn't (at first) able to show others.
ReplyDeletea big YES to both of you. That's all I got. Thanks for the insights!
ReplyDeleteI like Kates point, Lizzie is definitely one sided. Although I think that is something the viewer should expect based off the title. Diaries have bias and we cannot assume that Lizzie would be absent of that.
ReplyDeleteI think mentioning first impressions is a very important critic of society here. We too often struggle to get past our first impression of something. Even after a ton of exposure, our first judgement still tends to be the most comfortable for us and is often right. In fact Malcom Gladwell wrote a whole book about it called Blink. Although he argues that our first reactions is about 70% correct most of the time. Lizzie is a good example of when we should not judge a book by its cover for a variety of reasons, mainly because she did not have much experience with something like this, therefore her primary judgement shouldn't be as trusted as someone who is an expert in a field.
Wow, didn't think I'd be able to me a connection between Gladwell and this.
I was reading through the posts and I found this to be an interesting point. This gives me another perspective on Lizzie. I do feel that in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries that we do get some other perspectives that help to show that perhaps Lizzie could be too hasty in judgement of Darcy and Bing Lee. In Pride and Prejudice, it is hard to see the other view points. It would have been interesting if the producers of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries had did a combination of vlogs from the various characters to bring about a new perspective.
DeleteI found this interesting being that Jane Austen's first title for Pride and Prejudice was First Impressions. I do agree, Lizzie is quick to judge and takes some time to get over her prejudices. She feels that her viewpoints are logical, but they are rigid. Sometimes she is logical. She has a thing against wealthy people, probably due to her current circumstances.
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