First of all, thank you to the P&P95club (more specifically, the two charming hostesses) for giving me the honour of a guest post. (For those of you who’ve never met me… enchanted to make your acquaintance. My name is Naomi, and I grabbed Elizabeth’s last name for the internet, so you can call me Naomi Bennet if you feel like something formal.) I have been reading this blog for years and years now – and if you would have told a 12-year-old me who hardly dared consider anonymous commenting that I would one day be featured on here, I would have practically died in awe and longing. So thank you. :-)
Having, like many of you, watched and re-watched our Pride and Prejudice, I have come to the point in which I’ve observed much more about it than just the basic things… being the plot, Elizabeth, Mr Darcy, and the galloping theme song. I’ve come to a point in which I over-think about everything in it (Is the bonnet Lydia bought really that ugly?) and I observe all the little things, from, ‘Hey, Maria Lucas is wearing her red shoes again’ to ‘The guy Mr Darcy is fencing with looks like Chauvelin in The Scarlet Pimpernel.’
Us devoted fans are very concerned about these little extra things, in fact. Here are a few of my “not important but yet important P&P95 observations.”
- The sewing hand.
I’d like to talk about ‘the sewing hand.’ Whose hand do you think it is? In my earlier P&P95 years, I assumed it was Mrs Bennet’s – seeing as the hand looks ‘old,’ and it’s likely to be someone of the Bennet household. But then Mrs Bennet does not equals tranquil-sewing. So then I liked to think it’s perhaps Hill, the never-present housemaid. But then Hill wouldn’t likely be doing embroidery work.
Of course, in practicality, I know it was a random behind-the-scenes-person; someone of the crew of P&P95, but it should represent a character and I know not who. (Maybe Aunt Gardiner? She seems a likely suspect.)
Tell me what you’ve always thought about the mysterious hand; I’d like to know.
- The sleeping man with the puppy.
I hate to criticize my favourite movie of All Time, but seriously – is it even humanly possible to fall asleep 1) in a noisy ball room while 2) sitting up straight 3) without any cushions or anything 4) with a wide-awake pupping in your hands and 5) with two girls at your left?
You decide sir, you decide.
- It’s the same dog.
I’m not even close to being a dog lover, but I have observed that Lizzy’s playmate came to bid her goodbye while Mr Bingley bade Jane goodbye. He’s in two scenes, the dog is. (I make terribly random observations, especially in the P&P95 area.) I’m naming the dog Caroline the second… because of reasons. (Well, firstly I do not enjoy the company of dogs, and neither do I enjoy the company of the dogs’ name-mate. And secondly, both are unpleasant to the eyes.)
- Mary tidies up her hair when Mr Collins arrives.
Me and my family frequently mourn over the face that Jane Austen didn’t make Mary Bennet end up with Mr Collins, for it is perfectly clear (to us observers, that is) that Mary in the movie has sooome kind of a crush on our dear cousin Mr Collins. The letter that her father read aloud at the dinner table obviously impressed her, and she even goes as far as to neaten her hair upon his arrival.
(This is quite a spectacle, for Mary Bennet is not often seen doing her hair.)
- What’s so funny about this game?
I always ask the same question whenever I see our dear foolish sisters Kitty and Lydia play the hoops-and-stick-game. WHAT’S THE JOKE. :-P
- Back to Mary and Mr Collins…
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s observed that Mary’s who face lights up in an ‘oh-is-he-going-to-ask-me-to-dance-with-him?????’-light, when Mr Collins says he’d light to dance the first dance with… oh, oh, it’s Elizabeth.
I actually feel pretty sorry for Mary right there. Her facial expressions are pretty real. (You should observe them carefully the next time you see this movie. Like, maybe tomorrow.)
- Mrs Bennet’s unamused face after the Lizzy-Darcy dance.
The picture speaks for its own, I suppose. I always enjoy Mrs Bennet’s ‘Lizzy-you-actually-danced-with-that-odious-man-Mr-Darcy-as-he-calls-himsef’-face.
I have many more little-inside-my-brain observations and questions – including the fact that Lady Catherine de Bough looks a bit like the child-catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sometimes and that Lydia Bennet points at people too much – but I hope you enjoyed my silly P&P95 ramblings anyway.
(If you’d like more of silly ramblings such as these, do please pop over to my blog, Wonderland Creek! http://naomiblog15.blogspot.be/)
(Lydia Bennet has her faults, but no-one can wave like her.)
