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I’m rewatching a favorite: A & E’s version of Pride and Prejudice. I love this version…the newer one seems to breathlessly rush through the scenes, the little moments that really make the tension of the story.

For most of the years I’ve watched it (and since the kids love it too, we rewatch it regularly, having most of it memorized), my favorite parts have been the quick and witty dialog scenes, the dances, the dawning of the main character’s minds and hearts toward one another. Today though, I’m thinking about a different dynamic: the heroism of the active love shown, the love that ultimately saves the day.

Near the end, when the scandal that had been building through the story comes to a climax, and it explodes in devastating ugliness, Lizzy is faced with the unavoidable visibility and consequent loss that comes with it. Her life is messy: she has a disgraced sister whose choice reflects upon the whole family. Just before, and 3/4 of the story along, she and Darcy have lowered their guard…they have let one another in and fallen in love. Then comes the blow. He comes to see her at the moment she hears the news and the unspoken words are almost stronger than what is verbally said in that scene: she is desperate for her family, she is marked by the drama, and she sees him turn cold at the news. Understanding his predicament, she freely lets him go, knowing though, “I will never see him again”.

True to the age, she never would have. The bonds of propriety were too strong, as shown in all of Austen’s novels. And yet, unbeknowst to her, he is not running from her scandal….he is repairing it. Facing it. Freeing her from it. Saving the day. She does indeed see him again, and is proposed to, at that.

Jane Austen’s story is timeless because lives are still messy. We still form prejudices and suffer from pride. We still flee getting involved in others’ dramas and traumas. We still self-protect and attempt to make only “advantageous matches”. Hopefully there are still heroes out there, heroes who look beyond pride and prejudice and scandal. I think Lizzy was a heroine as well…without coercion she released him, she gave up her dream, even though it cost personal suffering.

It’s a whole level of the story I’d not considered before. It’s depth that defies time.

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Ammended to say: it does still annoy me a bit that he couldn’t have at least told her something to reassure her when he left…some little tidbit of steadfastness and intent. Anguish would have been avoided and how could he exactly, have kept from at least uttering, “please don’t cry…it will be alright in the end”? Even heroes have flaws I suppose.

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