A Tale of Two Mothers

My daughter Ella finished reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time last week, so Sunday night we decided this milestone called for a celebration:  we would show her the first episode of the BBC mini series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.  

I didn't read P and P until I was 22.  I was so delighted with it that I read it aloud to K.J. on the seven hour road trip between Kentucky and Alabama our first married Thanksgiving.  I was so pleased to be married to him because he laughed in all the right places.  He bought me the DVDs for Christmas, and we spent many years quoting it, but we hadn't watched it together in over five years, so it was so fun to re-visit it and to do it with our newly teenage-d daughter.  

The opening scenes of the Bennet home are filled with the high-pitched voices of Kitty and Lydia arguing over who should wear Kitty's bonnet to church.  Lydia argues that Kitty "is too plain to look well in it."  Mrs. Bennet's strident tones join the chorus as she frequently bemoans, "What is to become of us all?"  Mr. Bennet declares his daughters to be "some of the silliest in all of England."  

When we finished the episode we decided I'd read the beginning of Little Women aloud to E before bed.  She wanted to read it before seeing the new movie, and we've found that sometimes it helps the kids to get into a classic if I start them off with it.  It helps them get the rhythm of older language.  It's also been years since I read Little Women, and after reading the first two chapters aloud I was so struck by the differences between the March and Bennet households.  Both have a household of girls on a journey to find their place in the world, but what a difference between the peace of a household run by Marmee compared to that of Longbourn.  I don't want to judge Mrs. Bennet too harshly, but in one household the only exhortation is to marry someone with money, and in another the emphasis is on becoming women who learn to put to death their selfish desires to become their best selves, to love and serve the people around them. 

Though the time periods and countries are different, there's not a huge difference in what these two groups of sisters can do in life.  They can marry or become a governess.  There's not a lot of choice for their outward life circumstances, but there's all the choice in the world for their minds and hearts, and I love that Marmee focuses on that.

E has been having an inspired week of drawing, and can't you just immediately tell this is Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy?