Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

My mother was a very big fan of Masterpiece Theater long before I was. In fact, she is the sole reason I watch Masterpiece. When I was younger, I'd always see her on Sunday nights watching what seemed to be the most boring television with people just standing about and talking. There were no fight scenes. There were no car chases. Just a bunch of women in petticoats and men on horses. And the dialogue was a bit too fast for me to understand and I wasn't quite at their level of vocabulary. In seventh grade, however, my mom began pestering me to watch the BBC's version of Pride and Prejudice from 1995 starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. The new Pride and Prejudice would be coming out soon with Keira Knightley and Matthew McFadden. I kept telling her, "Yes, mom. Of course I'll watch it with you." But I was in seventh grade and much too cool to watch a great British series on VHS from the nineties with my mother.

One day in English class, we read a few scenes from Pride and Prejudice, the 2005 version, that was written in a play form in one of those school magazines like Scholastic. I was devastated when we read the end because it totally gave away the fact that Jane ends up with Mr. Darcy. I was angry for the rest of the day and rushed home to tell my mom that we had to watch the tapes. Now. My mom, being the kind and understanding mom that she is, agreed (looking back she was probably overjoyed that I wanted to watch it and was just looking for an excuse herself to see it again). We started at 5. At 5:50, the first episode was done. Around nine, we began the fifth episode out of the six episode series. My mom suggested that we stop there and save the rest for tomorrow. It was a school night after all and I still had homework to finish up. I convinced my mom that I just HAD to see the first five minutes. Those five minutes turned into the next episode and then the series was over. I decided then and there that I'd watch Masterpiece with my mom every Sunday.

My mom was quite pleased with herself since she knew I was going to love them. She was right. As moms always seem to be. I couldn't get enough of it. It didn't seem like I was sitting in my basement for 300 minutes watching a series that had been produced 10 years earlier. It was my first exposure to Colin Firth and the brilliance of period pieces. I love the character of Mr. Bingley. He was such a good-hearted chap. I liked Mr. Darcy throughout the entire series even when he was a bit of an ass purely because Colin Firth is a beautiful man. And when he came out of that pond, whew. Best part of the show. Although, I must admit I was worried the story was going to have a massive twist in which Mr. Darcy broke his neck by diving into two feet of pond water. This was also my first real experience in hearing some verbal sparring between people and I became more interested in what characters had to say as opposed to the actions of characters in other shows I watched. All of the Bennet sisters were a little ridiculous and I was genuinenly embarrassed during some of their scenes. Mrs. Bennet never seemed to be able to keep herself quiet for more than a minute.

We now watch Pride and Prejudice during every winter break or summer break. Or spring break. My mom and dad ended up giving me a DVD copy of it two Christmases ago. My roommate, Caitlin, has also seen this rendition of Pride and Prejudice. I asked her to say a few words and she responded with, "Perfection." and then she left the room.

Mr. Darcy: