protraits, likenesses etc
Posted by Kate on November 20, 1997 at 19:50:13:
In response to Portrait Gallery, written by lucie on November 20, 1997 at 18:55:59
] I like the part on page 39, where Darcy and Caroline are walking in the shrubbery and she is going on about hanging the Bennet relatives pictures at Pemberley and she says
] "As for your Elizabeth's picture, you must not attempt to have it taken, for what painter could do justice to those beautiful eyes?"
] He replies, "It would not be easy, indeed, to catch their expression, but their color and shape, and the eyelashes, so remarkedly fine,might be copied.
] I take it from this that Elizabeth had long thick lashes which helped to make her eyes so beautiful.
] That answer must have really made her grind her teeth.
Portraits, the making of "likenesses" and so forth are in fact a linking theme of the novel. Lizzy uses the making of a likeness (ie drawing or painting a picture) as a metaphor during the Netherfield dance. And the moment of her seeing Darcy's portrait at Pemberley is a turning point in the novel. I think the fact that it would be difficult to make an accurate likeness of Lizzy is a way of telling us that she is a complex character of some depth - not easily represented in 2 dimensions.
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