Col Fitzwilliam, Life, and Everything
Posted by Bob S. on December 11, 1997 at 19:51:38:
In response to Col Fitzwilliam revisited, written by Kate on December 11, 1997 at 17:06:29
] I notice in the last sentence of Ch 36, that JA notes that "Colonel Fitzwilliam was no longer an object"... suggesting that he had been one before...
Let me see if I can address this with least a little bit of coherency....
My treatise here harkens back to the discussion earlier of the existance of Elizabeth's old beaus. I think that Mr. Bennett's question about Lydia's behavior frightening away some of her (Elizabeth's) lover's (Ch. 41) implies that Elizabeth did, in fact, have some boyfriends in the past (even before Wickham - in fact I think that Mr. Bennett's easy acceptance of Wickham as E's beau even though he suspected that W would jilt her also argues that he's seen this before). I suspect that Elizabeth was fairly typical of a lot of single young people (remember, she's only 20) in that when they meet a person of the opposite sex who has some traits which are appealing, they naturally want to know more about that person. Eventually, the quest for more knowledge about that person may lead to the question: "would this person make a good spouse for me?" I do not get the feeling that Elizabeth was as anxious to get married as Lydia and Charlotte were, but that's because she wasn't old enough yet to have the specter of being an old maid hanging over her as Charlotte did, and she wasn't in competition with her sisters in that arena as Lydia was.
What all this means (I hope) is that I think that Elizabeth was interested in Colonel Fitzwilliam as I feel sure that she had been interested in other men (or boys) in the past and, if things had been different, she may or may not have ended up in her marrying him. As someone pointed out (I believe on the P&P board) we don't know a whole lot about Col F, but he seems like the kind of person that we might like to know better. I think Elizabeth felt the same way about him. Again, had things been different and her relationship with him been allowed to develope more, she might have been willing to accept a proposal from him... or she might have just added him to the "Beau Mountain" :-) and gone on to someone else.
I hope that this makes sense. I got treated to a pizza lunch today and too much pizza has a tendancy to turn my brain to mush... and, of course, if someone else is paying for it..... :-)
Bob S.
ps This also brings me back to the P&P2 line where Lizzy says that only the deepest love would convince her to marry (or something like that). I think that it is possible that she may actually say something like that at that particular point in her life. I think that she is still young enough to be romantic and idealistic. If she was still unmarried three or four years later, she might be willing to settle for marrying someone that she just respected.
Bob S. (going against the grain again...but today I can attribute it to the pizza...)
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