To compete for this little notebook, made by me in honour of Mary Bennet, you must answer this question:In your opinion, who will marry Mary Bennet?
There is no wrong or right question, all responses will be considered valid, until June, 30th.
People from any country can compete, except from Brazil because I've done this blog post in Portuguese.
Posted by Raquel Sallaberry, Jane Austen em Português
Mary would have to marry someone who is spiritual, he would be a good man, just overbearing, judgmental and annoying ( like Mr. Collins ) who has a tin ear so her singing and playing piano doesn't bother him. Her incessant pontificating on every subject also must be appreciated and welcome in their conversations.
ReplyDeleteAs for fortune, not much was ever expected of Mary hooking a rich husband and her parents have little to rise her prospects on her marriage in the way of dowry.
Jane and Elizabeth, with their social standings and fortunes could help her glide into better social circles...but I see her as the wife of a loyal, studious, Vicar in a small country perish with a large library.
Wonder if Mr. Collins has a younger brother or cousin in the clergy ???
I always imagine Mary as either staying an old maid or meeting a respectable studious clergyman. A simple life as a country parson's wife would suit her talents and abilities quite well.
ReplyDeleteIf she does not become an old maid, then Mary would have to marry a thinker who is immersed in thought like herself. Yes, perhaps she'd marry a clergyman.
ReplyDeleteI always imagined Mary marrying someone like Mr. Collins. I liked to think that the way she pined over him in the novel goes to show that she's marry someone sensible like a clergyman. Perhaps Mr. Collins has a cousin?
ReplyDeleteI always thought that Mary should marry Mr. Collins. They are quite well-suited for one another - both are annoyingly focused on their own correctness and display a dull piety seemingly void of any true charity, though all in all they are quite harmless and decent. Additionally, I think that Lady Catherine would worship Lady Catherine! (Perhaps she would even benefit from the humility that such a relationship would enforce.)
ReplyDeleteBut then... what of Charlotte Lucas? She cannot be left an old maid. Hmmm, maybe she should marry Colonel Fitzwilliam; I've never like him alone, either...
I think perhaps Mary should marry a tradesman. While a clergyman would seem to be the best fit, I think maybe it might be better if it were someone who could draw her out of her religious studies some. Someone that is honest, a hard worker, and kind (with the tin ear that someone mentioned above!). She could easily meet this someone through her Uncle.
ReplyDeleteThis one's going to come from left field: I always thought she and Anne de Bourgh were kind of perfect for one another. Anne would calm down Mary's over-the-top religiousness and Mary would encourage Anne to stick up for herself against her mother. But if it has to be with a man, I could totally see William Price appreciating her. He's the kind of nice fellow who would be sweet to any girl.
ReplyDeleteI would say a clergyman but not someone like Mr. Collins. Someone who has more respect for a woman.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte Lucas-Collins will tragically die during the birth of her 8th child, leaving Mr. Collins to find solace in the arms of the only woman he SHOULD have married - Mary Bennet...who will then go to outlive him to a ripe old age !
ReplyDeleteI would say that Mary would go on to marry a professor of sort. I can see her easily comfortable with her husband going on and on about lectures, what he's teaching, and perhaps the morality of his students if he is a divinity teacher. I could easily see her happiest surrounded by a bunch of books and an academic.
ReplyDeletemelissa
jedisakora@msn.com
I would hope Mary could meet with someone who could cause her to look beyond herself. Her type of affected morality and primness is really nothing more than selfishness. She needs to realize that real virtue comes from living an active productive life and loving and helping the people around you - not spouting off annoying lectures.
ReplyDeleteMary needs someone who has a good sense of humor and good moral values and can teach her to lighten up a bit, and the freeing attitude of living for others. :^)
I think an archealogist/philosopher will catch her mind and then her heart. He will finally convince her that having a little adventure in life is good and take her off to the wilds of Egypt for a dig and she will love it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a missionary! I could see her enduring the trials of mission work out of Christian duty. I can just imagine her accounts of a ship headed to some remote island... :)
ReplyDeleteOr maybe Jane and Elizabeth have improved her prospects with their favorable matches. Perhaps she will meet and marry someone in London, though I don't see her social graces doing her any favors. That might be improved upon, however, by more exposure to the Darcys and Bingleys. :)
I think Mary will marry a clergyman but not as pompous as Mr. Collins. Someone who will appreciate her help in giving her opinion on his sermon.
ReplyDeleteA clergyman who loves reading.
ReplyDeleteMary was overshadowed by her more beautiful elder sisters and not silly enough for her younger. But I feel she will be swept off her feet by a wealthy landowners youngest son . An aspiring sea captain explorer. He would be gentle and kind,and Mary will bloom.
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ReplyDeleteShe most likely would be happiest with a scholarly-clergyman whose Mother would consent to live with them. The mother would manage the household and Mary and her scholarly husband would live blissfully in their library - reading, writing and pontificating. They may move closer to Cambridge or Oxford and join the University crowd where they have libraries in abundance and musical opportunities to fill their souls.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a kind and wealthy neighbor of Pemberley who lives in Lambton or a clergyman from the area.
ReplyDeleteJust a sidenote I recently read "A match for miss Mary Bennet" by Eucharista Ward, a lovely book where Mary develops maturity and sense and finds the perfect clergyman.
I believe that Mary's depiction in the novel is that of what most angst-y middle-child girls strive to be, which is out of her sisters' shadows and her "own self." Unfortunately for her, and for us, as most of us found out, we cannot avoid the conflict of interest when it comes to thoughts of matrimony, especially whence those come from so many sisters' before.
ReplyDeleteMary, I believe is plain of her own accord and while she lacks for true taste or genius, I believe that her thirst for knowledge and her good heart will guide her, especially as she ages and becomes closer to a burden on her parents, to matrimony. Now to who is a simple question really: what most of us forget is that a heart may be changed by the sheer will of it's own desires, and while she may thirst for books and deities, she will thirst for love more certainly than that.
Through careful efforts of her own visits to Jane and Lizzy, (though, in novel, she seems too proud to want to adhere to such frivolousness, we must remember she is older and more durable to the workings of the old maid) she sees that love and respect of a man and wife so indulgently made for one another. There is no practitioner that I can identify other than this: Mary will Marry one who can guide her ill-hearted attempts at dourness and let her become the Bennett sister that she has irrevocably tried to become, albeit her pride and lack of judgement. In a novel so well procured for it's trappings of pride and prejudice, Mary holds both of those against first herself, and second her family.
I think Mary would do well with a man a little older than herself. He must have an outgoing personality to draw out hers. He could be a tradesman..I'm not sure. He must be educated enough tho' to carry on a witty conversation with her. Maybe someone that considered the clergy then reconsidered. Someone she can respect but not be smothered by and perhaps her older sisters help her to find this person.
ReplyDeleteShe will be wed to the butcher who is new in town. He is a man of few to no words which is precisely why Mary has a fondness for him. She knows she is able to relate her newest moral intelligence to him without interruption. Never has any one listened to her whole sermon with such an unblinking stare as he. Never has a man looked at her without that annoying raised eyebrow. This butcher, whether he is honestly listening or not, is the best match for Mary.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, I always pictured Mary marrying someone much like her--a moralist with pseudo-intellectual tendencies. Perhaps the local curate (does Mr. Collins have a cousin?), or scholar of some really esoteric subject like the study of the effects of badger baiting on the English rabbit. Or, to borrow a line from another work, she might not marry until later, when she will be "glad to catch at the old writing-master's son".
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