As you have no doubt seen, in the trailer for the forthcoming Netflix adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, by Dolly Alderton, the famous opening line is spoken by Mrs Bennet. Several people have said they think this is a mistake. I disagree. The adaptation has some (added by Alderton) dialogue about how Lizzy will either be a spinster-governess or a wife-and-mother, presumably relying on the prevalent idea among readers that the Bennet sisters face some sort of penury if they do not get married. That is not my reading of the novel. But, the people who do take the view that the stakes are “genteel poverty” are often apologists of Mrs. Bennet because it is so essential that she gets her daughters married. However clumsy and vulgar a job she does, her head and her heart are in exactly the right place. If she is going to be that sympathetic, it only makes sense that she would say the line. After all, it does seem to be a truth universally acknowledged, albeit one that is quite funny.
In the novel, there are, I think, three readings of the opening line. First, it is just the narrator speaking in her own voice and being satiric, albeit about a question that has to be taken seriously. Second, it is the narrator adopting a statement made by Lizzy, who is ironising her mother. This interpretation worked well in the previous BBC adaptation when Lizzy did indeed speak the line. Third, though, it could be the narrator ventriloquising Mrs. Bennet. In fact, there is dialogue in the first chapter that makes this plausible.
“Is he married or single?”
“Oh, single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”
“How so? how can it affect them?”
“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome? You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”
“Is that his design in settling here?”
“Design? Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.”
Now, I happen to think the opening line is in the narrator’s voice. She is being satiric about the genre, about social norms, and about people like Mrs. Bennet, and so on. But, Alderton is entitled to do whatever she wants with her adaptation and I don’t think this extract goes against the idea that Mrs. Bennet could speak the line. Quite the opposite. If Olivia Colman makes the line work, then good for her. In the BBC version, after Lizzy says the line Mrs. Bennet replies, “Yes, he must indeed.” To give her the line itself is no great violation. After all, it’s television. If you want subtle irony, read the book.
