In Defense of Mary Bennet

hello and welcome to Spencer's library I'm Claudia and this is another Jane Austen July video about why Mary Bennet deserved better okay I admit the title of this video is a little bit clickbait t because the truth is I don't really need to defend Mary Bennet's because no one actually hates her she is not a villain in Pride and Prejudice she is not someone who loved to hate in fact she's not so many think much about at all and I think that is actually the greatest injustice of Mary Bennet it is not that she's vilified and hated it is that she is plainly ignored poor Mary is the definition of a middle child syndrome in fact she's so in the middle of her sisters that no one actually cares about her Elizabeth and Jane do their thing and Lydia and Kitty stick together and Mary's just there in the middle with no one to love or hate her she is just ignored by everyone but ignored most of all by the book itself by the narration of the book I mean if you think about the Bennet sisters and you think about who've them is most significant and most insignificant you'd put Mary in fourth place right above Kitty Shirley right I mean Kitty Bennet barely has a personality other than Lydia's greatest fan however if you actually look at how many times Mary and Kitty are mentioned in the book you will notice that Kitty is mentioned 71 times over hers Mary is only mentioned 40 times so that means that Kitty Bennet's who again is barely even a character is mentioned almost twice as many times as poor Mary however I would argue that Mary does have the stronger develop personality and I think this is a personality that we can all at least to some degree identify with so here is my defense of Mary Bennett's patron saint of all of us girls who fail to impress people yeah that's her main character trait the first mention of Mary Bennet is actually when mr. Bennet asks her opinion about the whole mr. Bingley moving into the neighborhood a drama it says in the book that Mary wished to say something very sensible but knew not how same girl same how many times have we been in that situation where you just feel a little bit too dumb for the conversation that you're having but does that stop Mary oh no it does not because what Mary lacks and admiration she makes up for in confidence she considers herself the most accomplished girl in the neighborhood and she's pretty sure that that's how other people talk about her when in fact people are less keen to let her have the spotlight at the pianoforte then she supposes Mary thinks she's incredibly clever when she says things like pride is a very common failing I believe by all that I have ever read I'm convinced that it is very common indeed that human nature is particularly prone to it and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self complacency on the score some quality or other real or imaginary a vanity and bright are different things that though the words often used synonymously a person may be proud without being vain pry relates more to our opinion of ourselves vanity to what we would have others think of us funnily enough Mary exhibits both aspects of Pride and vanity in the scene but who can blame her she is the girl who spends hours practicing her music reading her Bible and thinking of clever things to say to mr. Collins Mary Bennet is eager she wants to show the whole world just how well she is practiced those sonatas and just how much of the Bible she has memorized she wants to impress people because she is the ugly middle child and she knows she is the ugly middle child she is described in the book as very plain in fact is the only plain Bennet sister all of the other ones have some degree of beauty to them mmm half of the other ones have got some degree of intelligence and wit Mary Bennet has neither but what she has is ambition Mary Bennet is the meaning of the phrase fake it till you make kids unfortunately we never actually see her make it in Pride and Prejudice but you know one can only hope and wish that at some point she will meet a second mr. Collins someone who will actually admire her work ethic and her ambition and her confidence Mary is the Bennett's family know-it-all but she doesn't just pretend to know things she actually practices a lot we see her practicing the thorough bass on the piano and as someone who's had to do that for a music degree I can tell you it's really bloody difficult and not very fun at all so hats off to Mary Bennet for putting so much work into something so pointless as thorough base although I suppose in the earlier who said she wasn't quite as pointless Mary Bennet thinks she's cleverer than she actually is and don't we all if you rank yourself on intelligence you almost certainly are going to rack yourself so slightly above average I know that I do but the truth is we can't all be slightly above average or there wouldn't be an average and Mary Bennet's just goes with it even though she doesn't quite understand what's going on all of the time she pretends that she does and that's almost the same Mary Bennet doesn't just study for her own amusement she wants to show that even though she's not as pretty as her sisters she is worth something and that's why she hogs the piano at every opportunity and Minerva could you eat my plant slightly more quietly please speaking of attention-seeking and mary's exhibitionism when it comes to her musical performance has got a function because she hasn't got anything else to recommend her to an eligible gentleman so she may as well show the only talent that she has some off and try and snag a husband with her thora bass they're gonna work and are they bears worth a try Mary Bennett speaks for all of us when she says I should infinitely prefer a book when asked to go shopping with her sisters because girl I get you I too would infinitely prefer a book than going shopping with Lydia and Kitty the greatest injustice that Mary Bennett has to suffer in Pride and Prejudice is that of being ignored by everyone by her parents by the men in the story by her sisters and by the narrator and by us readers the bit that hurts the most is when mr. Collins comes to visit and mrs. Bennet tries to marry him off to one of her daughters she thinks of Jane but Jane's already got a love interest and then she thinks of Elizabeth and she doesn't go any further because the book makes it very clear that Mary would have taken mr. Collins without a doubt I wonder if you would have been so interested in her but I'm sure they could have done something to help her with that and so Mary Bennet lives on in our minds as the ignored Bennet sister if not the forgotten one and I just wanted to make this video to tell you all why Mary Bennet is my favorite and why I think we are more like her than we want to admit I am more like Mary Bennet's then I want to admit and let me know if you are too there's no shame in that thank you for watching bye

Channel: Spinster's Library

Views: 36,302

Keywords: spinster's library, jane austen july, jane austen july 2019, jane austen, pride and prejudice, jane austen pride and prejudice, mary bennet, mary bennet pride and prejudice, mary bennett, mary bennett pride and prejudice, pride and prejudice mary, mary pride and prejudice, underrated jane austen, jane austen rant, mary bennet rant, mary bennett rant, mary benett, bennet sisters, bennet sisters pride and prejudice, pride and prejudice bennet, bennett sisters

Id: JctKvk8r1sY

Length: 8min 11sec (491 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 16 2019