Nearly a year and a half ago, I
wrote a post about Kitty Bennet's coughing in Chapter 2 of P&P, in which I
provided an explanation for her coughing other than a physical ailment:
In the end of that post, I argued as
follows that Kitty's coughing was an expression of sarcasm directed at
her mother's carping about Mrs. Long:
"...Kitty’s coughing mysteriously
begins, it seems, precisely at the moment when her mother called Mrs.
Long “a selfish, hypocritical woman”. Kitty is clearly invoking, in so
many words, the proverbial pot calling the kettle black! And that in turn
explains Mrs. Bennet’s reaction—she
does not respond to Mr. Bennet’s
droll comment, but instead lashes out at Kitty, not because she is afraid of
her husband, but precisely because she has understood Kitty’s insulting
innuendo was directed at Mrs. Bennet! But just as Kitty conveys her deeper meaning
by implication, so too does Mrs. Bennet take her revenge by
implication.
And here’s the best part--Mr. Bennet
has also understood this subtextual duel between his wife and his
daughter, and he weighs in with typical droll irony, pointing out ---with
implied approval—that Kitty has been indiscreet in insulting her mother,
and further approving of Kitty’s timing—it was “ill” timing only in
Mrs. Bennet’s mind, but it was perfect timing from the point of
view of delivering a real zinger. And then Kitty replies, in code, that
she does not cough for her own amusement—but what she leaves
unspoken, but nonetheless understood by her father, is that she did cough for his amusement---and she succeeded in amusing him, because he never misses
a chance to laugh at his wife!" END QUOTE
This morning, I realized that even
though the above is indeed a plausible alternative explanation for Kitty's
coughing, there is actually an even more elegant and fitting alternative
explanation hiding in plain sight, which I missed the first time around
The key was in look at the full
context of the scene. What is going on in the beginning of Ch. 2, when Kitty
coughs? From the very first word of Ch. 2, Mr. Bennet elegantly springs
one of his patented, quasi-sadistic surprise "jokes" on his
long suffering wife (and on his daughters, too, for good measure).
Note that it is he who revives the
subject of Bingley at the beginning of Ch. 2, and then goads his nervous
wife's into an irritated outburst, the better the "Gothcha!"
when Mr. Bennet reveals that he has already visited Bingley.
The delight he takes in laughing at
the expense of his female relatives is apparently enhanced when he treats
the rest of them as puppets, drawing from them the exact responses he
seeks, which of course depends on their not being in on the joke. He's quite the little
stage director--in
other words, a real jerk.
But what I realized this morning is
that there is actually at least one Bennet female present who is
entirely onto Mr. Bennet's joke from the getgo, because she is actually,
despite appearances to the contrary--and despite what Mr. Bennet says about
her during the course of the novel--a very sharp elf indeed.
She has her father's number, she
recognizes the game he is playing from the moment he revs things up, but
she chooses to be discreet about it, so as not to spoil his fun--of course I
am talking about Kitty--that is the deepest meaning of her sarcastic
coughing--she's in effect saying to him, "Come, now, papa, is this really necessary?"
And that best explains Mr. Bennet's final words---"Now, Kitty, you
may cough as much as you
choose,"---which is his tip of the hat to his clever daughter who has been the only aware
member of the audience at his little "family theatrical", starring Mrs. Bennett as the Fool.
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment