Bonds

For any who wonder why the Andrew Davies adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” is held in such high regard, look no further than the scenes excerpted here.

Davies faithfully recreates Austen’s scenes at Pemberley, where Elizabeth Bennet begins to appreciate Darcy in an entirely new light. Recognizing that Austen has Darcy introduce his younger sister Georgiana to Elizabeth Bennet as a symbolic gesture of a possible “fresh start” in their relationship, Davies deftly expands this “opening” with Georgiana in a way that allows him to bring his adaptation to an emotional apex.

Austen had written Georgiana Darcy as something of a foil for Elizabeth Bennet, described by others as an accomplished musician and having the kind of manners and breeding the Bennet family sorely lacks. In true Austen style, things are never quite what they’re purported to be and Miss Darcy instead turns out to be quite shy, barely able to keep up her end of conversation even amongst her brother’s friends at Pemberley. Understandable, given that she is all of sixteen. When Lizzy first meets Georgiana, Austen wrote, “she found it difficult to obtain even a word from her beyond a monosyllable.”

Davies keeps the shy quality and, expanding Georgiana’s role, makes her relationship with Lizzy a symbol of all that can—and will—be right about a match between Lizzy and Darcy. The dialogue he’s added at the inn—he’s not content to limit Georgiana to monosyllables—with Eliza envying Georgiana’s having a brother, and Georgiana similarly wishing she’d had a sister, reminds both characters and audience that there is, after all, a solution to this mild quandary. Similarities are further played up by having their costumes nearly identical, the soft green tops suggesting humility and good taste.

Davies has the two continue these sisterly ways at Pemberley. Clothes once again matching, this time in contrast with the garish tastes of others, they play together for the assembled party. What Austen had set up as counterpoint, a background rivalry with respect to musical ability, Davies explicitly has merge to represent an ideal of domestic harmony.

But that is not all Davies has done. Taking the mean-spirited attack Miss Bingley makes against Miss Bennet, bringing up the spectre of Wickham, he keeps all the elements Austen had written into the scene,

“While she spoke, [Elizabeth's] involuntary glance showed her Darcy, with a heightened complexion, earnestly looking at her, and his sister overcome with confusion, and unable to lift up her eyes.”

and adds something new: Lizzy “coming to the rescue” of Georgiana. The “secret” that Wickham had taken advantage of Georgiana is unknown to Miss Bingley, as Austen points out; Davies masterfully uses that “secret”, via this considerate gesture on Lizzy’s part, to subtly morph the sisterly affection he has carefully constructed for Elizabeth and Georgiana into an almost parental bond—now between Elizabeth and Darcy. The two share their most intimate moment in the entire 5-hour production, all done from across the room.

Signaling Georgiana is “overcome with confusion” by a temporary halt in her piano playing is standard dramatic technique, but there’s more going on with the scoring in this scene than just that. A modulation to D flat major in Beethoven’s “Andante Favori”, which Miss Darcy has been playing, adds background tension to the uncertainty mention of Wickham has caused. Now, with Lizzie’s return to the piano to lend Georgiana support, the piece returns to the tonic of F at precisely the moment Lizzie and Darcy’s eyes meet, underscoring Elizabeth’s stabilizing presence and the newfound depth of their mutual regard.

As the piano is supplemented with additional instrumentation, surrounding the moment with a warmer, richer musical context, we move out of the scene per se and reflect, as Darcy does, on what has just occurred.

In an online interview made for PBS this past year, Davies was asked for his favorite scene out of all his Austen adaptations. He pointed to this moment “where Elizabeth and Darcy are gazing at each other across the piano”.

It is a scene he can take great pride in, for it is uniquely his own.

One of a series—my “19th Century Lovebirds” playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6BAEEB12257C70B3

Elizabeth Bennet - “Voi Che Sapete”
(from Act I of “The Marriage of Figaro”)
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Georgiana Darcy - “Andante Favori”
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.

From the 1995 BBC/A&E production, “Pride and Prejudice”, directed by Simon Langton.

TYREE