District of Columbia Region
“Laughter and Liberty in Pride and Prejudice”
December 12, 2009
The District of Columbia Region’s annual December meeting is always eagerly awaited by members and guests. This year’s meeting was especially festive as it marked the Region’s 25th anniversary in addition to Jane Austen’s 234th birthday.
Seventy-six members and guests—a record number for the Region—gathered at Clyde’s of Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, to reminisce, discuss future plans, and chat over a festive champagne brunch. As usual, the sales table and silent auction items were a big draw; a unique attraction was a large collection of books belonging to our late member, Joan Drexler, and donated by her family. Attendees were invited to make a donation and “chuse” their books. The proceeds will be sent to Chawton Cottage to help with restoration projects. Joan would be very pleased at our members’ generosity!
Charter Member Susan Dill spoke about the Region’s founding in 1984 and led the toast, which brought tears to more than a few eyes. (See below.) Then it was time for the much-anticipated presentation by our special speaker, Dr. Lorraine (Lorrie) Clark, who addressed the topic of “Laughter and Liberty in Pride and Prejudice.” She pointed out that three characters—Elizabeth, her father, and her sister Lydia—are distinguished by their propensity to laugh, but only one—Elizabeth—enjoys the “right” kind of laughter. Even Elizabeth’s laughter evolves and expands over the course of the novel: she is told early on she mustn’t laugh at Mr. Darcy, but at novel’s end she is allowed to—much to the consternation of his sister Georgiana.
Calling on her background in philosophy, Lorrie tied Austen’s brilliant understanding of how comedy works to an archery metaphor in Aristotle’s Ethics and Poetics. Using film clips of archery scenes from the 1940 film Pride and Prejudice and the 1996 film Emma, Lorrie pointed out:
It’s a simple but profound idea: we laugh when someone “misses the mark.” Neither archery scene is in Austen, but Aldous Huxley, who did the screenplay for the 1940 version, seems to have brilliantly realized its relation to Aristotle’s idea of comedy and added it; and the writers for Emma repeated the archery motif probably based on this innovation. These days when we’re told we mustn’t laugh at all kinds of things (which again, Elizabeth protests against as a restriction on her “liberty”) it’s rather interesting to see Austen’s views on comedy and laughter.
Lorrie’s appearance was made possible by a generous grant from the JASNA Traveling Lecturer Program. (And clearly she was meant to be with us, as her journey from Toronto fell neatly between a rare early-December snowfall here in DC the week before, and a record-breaking “snowpocalypse” the following weekend.) We are very grateful to JASNA for the grant, to Lorrie for making the program so stimulating, to our volunteers for their skillful help before and during the meeting, and to all who attended for celebrating this wonderful milestone.
—Debra Roush
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Rudyard Kipling wrote this toast in “The Janeites.” Charter member Susan Dill chose it after hearing it at the Baltimore December meeting.
Jane lies in Winchester – blessed be her shade! |
