Jane Austen Society of Australia

Pride & Prejudice Study Day, 2002
The Regiment of Women

This year’s Study Day, on a day when winter seemed to have arrived deliberately to make indoor activities a good idea, focused on Pride and Prejudice, and was subtitled ‘The Regiment of Women’ (politely leaving out John Knox’s word ‘Monstrous’).

The day, as usual, was a best-seller, so the room, as usual, was packed to the rafters with eager Austenites (or ‘Janeites’), all clutching copies of the day’s book. Copies ranged from just barely bought to just barely remaining, and a little steel showed in comparisons. ‘This is new because it’s my third copy, I wore the others out,’ versus ‘This copy is twenty years old but I can’t bear to replace it because you can’t get leather binding like this any more.’

Whatever the state of your copy, however, it was soon put to use, as the day started with one of those devilish quizzes JASA specialises in.

This one had 25 questions, requiring everyone to identify a female P&P character by words from the book.

The questions ranged from the drop-dead easy, ‘a "self-willed and careless girl", barely ever listens to advice’ (buzzz! Lydia!) to the ones that had everyone scratching hastily through the pages, ‘has got three couple of ducks, just fit to be killed’ (er, Mrs Nicholls! Of course! When the Bingleys were returning to Netherfield). (Table 10 claimed to have got more than 20 of the answers, but faces around the room didn’t necessarily congratulate them.)

Quickly on to (more) Conduct Unbecoming. A series of excerpts had been provided, from books (by men, of course) teaching women how they ought to behave (talk about monstrous, we said in chorus!).  Each table had a character from the book to discuss in relation to these pieces, and a more acceptable snatch from Mary Wollstonecraft. Some were a piece of cake, such as Miss Elizabeth Bennet, because there is plenty of material to work with. Pity the table that got friendly but faint Mrs Philips, but they still bravely managed to work out something about her.

After a set of readings from P&P, came a lesson in playing ‘Loo’, the card game that Elizabeth didn’t play at Netherfield. Would that Jane Austen had never mentioned it! It turns out to be very complicated, not to mention expensive, but you can see why Elizabeth decided not to play when you realise that once the players have decided on a base amount for wagers, everything is done in multiples of five. [There is a cross reference here, much loved by editors: the ‘Loo’ game introduced us to the use of the word ‘Pam’ – the game’s high card, which Jane twists in her inimitable way in Jack & Alice, see Joe Wiesenfarth’s comments in the the current issue (June 2002) of Sensibilities. Ed.]

Elizabeth not playing Loo at Netherfield.. A Joan Hassall woodcut from Pride and Prejudice.

On to dancing, an acceptable way for young ladies to show off in front of young men. Pamela Whalan’s introduction explains that the most important element of the dance was ‘to engage the interest of the opposite sex.’ Julia Ermert gave volunteers a lesson in the Sir Roger de Coverley, a simple country dance, but one that involves enough standing around and simple walking to allow any amorous couple a chance to chat away from chaperones.

After lunch came the treat of Miss Penny Chiltern singing as Miss Mary Bennet. It’s one thing to read that Mary’s ‘voice was weak, and her manner affected’, it is another to hear someone so cleverly singing just on and off-key, and see her bouncing so enthusiastically just on and off-beat. Oh the agony that people suffered so young ladies could ‘display’, but oh the laughter when it’s done deliberately.

The last ‘display’ of the day was a presentation called Three Corners by Robyn Williams, with Dr James Fordyce (of Sermon fame) and Mary Wollstonecraft presenting their (decided) opinions on society and P&P.

It is customary, nowadays, for members of the media to admit when they have a vested interest in a topic being examined, so I must here announce that I played Mr Collins, so you may care to take the review with a grain of salt. As it happens, I used to dislike William Collins, after this I positively loathe the man; that however doesn’t distract from the fact that the play was very clever, very funny, and very well received by the audience.

Pamela Whalan then stepped out of her role as Dr Fordyce to lead a finishing discussion on woman’s role and society and how, if at all, it has changed since Jane Austen’s day. On the depressing summation that little has changed, just that women have more choices but even more pressures now, we went back out into a sharp wind and home, but at least enlightened with another view of Pride and Prejudice.

Harriet Veitch

FEEDBACK: info@jasa.net.au

15 June 2002

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