In the novel Pride and Prejudice, the character of Mr. Collins is brilliantly drawn as a man of extraordinarily little wit. Whenever he speaks, particularly when he speaks of his patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh, he inspires the contempt that is due a toadying lickspittle.
I’m a little confused by one of his turns of phrase, however. When praising Lady Catherine, he constantly speaks of her “condescension.” Now, here in the twenty-first century, when I speak of somebody and make a point of mentioning his or her condescension, no one could possibly conclude that I am praising this person. Rather, I would expect it to be understood that I have little regard for the person’s manners (at least).
So the question I’m asking now is: in thus specifying his use of the term “condescension,” is Miss Austen merely emphasizing what a twit Mr. Collins is, or did the term carry different connotations in the early nineteenth century than it does today?
Thinking of condescension as in a superior talking “down” to an inferior… I think what he is actually saying is that, “isn’t it so awesome that big awesome Lady Cathering condescends to talk to little ol’ me.” Basically he is saying that despite being a superior, who would have every right not to notice or talk to those beneath her, she regularly condescends to talk to Mr. Collins.
It’s the literal meaning that gave rise to the current sarcastic meaning. Originally it referred to someone of high status being willing to lower themselves to speak to someone lower than themselves, and could be considered a mark of kindness.
Nowadays, if I speak to you condescendingly, it implies that I consider myself greatly your superior, which you would rightly interpret as an insult.
But I wouldn’t expect your run-of-the-mill internet denizen to understand such lofty concepts as I understand thanks to my exquisite education.
The literal meaning hasn’t changed but the context in which it exists has. If you accepted the old class system and felt that there were people who were inferior and people who were superior, you could see it as a virtue when the superior people treated the inferior people better than they deserved.
But nowadays we dismiss the premise. We don’t accept the idea that there are people who are inherently inferior or superior, so acting on that basis - even if benignly - is no longer a virtue.
The closest modern equivalent might be saying somebody is good with children. It doesn’t mean that that person treats children as equals. You can be regarded as being good with children even if you treat them differently than you’d treat another adult. So there’s a recognition that the communication is occurring across a line of status.
I agree, except that an adult who talks condescendingly to kids is usually not appreciated by the kids.
The context has dramatically changed, putting the word in a very different light, but even then, it’s now always used as a negative, even in contexts where a certain amount of “descent” is clearly involved.
Regarding P&P, Lady Catherine is terribly condescending in the worst way. I suspect that the author might even be toying with a word whose meaning had already begun to shift, winking to her audience as Collins snivels.
I love Lady Catherine’s line, “I don’t play piano, but if I did, I’m sure I would be very good at it!” (or words to that effect.) So illuminating! It’s great how Austin lets her characters reveal their characters, rather than relying on telling us in the narrative.
I avoided reading P&P for many years because a friend who had read it had told me it was dull. Imagine my surprise when I gave it a shot and found it absolutely hilarious.
I’m thinking of that scene in The Breakfast Club where Bender says that Claire wouldn’t condescend to speak to any of his friends. Saying she would condescend to speak to his friends wouldn’t have been a much more favorable remark, as it would be taken to mean she considered herself so far above them that just speaking to them required lowering herself, but in Jane Austen’s time someone like Lady Catherine really did have special status.
It is sometimes funny reading old books to see how words have changed in meaning over time. I once came across an university yearbook from the '20s or '30s that described a school dance as “pompous”. And that wasn’t a complaint. At the time the word would apparently have been understood to mean “magnificent” (or “full of pomp”), not “pretentious”.
Austen’s Northanger Abbey actually has a brief exchange about how words shift in meaning; the heroine describes a book as “nice” (meaning pleasant) which the hero considers a bit silly. He points out that “nice” properly means precise, neat, or refined, and objects to the then-new trend of it being used as a generic term of praise. His speech prompts his sister to say, in a ladylike manner, that he’s kind of being a pedantic dick.
IN THE BEST FAMILIES has a rich society woman refer to Nero Wolfe as “handsome,” prompting Archie Goodwin to consult the dictionary and note that, sonofabitch, given this definition, she’s not technically wrong.
“I thought she was illiterate, her calling you handsome – remember? But, by gum, it was merely an understatement. Here it is, absolutely kosher: ‘Handsome: moderately large.’ For an example it gives ‘a handsome sum of money.’ So she was dead right”.
yes and no. It follows the basic plot, the major plot points, and several places in the dialog are taken directly from the book.
However, the characterizations seem off and quite a bit is left out or modernized. For example, the Bennett family is portrayed as poor. Their clothing and the disarray of their home shows their status. In the book, Lizzy’s family is not poor. They don’t have as much as Darcy and his friends, but they are quite comfortable. The girls get dresses, plenty of spending money and live in a lovely, quite large home. I guess the scriptwriter got the idea they were poor because so much of the estate is entailed away from the daughters. This only affects the family after the father’s death. They are wealthy enough to live quite comfortably in the book.
I did love Elizabeth’s parents in that movie though. Well cast and well characterized. I actually felt a little sympathy for her mother that I don’t really feel in the book.
