I also post on Open Salon, and I wrote this as a result of a brouhaha. A women in Australia claimed an OS member was stalking her. There ensued a witch hunt.
Immediately rent all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Do not communicate with any men online until you have watched the entire series and learned how best to handle stalkers.
I assume most of you are familiar with Pride and Prejudice. If you haven't read it or hated it, please don't tell me, or I will have no choice but to block your comments and private messages:)
As you recall, the hero, Mr. Darcy, made Elizabeth Bennet , the heroine, a highly abusive proposal of marriage. This is just a small excerpt from her devastating response.
"I might as well inquire," replied she, "why with so evident a desire
of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me
against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?
Was not this some excuse for incivility, if I was_uncivil?
"You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your
declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared the concern
which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more
gentlemanlike manner."
"You could not have made the offer of your hand in any possible way that
would have tempted me to accept it."
"From the very beginning--from the first moment, I may almost say--of
my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest
belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of
the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of
disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a
dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the
last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."
Not able to accept her scorn and hatred, Darcy wrote a long letter defending himself. Elizabeth initially denied the truth of anything he said in the letter. Eventually constant reading made her realize she had been very prejudiced against Darcy, and there was another side to the story.
Elizabeth, fearing that the letter proved that Darcy would stalk her, turned it over to the eventual villian, George Wickham, without even reading it. Lizzy was initially charmed by Wickham; he who might have won her heart if she had 10,000 pounds a year. Wickham and Darcy had known each other as children. Wickham had spread vicious lies about Darcy's behavior toward him that Elizbeth unquestioningly believed. She only learned the truth from Darcy's letter. In addition to lying, cheating, and other dishonorable behavior, Wickham had tried to seduce and ruin Darcy's 15 year old sister. Finally he elopes with Lizzy's 16 year old sister, and Darcy, out of love for Elizabeth, essentially bribes him to marry her.
Elizabeth didn't turn to any man; she took care of herself. She did not show the letter to anyone Both Darcy and Elizabeth took each other's letters to heart. Darcy overcame his pride, Elizabeth her prejudice, and they understood each other. Women love Pride and Prejudice because Elizabeth Bennet, poor and only "tolerable" in appearance, wins her rich Prince Charming by putting him down.
Pride and Prejudice was published January 29, 1813. Elizabeth, many women's favorite heroine, spoke for herself. She did not turn to a white knight who would have made the situation infinitely worse, even if he wasn't the real villain. Knights might prefer pissing contests to Elizabeth's spirited eloquence.
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