Ending Pride and Prejudice I: the 1980 adaptation

This is the first of our installments detailing the endings of the Pride and Prejudice adaptations. For the 1995 dramatization click here and for the 2005 movie here

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Pride and Prejudice ends with a kind of epilogue that briefly covers the lives of the Bennets, post marriage. We also hear of the unhappy Mr. and Mrs Wickham and the financial help they receive from Elizabeth. Dramatizers like to tie things off a little more tidily, so choosing the right point to end the story must be a little tricky, and all the adaptations do so a little differently. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll post transcripts of the final scenes of  the major adaptations, so we can discuss how they compare. We haven’t posted much on the BBC 1980 adaptation for a while, so this is where we’ll begin.

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In the 1980 adaptation, Lizzy isn’t given the chance to express her love for Darcy to her father, which is a pity since it’s such a moving scene, and goes a long way toward humanizing and redeeming the character of Mr Bennet. It is, however, suitably heartwarming and made especially charming by Elizabeth Garvie’s sparkling performance.

This transcript of the final scenes begins after Lizzy has been told of Mr Collins’ letter, warning that Elizabeth should not accept Mr Darcy’s proposal. After this encounter we dissolve to the scene in which Lizzy and Darcy are taking a stroll in the countryside.

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EXT. COUNTRYSIDE. DAY

Elizabeth and Mr Darcy are walking side by side.

MR DARCY:
Dearest, loveliest Elizabeth. By you I was properly humbled… No, I did not blame you for coming to Pemberley. I felt nothing but surprise. My object was then to show you that I was not so mean as to resent the past. As to my gravity and thoughtfulness on hearing news of Lydia I’d already resolved to leave in search of her.

ELIZABETH:
So, you gave your permission for Bingley to marry Jane?

DARCY:
(Nods)

ELIZABETH:
I guessed as much. Confessed interference in his affairs.

DARCY:
It was absurd and impertinent of me. He never had the slightest suspicion. The more I saw of them together the more I was convinced of her affection. I never doubted his.

ELIZABETH:
And your assurance I suppose carried immediate conviction to him.

DARCY:
It did.

ELIZABETH:
What set you off in the first place?

DARCY:
I cannot fix the hour or the spot or the look or the words which lay the foundation. I was in the middle of it before I knew it had begun.

ELIZABETH:
My beauty you had earlier withstood. As to my manners, did you admire my impertinence? You were sick of servility I dare say, of deference, of officious attention. I aroused and interested you because I was so unlike the rest. I did not want your approbation. There, I have saved you the trouble of accounting for it, and all things considered, I begin to think it perfectly reasonable. To be sure you know no actual good of me. But nobody thinks of that, when they fall in love.

Lizzy and Darcy walk for a few seconds before embracing.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. LONGBOURN LIBRARY. DAY

Mr Bennet is seated, with a book. Mrs Bennet is pacing around excitedly.

MRS BENNET:
10,000 a year! How rich and great my Lizzy will be! What pin money! What jewels, what carriages she will have! I hope Mr Darcy will overlook my having disliked him so much. Three daughters married. I shall go distracted!

MR BENNET:
Mr Darcy! What an uproar there will be. (Laughs) But for what do we live but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them our turn. Mrs Bennet, if any young men come for Kitty or Mary, send them in, for I am quite at leisure.

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So there we have it. The lines are beautifully written, and Mr Bennet’s ‘I’m quite at leisure’ remark is a lovely place to end the story, yet we miss the moment when Mr Bennet hears from Elizabeth just how much she is in love. It’s also noteworthy that Darcy doen’t recoil at the idea of his giving ‘permission’ to Bingley to marry as he does in the book. Instead he simply nods. This doesn’t seem particularly out of place in this adaptation, since David Rintoul’s Darcy never quite loses his superior, aristocratic air. I can easily imagine him ordering his inferior friend to propose ‘at once!’ once he’d withdrawn his objection.

I love that Elizabeth explains in such detail why Darcy is in love with her. It fits Elizabeth’s ‘impertinent’ personality so nicely, to have Darcy nodding along as she describes her own charms with such delicious irony. I think it’s a pretty good way to end the story. What do you think?

Darcy