i don’t think i ever realized how lonely p&p (2005) mary really is
we all know the scene where she, mrs. bennet, kitty, and lydia all sit down on the sofa and mary is in dark clothing and looking up and away, probably imagining herself being back home, but she isn’t unafraid to speak her thoughts when they do arise
but right after the bennets come back home from netherfield, she doesn’t even bother to untie her bonnet from her head. she just rips off her gloves and tosses her bonnet back, letting the ribbon that ties it hang around her neck, and immediately goes to the piano to do her scales. it’s as if she’s sighing a breath of relief as she brings her hands back to middle c after having to hold it so long in company she doesn’t want to be in
but then in the very next scene she’s out in town with elizabeth and charlotte running some errand and discussing how their property goes immediately to mr. collins, but again all she mentions is her piano store being owned by mr. collins. mary’s whole characterization in the film is reliant on her piano
in her chaotic home where everyone has a role to do and some task to fulfill, among her sisters who are so different from her (and how that’s visibly coded in the way that she is dressed), her true sense of home goes back to the piano– which just makes the ball scene in p&p (1995) so much more heartbreaking when mary is visibly distraught when told she should play a different tune, and the second ball in p&p (2005) when she is sobbing her eyes out over being told she cannot play anymore
and i think that’s why she looks at mr. collins in horror. this was her chance to show him how much her piano means to her. it’s literally her home. it’s the one place where she can feel most herself, and there’s a fear that it would one day be taken away from her due to this constant knowledge that he owns the piano store, their property, and eventually even her microcosm home of her piano
Forever grateful that the Wallace’s Flying Frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) is a real living creature that exists on this earth at the same time as me.
