[Pride and Prejudice] - The Pacific

The Pacific (HBO)

Have you watched a miniseries called The Pacific by HBO? It is one of the most epic World War II movies based on the perpective of US Marine Corps in the Pacific War. Unlike HBO's previous masterpiece Band of Brothers which focused on the catastrophic situation of the US Paratroopers in Europe, The Pacific switched its focus to lovelines between soldiers and women, and strong bonds between soldiers in jeopardy.

The loveline of this miniseries shares some similarities in terms of painful rejection, and impossible love. A private called Lacky fights in the Pacific, but is given a month worth of reservation in Australia. In Australia he enjoys sex, gambles, drinks with his platoon until he encounters a beautiful woman in a tram bus. He asks her out for a date, and she invites him to a dinner. After dinner, he is offered to live in the house until he goes back to the front line. Although he denies their hospitality, eventually he decides to live with her.

One day, Lacky comes home with a bundle of flower to surprise her. However, her reaction was cold, and she did not let him in the house. Lacky, dumbfounded, demands for an explanation and she goes on to say "your life style is not enough to 'tempt' (p.13) me." He loved her so dearly that he suddenly loses all motivation to live. He goes back to his camp, gets severely drunk and gets in a fight with a ranking officer. Due to this trouble, Lacky was on the verge of getting a court martial but his friend saves him from this potentially fatal trouble.

Although Mr. Collins did not lose his mind due to a severe rejection, I found the style of rejection to be somewhat similar. From Isabella Copello's blogpost, I realized that she has a different interpretation of the plot of Pride and Prejudice considering the fact that she connected its plot to a movie called The Women.  While I focused on the story's love relation, in fact I conclude Elizabeth's reason to rejection to be “ ... the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive,” (p.142), Isabella focused on the characteristic of women in the past to the women in present. The fact that people connect the same story with a completely different idea is very interesting.