“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”
- Source
- Pride and Prejudice
- Date
- 1813
- Local voice
- Fictional character · Mr. Bennet
Meaning of “For what do we live, but to make…”
Mr. Bennet’s joke treats social observation as reciprocal: everyone is somebody else’s entertainment, including the people doing the laughing.
Where does it come from?
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57; Mr. Bennet comments on the absurd rumour concerning Elizabeth and Darcy.
Why the local voice matters
Mr. Bennet says this in Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57, while treating the rumor about Elizabeth and Darcy with characteristic irony.