Bennet family

The Bennet family is a fictional family created by the English novelist Jane Austen in her 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. The family consists of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their five daughters: Jane, Mary, Catherine, Lydia, and Elizabeth, the novel's protagonist.^[2]

Bennet family
Jane Austen character
The Bennet family at Longbourn, by Hugh Thomson. Illustration for chapter II (1894).^[1]
In-universe information
Full name	Bennet
Occupation	Landed gentry
Family	Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet
Children	Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, Lydia
Home	Longbourn House in the village of Longbourn, Meryton, in Hertfordshire

The family belongs to the landed gentry of Hertfordshire in the Regency era of English history.^[3] The complex relationships among the Bennets influence the evolution of the plot, as they navigate the difficulties faced by young women in attempting to secure a good future through marriage.^[4]

The Bennet daughters edit

Jane and Elizabeth are the eldest and handsomest; their conduct is mostly irreproachable and they are appreciated by their father.^[5] Mary is less physically attractive and displays intellectual and musical pretensions.^[6] The two youngest daughters, Kitty (Catherine) and Lydia, are portrayed as immature, fickle young girls.^[7]

Important relations are Mrs. Bennet's brother and sister-in law, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, and her sister Mrs. Philips, as well as the heir presumptive of Mr. Bennet's estate, his distant paternal second cousin, the pompous and foolish William Collins.

Mr. Gardiner and Mrs. Philips contribute to the progress and outcome of the story, but at levels reflecting their respective social standings.

Mr. Collins serves as a link between the gentry of Hertfordshire, to which the Bennets belong, and the large property owners Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mr. Darcy who later marries Elizabeth.

Paternal branch edit

The Bennet couple do not make good role models: Mrs. Bennet repeatedly makes a spectacle of herself. She is overly eager to find husbands for her daughters. This eagerness is displayed in her behaviour, and she fails to understand that this is likely to dissuade young men from marrying her daughters. Mr. Bennet, who seems to be an indifferent husband, makes no effort to change his wife's behaviour. He is more intent on 'enjoying the show' than in correcting her behaviour, and the behaviour of his younger daughters.

The narrator does not elaborate on the ancestors of Mr Bennet. This is only established for the Collinses, father and son, who are described as Mr. Bennet's 'distant' cousins.

The presumption is that a younger Collins son (possibly an ancestor of Mr. Bennet's) once changed his name to Bennet, possibly in anticipation of receiving an inheritance (as Jane Austen's own brother did; it was a common practice in Georgian England), or vice versa. Readers of the time would have recognized the impossibility of Mr. Collins being the descendant of a female relative of Mr. Bennet's, as inheritances always descended through a strict male line (although this would not account for how the Bennets and Collinses came to be related to each other in the first place). However, as a grandson born to a daughter would be a closer relative, it is possible that the Collinses do, in fact, descend from a female - they are next in line because there are no other male heirs to inherit, so it passes to the "son via daughter of a distant Mr Bennet ancestor", as it would for Mr Bennet's own grandson.

A holder of an estate can entail it for two generations succeeding him. Mr. Bennet's grandfather entailed the estate first directly through the male descendants of his son then failing that through the male descendants of his own daughter. Collins is a descendant of Mr. Bennet's great aunt.

Mr. Bennet edit

Mr. and Mrs Bennet by Hugh Thomson, 1894

Mr. Bennet, the patriarch of the Bennet family, is a landed gentleman. He is married to Mrs Bennet, the daughter of a Meryton attorney, the late Mr Gardiner Sr.^[8] Together they have five daughters; Jane, Elizabeth ("Lizzy"), Mary, Catherine ("Kitty"), and Lydia Bennet. None of the daughters is married at the beginning of the novel, much to Mrs Bennet's dismay given the likelihood of Mr Collins inheriting her husband's estate.

That estate, Longbourn House, comprises a residence and land located within the environs of the fictional town of Meryton, in Hertfordshire, just north of London. From his family estate, Mr Bennet derives an annual income of £2,000. This was a very respectable income for a gentleman of the time, but he accumulates few savings. Longbourn has an entailment upon it, meant to keep the estate intact and in the sole possession of the family, down the male line, rather than being divided also amongst younger sons and any daughters; it is to be passed down amongst first male heirs only. For years, Mr Bennet had the hope of fathering a son who would inherit the entire estate; which would see to the entail for another generation and potentially provide for his widow and any other children he might have. Additionally, Mr Bennet did not get along with his then-closest living male relative and male heir, his distant cousin, Mr Collins (Sr.), who is described as an "illiterate miser" (this possibly results from some disagreement over the entail), and did not want the estate to be given to him. After 23 or 24 years of marriage, Mr. Bennet remains the last male scion of the Bennet family, meaning that his death will be the end of the Bennet name.

However, Mr Collins is not assured of inheriting Longbourn, as he could be displaced by a son born either to Mrs Bennet or to a subsequent wife of Mr Bennet were Mrs Bennet to die and he to remarry. He cannot however be displaced by a son born to any of Mr Bennet's daughters, as the estate is entailed 'in the male line' i.e. to a son's son, son's son's son, etc., of whoever set the entail in place.

"So odd a mixture" edit

Mr. Bennet is described in his first appearance in the book as "so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character", and it is this same ironic, cynical, dry, wry sense of wit and humour that irritates his wife (both because she cannot understand it, and because he does not comply with her every wish).

The narrator points out Mr Bennet's many acts of negligence regarding his duties as husband and father. If he draws the sympathy of the reader by his skill at irony, he has nevertheless faults:^[9] indifferent and irresponsible, self-centred, stubborn, indolent, and a dislike of company. Mr Bennet admits he married a silly girl, but he has, for his part, largely given up his social role as pater familias. His disengagement is symbolised by his withdrawing into his library and hiding behind cynical mockery.^[10]

Although Mr Bennet is an intelligent man, his indolence, lethargy, and indifference results in him opting to spend his free time ridiculing the weaknesses of others (ironically) rather than addressing his own problems. His irresponsibility in not saving from his income has placed his family in the position of being potentially homeless and lacking in resources when he dies. He does recognize this fact, but has still done nothing to remedy the situation.

He regards the world with an ironic detachment. When he is involved in a social event, such as the ball at Netherfield, he is a silent and amused witness of the blunders of his family.^[11] Even the discovery of Darcy's role in Lydia's marriage only draws from him an exclamation of relief: "So much the better. It will save me a world of trouble and economy".^[12] Though he does love his daughters (Elizabeth in particular), he often fails as a parent, preferring instead to withdraw from the never-ending marriage concerns of the women around him rather than offer help. In fact, he often enjoys laughing at the sillier members of his family.

Relationship with wife edit

Mr. Bennet has a closer relationship with Mrs Bennet's "poor nerves" than Mrs Bennet herself. It is worth noting that Mr Bennet refers to her nerves as his 'old friends, stating: "You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least".

Later in the story (Volume 2, Chapter 19), it is revealed that Mr Bennet had only married his wife based on an initial attraction to her:

"[Mr. Bennet] captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour, which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman, whose weak understanding, and illiberal mind, had, very early in the marriage, put an end to any real affection for her. Respect, esteem, and confidence, had vanished forever; and all of his views of domestic happiness were overthrown. But Mr. Bennet was not of a disposition to seek 'comfort' for the disappointment which his own imprudence had brought on, in any of those pleasures which too often console the unfortunate of their folly or vice. He was fond of the country and of books, and from these tastes had arisen his principal enjoyments.^[13]

His indolence is a major point of friction between Mr and Mrs Bennet, as Mrs Bennet is constantly fretting about potential suitors for her five daughters while he pays no apparent attention to their future welfare. It may be also safe to say that, when he speaks of '[living] for making sport for [one's] neighbours, and laughing at them in our turn', he is referring to his own culpability.

Mr. Bennet openly favours Jane and Elizabeth due to their much steadier temperaments; he actively distances himself from his wife and younger daughters' activities whenever possible, even at social gatherings like assemblies, which he should be attending in order to supervise them all.

Relationship with Elizabeth edit

From the beginning of the novel, it is very apparent that Elizabeth is her father's favourite daughter. The two have a close bond, which is apparent to everyone in the family. Mrs. Bennet, in one of her many quasi-hysterical moments, turns on her husband and exclaims: "I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others, and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good-humoured as Lydia. But you are always giving her the preference".^[14] To which he replies; "They have none of them much to recommend them ... they are all silly and ignorant like other girls, but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters".^[15]

Despite the fact that his daughter must marry in order to be able to continue living the life of a gentlewoman, Mr. Bennet appears, for the most part, unconcerned. After Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collins' marriage proposal, Mrs. Bennet is beside herself and proclaims that she shall "never see [Elizabeth] again".^[16] Yet her father trusts Elizabeth's reasoning for not wanting to marry Mr. Collins, who would have been able to provide for her, and sarcastically declares "An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. – Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do."^[16]

Though his indolent parenting style is shown to be questionable at several times in the novel, he loves his daughters, and ultimately, Mr. Bennet blames himself for having been insufficiently strict with them, which ultimately had encouraged Lydia to run away with Mr. Wickham, and nor does he resent Elizabeth for her having advised him against letting Lydia go to Brighton with Colonel Forster's regiment (as the newly married Mrs. Forster's "particular friend") in the first place.

Maternal branch edit

The three Gardiners from Meryton: Mrs. Philips, Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Gardiner.^[17]

Mrs. Bennet, born a Gardiner and married for twenty-three years at the start of the novel, is the daughter of an attorney in Meryton. She has a brother and a sister, both married. Though equally vulgar, ignorant, thoughtless, tasteless and gossipy, the marriages of the two sisters have resulted in them moving in different circles - one (Mrs Bennet) married a member of the local gentry, the other (Mrs Phillips) is married to one of her late father's law clerks (doing so was probably what made him the successor to his employer's law firm) - while their naturally genteel brother has gone on to acquire an education and a higher social status in general trade (in a respectable line of trade) in London.^[18]

Mrs. Bennet edit

Mrs. Bennet (née Gardiner) is the young middle-aged wife of her social superior, Mr. Bennet, and the mother of their five daughters; Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, and Lydia Bennet.

Like her favourite daughter, Lydia, Mrs. Bennet is shameless, frivolous, and very 'silly' ("[Mrs. Bennet's] mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news' ... [Mr. Bennet] captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour, which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman, whose weak understanding, and illiberal mind, had, very early in the marriage, put an end to any real affection for her").

She is susceptible to attacks of 'tremors and palpitations', which occur whenever she is defensive or displeased. She is also prone to flights of fancy, flights of pique and melodrama, believing herself to regularly ill-used, talking loudly of it.

Although her first name is never mentioned, it is likely to be 'Jane', since it was customary to give the [christian name]] of the mother to the eldest daughter. Her personal fortune inherited from her father amounted to £4,000 (invested at 4% for a sum of £160-per-annum, or in the 5% for a sum of £200-per-annum, which she squanders)),^[19] which was sufficient money for someone of her condition ("and their mother's fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his.").^[20]

From Mr Collins' proposal to Elizabeth ^[19] - " ["to fortune I am perfectly indifferent, and shall make no demands of that nature on your father, since I am well aware that it could not be complied with; and that one thousand pounds in the 4 per cents which will not be yours till after your mother's decease, is all that you may ever be entitled to"], it appears probable that her settlement had increased to £5,000 over the years, having had an additional £1,000 settled-upon her by her husband as a jointure, but remains invested at 4%.

Her pastimes are shopping and socialising. Her favourite daughter is her youngest, Lydia, who takes very much after her younger self. Next she values her eldest, Jane, though only for Jane's great physical beauty, and she never considers Jane's feelings, virtue, or reputation. Her least favourite daughter is Elizabeth (closely followed by Mary) whom she does not understand (or like) at all; when Mr. Collins was directing his 'enraptured heart' at Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet thought them both together a perfect match purely because she does not like either of them ("Of having [Elizabeth] married to Mr. Collins, she [Mrs Bennet] thought with equal certainty, and with considerable, though not equal, pleasure. Elizabeth was the least dear to her of all her children; and though the man and the match were quite 'good enough' for her, the worth of each was eclipsed by Mr. Bingley and Netherfield").

An ignorant and narrow-minded petite bourgeoise edit

For 20 years, reading allowed Mr Bennet to bear the foolishness of his wife (Hugh Thomson, 1894).

Of the Gardiner siblings, Mrs. Bennet had the best wedding, since she married a member of the local gentry, owner of an estate with an income of £2000 annually. But this estate is under the regime of an enatil in the male line, a rule of succession which she has never understood why her husband could do nothing to change (despite it having been explained to her numerous times (she assumes that he simply won't change it on purpose to stress her "poor nerves")),^[21] since it clouded his future and that of his daughters, given that she and her husband were unable to have a boy. They had hoped for years, even after the birth of Lydia, for the son who would have allowed to put an end to the entail, but they only had girls.

After Mr. Collins' and Miss Charlotte Lucas' engagement is announced, Mrs. Bennet becomes very paranoid about their plans; she is convinced that they were both just counting down the hours until the time that they can assume possession of Longbourn and 'throw her out to live in the hedgerows' ("Mrs. Bennet was really in a most pitiable state. The very mention of anything concerning the match threw her into an agony of ill humour, and wherever she went she was sure of hearing it talked of. The sight of Miss Lucas was odious to her. As her successor in that house, she regarded her with jealous abhorrence. Whenever Charlotte came to see them she concluded her to be anticipating the hour of possession; and whenever she spoke in a low voice to Mr. Collins, was convinced that they were talking of the Longbourn estate, and resolving to turn herself and her daughters out of the house as soon as Mr. Bennet were dead"), all before Mr. Bennet is 'cold in his grave'. She quickly starts to view Charlotte as a conniving intruder as Lady Lucas takes every chance to rub in her triumph ("it is very hard to think that Charlotte Lucas should ever be mistress of this house, that I should be forced to make way for her, and live to see her take my place in it!"). And even when she does start to make a semblance of peace with the 'inevitable', she would mutter, under her breath, "repeatedly to say in an ill-natured tone that she 'wished they might be happy'," when really, she wishes them both ill-will.

Thus, she shows immediate interest in the arrival of an eligible bachelor in the neighbourhood.^[22] So she sends Jane to Mr Bingley's Netherfield estate in the rain to make sure that through illness she must stay there, she encourages Mr Collins to ask for the hand of Elizabeth, and she rejoices loudly in the marriage of Lydia ("No sentiment of shame gave a damp to her triumph" specifies the narrator), indifferent to the dishonourable reasons which made it necessary (and the fact that a man had to be bribed to marry her favourite daughter), since it corresponds to the realisation of "her dearest wishes" to have her daughter 'well married',^[23] but fails to realise that Wickham will only ever prove to be a drain upon the family's resources, rather than a boon (and thus not "well married").

Her notion of stylish behaviour is summarised in what she said of Sir William: "He has always something to say to everybody. – That is my idea of good breeding". She behaves with embarrassing vulgarity and lack of tact, especially at Netherfield, where her pretentiousness, foolishness and "total lack of correction" are particularly evident. She is completely devoid of empathy, save for herself and Lydia, and she is only sensitive to outward appearances (Jane's superior physical beauty, handsome men in militia uniforms, Mrs. Hurst's expensive laces).^[10] For her, it is not the manners or behaviour that indicate belonging to a high rank, it is ostentatiousness and flaunting wealth,^[24] and the validity of a marriage is measured by the amount "of calico, muslin and cambric" to buy for the bride's trousseau. Thus, Mr. Bennet's refusal to get new clothes for her beloved Lydia in her wedding day shocked her more than the fifteen days lived unmarried with Wickham ("She was more alive to the disgrace which the want of new clothes must reflect on her daughter's nuptials, than to any sense of shame at her eloping and living with Wickham a fortnight before they took place").^[25]

These tendencies are seen more even more ludicrous upon Lydia's marriage ("Mr. Bennet and his daughters saw all the advantages of Wickham's removal from the ----shire as clearly as Mr. Gardiner could do. But Mrs. Bennet was not so well pleased with it. Lydia's being settled in the North, just when [Mrs. Bennet] had expected most pleasure and pride in [Lydia's] company – for [Mrs. Bennet] had by no means given up her plan of their residing in Hertfordshire – was a severe disappointment; and besides, it was such a pity that Lydia should be taken from a regiment where she was acquainted with everybody, and had so many favourites. ... "She is so fond of Mrs. Forster", said [Mrs. Bennet], "it will be quite shocking to send her away! And there are several of the young men, too, that she likes very much"), completely glossing over Lydia's ruination and rescue.

An egocentric hypochondriac edit

When her husband announces an unknown host for dinner, Mrs. Bennet imagines that is Bingley, and that Jane has hidden that fact from her (C. E. Brock, 1895).

Jane Austen has particularly charged the character of Mrs Bennett in negative terms. As Virginia Woolf wrote, "no excuse is found for [her fools] and no mercy shown them [...] Sometimes it seems as if her creatures were born merely to give [her] the supreme delight of slicing their heads off".^[26] In the tradition of the comedy of manners and didactic novel, she uses a caricatural and parodic character to mock some of her contemporaries.^[27]

Mrs. Bennet is distinguished primarily by her propensity to logorrhea, a defect that Thomas Gisborne considers specifically feminine.^[28] She does not listen to any advice, especially if it comes from Elizabeth (whom she does not like), makes redundant and repetitive speeches, chatters annoyingly, makes speeches full of absurdities and inconsistencies,^[29] which she accompanies, when she is thwarted, with complaints and continual cantankerous remarks that her interlocutors are careful not to interrupt, knowing that it would only serve to prolong them. Even the ever-patient Jane finds her mother's complaints hard to bear, when Mrs. Bennet manifests "a longer irritation than usual" about the absence of Mr. Bingley, confessing to Elizabeth how much the lack of self-control of her mother revives her suffering ("Oh that my dear mother had more command over herself! she can have no idea of the pain she gives me by her continual reflections on him").^[30]

Another emphasised and systematically ridiculed aspect of Mrs Bennet is her "nervous disease" or rather her tendency to use her alleged nervous weakness to attract compassion to herself, or else demanding that the family dance attendance on her, but ultimately failing to make herself loved.^[31] There are characters particularly concerned about their health in all the novels of Jane Austen; those hypochondriacs that she calls "poor honey" in her letters.^[32] These egocentric characters who use their real or imagined ailments to reduce all to them, seem to be inspired by Mrs Bennet, whose complaints about her health^[31] had the ability to irritate Jane,^[33] who speaks with certain ironic annoyance about it in her letters to her sister.^{[note 1]}

Some critics, however, point out that it would be unfair to see only her faults. Her obsession is justified by the family's situation: the cynicism of Mr Bennet will not prevent Mr Collins from inheriting Longbourn. She, at least, unlike her husband, thinks about the future of her daughters in seeking to place them socially,^[34] (although it is just as likely that she anticipates being able to rely on them financially in the event of being left a widow). In an environment where there are numerous young ladies to be married (all neighboors, the Longs, the Lucases, have daughters or nieces to marry) and few interesting parties, she is much more attentive to the competition than her husband.^[35] She does not neglect her daughters, while he merely treats them mostly as "stupid and ignorant as all the girls", and is shut selfishly in his library.^[22]

The narrator does not forgive her stupidity, nor her awkward interferences, and finds her absurd remarks and pretensions inherently selfish. When Jane asks her to feel gratitude to her brother, who had paid a lot of money towards Lydia's wedding, she replied that 'had he not had children, that she and her daughters will inherit all his property', and he has never been 'really generous so far' ("If he had not had a family of his own, I and my children must have had all his money, you know; and it is the first time we have ever had anything from him, except a few presents").^[36] Lydia's marriage does not satisfy her as much as she wanted, because her daughter did not stay long enough with her so that she could continue to parade with her. ("Lydia does not leave me because she is married, but only because her husband's regiment happens to be so far off. If that had been nearer, she would not have gone so soon"),^[37] and if she was able to happily "for all her maternal feelings [get] rid of her most deserving daughters"; the marriage of Jane will only satisfy her "delighted pride" during the year that the Bingleys spent at Netherfield.^[38]

Guilty negligences edit

Mrs. Bennet looks for ways to let Jane and Bingley be alone together (Hugh Thomson, 1894).

Mrs Bennet has not really raised the girls that she would like so much to see married, as good housekeepers.^[39] She never gave them any notion of home economics, which was the traditional role of a mother in a middle-class family.

It was Thomas Gisborne who theorized in An Enquiry Into the Duties of Men,^{[note 2]} published in 1794, and in An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex, published in 1797, the idea of areas reserved for men and women. According to him, women are by nature destined to the domestic sphere, defined as the particular area where "their excellence deploys".^[28] Therefore, their role is to keep the house. Mrs. Bennet openly mocks Charlotte Lucas when she is forced to go into the kitchen in order to supervise the tarts making, proudly saying that her "daughters are brought up differently"; also, she reacts with force when Mr Collins, on the day of his arrival, assumed that his cousins took part in the preparation of dinner. Even if it was unnecessary for her daughters to do kitchen work, they should have learnt how to supervise the servants who did such work.

Children edit

Jane Bennet edit

In a letter to Cassandra dated May 1813, Jane Austen describes a picture she saw at a gallery which was a good likeness of "Mrs. Bingley" – Jane Bennet. Deirdre Le Faye in Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels suggests that Portrait of Mrs. Q- is the picture that Austen described.^[40]

Jane Bingley (née Bennet) is the eldest Bennet sister (being 22 years old at the beginning of the novel and 23 years old by the end of the novel, with her birthday being estimated in the early springtime. Like her immediately younger sister, Elizabeth, Jane is favoured by her father, due to her steady, genteel disposition. Like each of her sisters, Jane had an allowance/pin money of £40 per annum (invested at 4 per cent on £1,000 by settlement upon her death) before her marriage to Charles Bingley. She is considered the most beautiful young lady in the neighbourhood.

Jane's character is contrasted with Elizabeth's as sweeter, shyer, and equally sensible, but not as clever (she is aware of this fact); an introvert, her most notable trait is a desire to see only the good in others. As Anna Quindlen wrote, Jane is "sugar to Elizabeth's lemonade".^[41] Jane (along Elizabeth) seems to have taken after her father's side of the family, having been portrayed as a sweet, steady, gentle, genteel girl (unlike her mother). Her inner beauty is matched by her outer beauty. She is favoured by her mother solely because of her external beauty. If Jane has taken anything after her mother, it is a certain inflexibility of thought; but while her mother's inflexibility of thought leans in a wholly selfish direction, Jane's is in a selfless one; Jane is unwilling to think ill of others (barring strong evidence), whereas her mother will think ill of anyone on little-to-no evidence at-all.

Jane falls in love with the affable and amiable Mr. Bingley ("He is just what a young man ought to be", said [Jane], "sensible, good humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! – so much ease, with such perfect good breeding"), a rich young man who has recently leased Netherfield Park, a neighbouring estate. Their love is initially thwarted by Bingley's friend Mr. Darcy and sister Caroline Bingley, who are each concerned by Jane's low connections and have other plans for Bingley, involving Miss Darcy, Mr. Darcy's younger sister. Mr. Darcy, aided by Elizabeth, eventually sees the error in his ways and is instrumental in bringing Jane and Bingley back together. Ironically, both Jane and Mr. Darcy have something in common; they are both introverted and shy; but where Mr. Darcy has the luxury of indulging his shyness (being able to get away without having to interact with anyone he doesn't want to at social gatherings), Jane had long had to learn to manage her shyness, having no choice but to be present in social events (her mother having brought her 'out' into society at 16).

As described in volume 3, chapter 19 (the epilogue) of the novel, after their marriage, the happy couple only manage to live at Netherfield for a year before life in Meryton (being imposed upon by Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Phillips) proved to be too much for their good tempers, leading them to give up the lease on the estate and establish themselves elsewhere ("Mr. Bingley and Jane remained at Netherfield only a twelve-month. So near a vicinity to her mother and Meryton relations was not desirable even to his easy temper, or her affectionate heart. The darling wish of his sisters was then gratified; he bought an estate in a neighbouring county to Derbyshire, and Jane and Elizabeth, in addition to every source of happiness, were within thirty-miles of each other.")

Elizabeth Bennet edit

Elizabeth Bennet

Elizabeth Darcy (née Bennet) The reader sees the unfolding plot and the other characters mostly from her viewpoint. The second of the Bennet daughters (being 20 years old at the beginning of the novel and 21 years old by the end of the novel, with her birthday being estimated around Easter), she is intelligent, lively, playful, attractive, and witty, but with a tendency to judge others upon her first impressions (the "prejudice" of the title;) and perhaps to be a little selective of the evidence on which she bases her judgments. Like each of her sisters, Elizabeth had an allowance/pin money of £40 per annum. As the plot begins, her closest relationships are with her father (as his favourite daughter), her sister Jane, her Aunt Gardiner, and her best friend Charlotte Lucas. She is also the least favourite of her mother, Mrs. Bennet because of her resistance to her mother's plans (in which she is tied closely with her plain sister, Mary, whom Mrs. Bennet also looks down upon). As the story progresses, so does her relationship with Mr. Darcy. The course of Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship is ultimately decided when Darcy overcomes his pride, and Elizabeth overcomes her prejudice, leading them each to acknowledge their love for the other.

Mary Bennet edit

Mary Bennet is the middle (being around 18 years old at the beginning of the novel and 19 by the end), and the only plain and solemn Bennet sister. Like her two younger sisters, Kitty and Lydia, she is seen as 'silly' by Mr. Bennet, and not even pretty like her sisters and not 'good-humoured' (like Lydia) by Mrs. Bennet. Mary thinks of herself as being wise. Socially inept, Mary is more in the habit of moralising than conversing; rather than join in family activities, Mary mostly reads, plays music and sings, although she is often impatient to display her 'accomplishments' and is rather vain about them. She feels that having read books makes her an authority on those subjects. Mary is unaware of this fault, fancying herself to be intelligent, wise and accomplished; and this is likely to be the reason why her father considers her to be 'silly' like her mother and younger sisters, though more prim and sensible than them.

Mary also tries to be pious and high-minded; she seems to have assumed that assuming the moral high ground ("Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures. They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me – I should infinitely prefer a book"), she will be setting herself above her sisters, when she is always being compared to them.

Mary is like a caricature of an overly bookish young woman, who spends all of her time reading and memorising texts, but does not really understand what she is reading, saying in conversation (e.g., when Elizabeth declares her intention of going to Netherfield by foot, Mary says, "I admire the activity of your benevolence", observed Mary, "but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion, exertion should always be in proportion to what is required"). While she has inherited her father's fondness for books, she has also inherited her mother's lack of self-awareness and discernment; only able to pick up on the most superficial meanings of what she reads, as well as a tendency to repetition of phrases from the books in place of original conversation. Mary recites awkward interpretations of what are supposed to be profound observations from her books.

When Mr. Collins is refused by Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet hopes Mary may be prevailed upon to accept him, and the impression the reader is given is that Mary also harboured some hopes in this direction. ("[Mary] rated his abilities much higher than any of the others; ... and though by no means so clever as herself she thought that if encouraged to read and improve himself by such an example as hers, he might become a very agreeable companion").

Mary does work hard for her knowledge and accomplishments, reading publications such as James Fordyce's Sermons to Young Women, but misses the full meaning of almost everything she studies and has neither genius nor taste.

Like each of her sisters, Mary had an allowance of £40 per annum.

Mary does not appear often in the main action of the novel. However, it is said in volume 3, chapter 19 (the epilogue) that, now with Jane, Elizabeth, and Lydia married and moved out of Longbourn, and Kitty living primarily with Jane and Elizabeth, Mary received more attention, and was made to mix more with people during company ("Mary was the only daughter who remained at home; and she was necessarily drawn from the pursuit of accomplishments by Mrs. Bennet's being quite unable to sit alone. Mary was obliged to mix more with the world, but she could still moralize over every morning visit; and as she was no-longer mortified by comparisons between her sisters' beauty and her own, it was suspected by her father that she submitted to the change without much reluctance").

According to James Edward Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen, Mary ended up marrying "one of her Uncle Philips' clerks, and was content to be considered a star in the society of Meryton".

Catherine "Kitty" Bennet edit

Catherine Bennet, called "Kitty", is Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's fourth daughter (being 17 years old at the beginning of the novel and 18 years old by the end of the novel); she is one of the novel's more lightweight characters. Her role in the Bennet family is little more than the pliable, easily downtrodden, easily hurt, and easily teased flirt, whose substance is largely borrowed from Lydia. Kitty is described as "weak-spirited", "irritable", and (along with Lydia) "ignorant, idle and vain", she is also fainéant, easily intimidated, easily moved aside, dismissed and ignored (something she actually has in common with her sister, Mary; but while Mary seems to have been left to survive this alone, Kitty has attached Lydia, and is easily led. While she and Lydia have a number of similar interests, Kitty is weak-minded, lacking in resolve, and simply lacks Lydia's 'spark' and motivation, always seeming to be 'luckless' and one step behind her.

Despite the fact that she is older than Lydia by almost two years, Kitty is almost completely under her younger sister's influence, living off of whatever crumbs of second hand attention and affection from their mother that rubs off of Lydia (what little importance she temporarily gained as the one who Lydia wrote most to when she went to Brighton with Mrs. Forster, ("[Kitty] owned, with very natural triumph, on knowing more than the rest of [her family]"), taking advantage of every possible occasion of opportunity to feel as important as possible), and not recognizing the consequences of keeping Lydia's plot to elope a secret from her family, generally ("Our importance, our respectability in the world, must be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia's character. ... Oh! my dear father, can you suppose it possible that they will not be censured and despised wherever they are known, and that their sisters will not be often involved in the disgrace?") and to her personally ("Poor Kitty has anger for having concealed their attachment"). Little more than a 'sidekick', and virtually Lydia's shadow, Kitty's individuality is practically non-existent throughout most of the story; lacking much in the way of personal depth, she does not have an original idea in her head, following Lydia's lead in every matter, agreeing with Lydia, and mostly letting Lydia do her thinking for her. Kitty's own lack of confidence restrains her from reacting with equal alacrity.

Although she is portrayed as having no different thoughts from Lydia, Lydia does take Kitty for granted (Lydia drops her for Mrs. Forster (who is somewhere around the same age as Kitty, is also easily influenced by Lydia, and comes with 'perks'), so Kitty does hold some resentment towards her, (i.e. when Lydia is invited to Brighton by the newly married Mrs. Forster, Kitty is portrayed as being envious of Lydia, declaring that, as the older sister by two years, she had just as much right to be invited as Lydia), but yet does not seem to pick up on the pattern of behaviour whereby Lydia takes advantage of her again and again, and Kitty is left getting into trouble because of her antics (i.e. when Kitty keeps the fact that Lydia was eloping with Wickham from her family and then, after the news gets out, ends up suffering her father's displeasure).

Like each of her sisters, Kitty had an allowance/pin money of £40 per annum.

It is mentioned in Volume 2, chapter 37, that, whilst her oldest sisters, Jane and Elizabeth, have tried over the years (prior to the events of the book, Pride and Prejudice) to educate Kitty and Lydia in order that they might stop their wild and ill-bred behaviours of, their efforts had, been seen as 'interfering' by Kitty and Lydia ("Catherine, weak-spirited, irritable, and completely under Lydia's guidance, had been always affronted by their advice"); Jane and Elizabeth's attempts had also undermined by their mother (who sees nothing wrong with the younger sisters' behaviour (especially with Lydia)), and unsupported by their father (who is amused by Kitty and Lydia's 'silliness' and simply will not trouble himself with the effort involved in educating them.

It is later said, in volume 3, chapter 19 (the epilogue) that, with Lydia's negative influence removed, and often spending much time in the company of her two well-behaved older sisters, Kitty has improved ("Kitty, to her very material advantage, spent the chief of her time with her two elder sisters. In society so superior to what she had generally known, her improvement was great. She was not so ungovernable a temper as Lydia, and, removed from the influence of Lydia's example, she became, by proper attention and management, less irritable, less ignorant, and less insipid. From the farther disadvantage of Lydia's society [Kitty] was carefully kept, and though Mrs. Wickham [Lydia] frequently invited her to come and stay with her, with the 'promise' of balls and young men, her father would never consent to her going").

According to James Edward Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen, "Kitty Bennet was satisfactorily married to a clergyman near Pemberley", possibly a parish under the patronage of the Darcy family.

Lydia Bennet edit

Mary Pearson is thought to have been the model for Lydia. She was briefly engaged to Jane Austen's brother, Henry Thomas Austen.^[42]

Lydia Wickham (née Bennet) is the youngest Bennet sister (being 15 years old at the beginning of the novel and 16 years old by the end of the novel, with her birthday being in June, after going to Brighton as Mrs. Forster's "particular friend". In terms of outer appearance, Lydia is described as a strong, healthy, well-grown female, with a fine complexion and a good-humoured countenance; she is the tallest of the five sisters, though she is the youngest.

In personality, Lydia is a younger version of her mother, as well as being her mother's favourite ("Lydia was...a favourite with her mother, whose affection had brought her into public at an early age"); She is called "silly & ignorant", "vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled!", and "untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless", with an exaggerated estimation of her own self-importance-and-consequence; all of which her mother, who has always spoiled her, and has actively encouraged her behaviour, views as 'cheerfulness', 'jolliness', and 'flirtatiousness', as it matches all of her own humours (and cannot understand why Mr. Bennet favours Elizabeth over Lydia). Lydia is also like her mother, in that she is incapable of keeping secrets and respecting confidences.

If Lydia has taken anything after her father, it would be his propensity for poking fun at people; but, in Lydia's case, it is a habit of hers to mock, laugh, or else gloat at the losses, suffering, or inconvenience that befall others (especially at her own doing), declaring how "[she] will laugh [at them]". She lives in the moment, thinking only of herself and things that relate to her own enjoyments (clothes, parties, flirting with handsome men in regimental uniforms, being the envy of others), wrapped up in herself, and sparing no thought for consequences to herself or others, especially when it gets in the way of her own enjoyment:

"But [Darcy] found Lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was. She cared for none of her friends; she wanted no help of [Darcy's]; she would not hear of leaving Wickham. She was sure they should be married some time or other, and it did not much signify when. Since such were her feelings, it only remained, [Darcy] thought, to secure and expedite a marriage".^[13]

She dominates her older sister Kitty. She has resisted attempts by her elder sisters Jane and Elizabeth to correct her behaviour, and is supported in the family by her mother, with whom she shares a rapport, who indulges all of her 'silly', forward and selfish behaviour, and has for years filled Lydia's head with tales of lace, bonnets, and high fashions:

"[Lydia] is very young; she has never been taught to think on serious subjects; and for the last half-year, nay, for a twelvemonth, she has been given up to nothing but amusement and vanity. She has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner, and to adopt any opinions that came in her way. Since the ----shire were first quartered in Meryton, nothing but love, flirtation, and officers have been in her head. She has been doing every thing in her power, by thinking and talking on the subject, to give greater – what shall I call it? – susceptibility to her feelings, which are naturally lively enough".^[13]

Likewise, Lydia's behaviour was only allowed to descend further due to her father's indolence, he not taking seriously how Lydia's behaviour might negatively affect the Bennets.

Lydia is careless with her money, always spending more than her pin money allows, receiving more money from her mother ("and the continual presents in money which passed to her through her mother's hands, Lydia's expences had been very little within [£100 per annum]"), and going to her sisters to borrow money (which she then never pays back). Like each of her sisters, Lydia had an allowance/pin money of £40 per annum before her marriage to Wickham, after which she started receiving £100 per annum (for the rest of her father's life).

Her behaviour leads to her running off to London with George Wickham, although he has no intention of marrying her ("[Lydia] cared for none of her friends; she wanted no help of [Darcy's]; she would not hear of leaving Wickham; she was sure they should be married some time or other, and it did not much signify when. Since such were her feelings, it only remained, [Darcy] thought, to secure and expedite a marriage, which, in [Darcy's very first conversation with Wickham, [Darcy] easily learnt had never been [Wickham's] design. [Wickham] confessed himself obliged to leave the regiment on account of some debts of honour which were very pressing; and scrupled not to lay all the ill consequences of Lydia's flight on her own folly alone.") Having been pampered all of her life by her mother (and left unrestrained by her father) she has never exhibited any foresight, and so cannot think beyond her own needs and desires; Lydia also shows no regard for the moral code of her society, and no remorse for the shame and disgrace she causes her family, merely thinking of it as a "good joke", and how envious her sisters and friends would be of her that she was the first of them to be married; this she seems to view as something of a real accomplishment, especially as she is the youngest of them.

Of the three youngest Bennet sisters, Lydia is seen the most. It is said in volume 3, chapter 19 (the epilogue) that, now married, Lydia was not living the 'high life', but did not seem to notice. "It had always been evident to [Elizabeth] that such an income as theirs ... must be insufficient to their support; and whenever they changed their quarters, either Jane or [Elizabeth], were sure to be applied to, for some little assistance towards discharging their bills. Their manner of living ... was unsettled in the extreme. They were always moving from place to place in quest of a cheap situation, and always spending more than they ought. [Wickham]'s affection for [Lydia] soon sunk into indifference: [Lydia's] lasted a little longer; and in spite of her youth and her manners, she retained all the claims to reputation which her marriage had given her."

Additional edit

Notes edit

^ "her appetite and nights are very good, but she sometimes complains of an asthma, a dropsy, water in her chest, and a liver disorder" (18 December 1798); "For a day or two last week my mother was very poorly with a return of one of her old complaints" (17 January 1809). Even A Memoir of Jane Austen, in 1870, and Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters (by William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh), in 1913, present Mrs Austen as a patient much more angelic.
^ Complete title: An Enquiry Into the Duties of Men in the Higher and Middle Classes of Society in Great Britain, Resulting From Their Respective Stations, Professions, and Employments

References edit

^ Austen 2006, p. 135.
^ Kuiper, Kathleen. "Bennet family". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
^ Renu Goswami, Ritu Kumaran, Renu Goswami , Ritu Kumaran (2018). "Taking the High Road, A Study of Jane Austen\'s Identification and Classification of Characters Based on \'Class\' in Pride and Prejudice". International Journal of English and Literature. 8 (2): 25–28. doi:10.24247/ijelapr20184.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Mohammed, Amjad Azam (1 December 2016). "Marriage In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice". International Journal of Media Culture and Literature. 2 (4): 59–73.
^ "Gracia Fay Ellwood". jasna.org. Retrieved 2022-03-21.
^ Wohlfeil, Markus; Whelan, Susan (2007). "Confessions of a Movie-Fan: Introspection Into a Consumer's Experiential Consumption of 'Pride & Prejudice'". ACR European Advances. E-08.
^ Kamal, Sheelan S (2018). Trauma and Remedies for Traumatic Experiences in Four of Jane Austen's Novels (Thesis). ProQuest 2051788900.
^ Baker, William. "Critical Companion to Jane Austen: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work". Facts on File, 2008, p.407.
^ Austen, Jane (2010). Bury, Laurent (ed.). Orgueil et préjugés (in French). Translated by Bury (Nouvelle ed.). Paris: Flammarion. p. 17. ISBN 978-2-08-122951-8.
^ ^a ^b Tanner 1986, p. 124.
^ Morris, Ivor (Winter 2004). "Elizabeth and Mr. Bennet". Persuasions. Vol. 25, no. 1.
^ Bottomer 2007, p. 81.
^ ^a ^b ^c Austen 2002, p. 250.
^ Austen 2002, p. 44.
^ Austen 2002, p. 45.
^ ^a ^b Austen 2002, p. 142.
^ "Genealogical Charts". Pemberly. Republic of Pemberley. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
^ Thaler, Joanna L. (2009). "Re-discovering the Gardiner Family". JASNA. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
^ ^a ^b Austen, Jane (5 August 2010). Pride and Prejudice. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-19-278986-0.
^ Austen 1853, p. 23.
^ Austen 1853, p. 54.
^ ^a ^b Bottomer 2007, p. 83.
^ Austen 1853, p. 269.
^ McAleer, John (1989). "The Comedy of Social Distinctions in Pride and Prejudice". Persuasions. No. 11. pp. 70–76. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
^ Austen 1853, p. 270.
^ Woolf, Virginia. . The Common Reader. Archived from the original on 2012-03-28. Retrieved 2013-02-14 – via University of Adelaide.
^ Todd 2005, p. 98.
^ ^a ^b Tanner 1986, p. 31.
^ Goubert 1975, p. 60.
^ Austen 1853, p. 118.
^ ^a ^b Goubert 1975, p. 94.
^ Goubert 1975, p. 93.
^ Goubert 1975, p. 95.
^ Martin 2007, p. 67.
^ Bottomer 2007, p. 64.
^ Austen 1853, p. 267.
^ Austen 1853, p. 288.
^ Austen 1853, p. 337.
^ Benson, Mary Margaret (1989). "Mothers, Substitute Mothers, and Daughters in the Novels of Jane Austen". Persuasions. No. 11. pp. 117–124. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
^ Le Faye 2003, pp. 201–203.
^ Quindlen, Anna (1995). Introduction. Pride and Prejudice. By Austen, Jane. New York: Modern Library. p. viii. ISBN 0-679-60168-6.
^ "The original Lydia? Portrait discovery delights Jane Austen museum". The Guardian. 2020-04-07. Retrieved 2021-08-21.

Kuiper, Kathleen. "Bennet family". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 2021-04-10.

Bibliography edit

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—— (2006). Pride and Prejudice. Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax Ltd. ISBN 9780954840198.
Auerbach, Emily (2004). Searching for Jane Austen. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-20184-8.
Bottomer, Phyllis Ferguson (2007). So Odd a Mixture: Along the Autistic Spectrum in "Pride and Prejudice". London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ISBN 9781843104995.
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