Alice writes:
Pride & Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice opens with a conversation between the ever calm Mr. Bennet and his wife Mrs. Bennet. This conversation depicts their separate characters very well. Mrs. Bennet comes across as a busybody focused on getting her daughters married well. In the first scene, they are discussing the fact that a mansion not far from their town, Netherfield Hall, is being rented to a wealthy Mr. Bingley. Mrs. Bennet is quite excited to pronounce him single, and declare how wonderful it is for her five daughters. Mr. Bennet, sees no such thing, and indeed asks: "'How so? How can it affect them?'"(4) Mrs. Bennet is surprised by the question, and announces that Mr. Bingley must marry one of them. Mr. Bennet is amused by this, and proceeds to mock her. Mrs. Bennet, horrified by the light he is making of the situation, chides him: "'Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves.'"(5) To which Mr. Bennet replies: "'You mistake me, my dear. I have a very high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.'"(5)
The next scene happens a day or two later, while the family is together in the house. Mr. Bennet begins by teasing his wife and daughters about Mr. Bingley, and is well rewarded by Mrs. Bennet's offended manner that he has not yet visited Mr. Bingley. For indeed, in Jane Austen's time, it was improper for a wife and children to introduce themselves to someone of the higher class without the husband beginning the acquaintance. After a bit of amusement for Mr. Bennet, and some lamenting from Mrs. Bennet, it comes out that Mr. Bennet has indeed visited Mr. Bingley. This, of course, makes his daughters and wife exceedingly glad. They promptly set out to find an apple description of Mr. Bingley. When they do finally meet him at the dance, they are delighted to find him a pleasant, polite young man. His sisters are also much liked by the company, and declared to be "fine women, with an air of decided fashion"(10). His brother-in-law Mr. Hurst is not as well liked, but it is his friend, Mr. Darcy, whom everyone resolves to dislike. At first, Mr. Darcy is popular due to his ten thousand pounds a year, and his several estates, but upon the discovery that he is antisocial and does not dance, views of him begin to degrade. They see him as proud and impossible to please. Elizabeth Bennet, the second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, chooses to detest him when he insults her. Elizabeth, or Lizzy, a very stubborn, spirited, and deciding sort of girl, tells the story to her friends, causing them to dislike Mr. Darcy as well. Meanwhile, her older sister, Jane Bennet, has captured the admiration of Mr. Bingley. Due to her good looks and charming, sweet nature, Jane also wins the liking of his sisters, Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley. Even the disagreeable Mr. Darcy acknowledges her beauty. When they return home, Mrs. Bennet gushes to her husband about every partner Mr. Bingley had during the dance, much to his annoyance. Jane and Elizabeth, on the other hand, discuss Mr. Bingley in their time alone, and Jane appears to be smitten with him. Elizabeth compliments her on this, telling her that she is far to willing to see good in everyone: "'All the world is good and agreeable in your eyes.'"(14). The contrast between Jane and Elizabeth is made clear in this conversation. Jane is a shy. warmhearted girl who sees good in everyone. Elizabeth is cynical, spirited, who is perhaps the opposite of Jane in which she is far more ready to see the bad in another's character rather than the good. She is not wholly detesting of everyone, however. She adores Mr. Bingley as well, though not quite as much as her sister does, and gives Jane her permission to like him. The girls seem just as eager as their mother to marry well, but for different reasons. Elizabeth is even appalled by her mother's incessant focus. Mrs. Bennet works within reason, however. In that time era, women could not inherit. The only chance Mrs. Bennet's daughters are going to have of getting a decent life when Mr. Bennet dies is marrying wealthy men. It sounds like social climbing, but it's true. The girls are just interested in marrying because it is really all a young lady can do.