Mrs Bennet's Favorite Daughter Character Analysis

choose to lead. An example from the text would include the scene in which Mrs. Bennet sends Jane to Netherfield to dine with Ms. Bingley, but does not allow her to take a horse, even though Mrs. Bennet is aware it is supposed to rain. Instead, Jane must walk in the rain all the way to Netherfield. This act can be seen as malicious and neglectful as Mrs. Bennet put her daughter’s health in harm’s way (Jane did end up sick in bed at Netherfield for days) in order for her to spend some quality time with Mr. Bingley. Manheimer also sees an inherent juxtaposition of concern for her daughter’s honor and their wardrobe. Meaning that Mrs. Bennet cares just as much about the appearance of her daughters as she does about the honor they uphold when out …show more content…
Bennet’s Least Favorite Daughter” when he discusses the scene where Elizabeth enters the novel for the first time in chapter two. Mrs. Bennet comes off with an intrusive, rude, and resentful tone as she completely takes over “Elizabeth’s right of reply” to Mr. Bennet (Wiltshire 183), which again can be taken as another moment in time where Mrs. Bennet is disinterested in what Elizabeth has to say. Wiltshire goes so far as to say that Darcy and Elizabeth’s problems all stem from one external source – Mrs. Bennet. Ivor Morris, a university lecturer, also points out that Elizabeth is Mrs. Bennet’s least favorite child, but Morris defends it stating, “in her befuddled consciousness of being the butt of her husband’s ridicule, is not to take it out on the sibling most like him” (par. 2), meaning Morris believes that Mrs. Bennet subconsciously likes Elizabeth less because she is most like Mr. Bennet, who continually uses Mrs. Bennet as a means for jokes. Scholar James Sherry1 takes it a step farther in his essay “Pride and Prejudice: The Limits of Society,” by declaring “our sense of rights and wrongs of characters like Mr. and Mrs. Bennet… we are slowly led to an appreciation of Darcy’s superiority” (Sherry 619). Sherry is demeaning Mr. and Mrs. Bennet passed being terrible parents, and right into stating that their only function in the story is to show how much better …show more content…
Fisher, Sarah L. Strout, Shana’e Clark, Shelby Lewis, and Michelle Wehbe collaborated to write “Pride and Prejudice or Family and Flirtation?: Jane Austen’s Depiction of Women’s Mating Strategies” which describes the act of courtship leading to marriage. In the Regency era, men and women could not date or interact in private, and male family members closely guarded young women. Austen’s women were collectively active in competing for desired males, spurred on by Mrs. Bennet’s constant pleading and manipulation to make sure her daughters wound up marrying men that were rich and proper. Well-to-do men like Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley were the type of suitors that most parents wanted for their daughters, despite whether they felt attraction or compatibility. David Lemming, professor at University of Adelaide, wrote the essay “Marriage and the Law in the Eighteenth Century: Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753” which seeks to explain why parents were so heavily involved into the marriage of their children. The Marriage Act of the 1753 was one that gave authoritarian power “of the economic and political interests of parents over their children, rather than growth and recognition of love and individual rights in the family” (Lemmings 341-342). Most parents were in favor of their children marrying for love… as long as that love feel into the bounds of their social rank. Yet, when all is said and done, parents got the last say in whether a marriage would happen