Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is the story of the Bennet family and their romantic life. Mainly the romantic life refers to the five unmarried girls of the family: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. Their mother Mrs. Bennet was desperate to see her eldest three daughters (Elizabeth, Jane, and Lydia) married, and the news of the wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley and his friend Mr. Darcy moving to town was of major excitement for her. Mrs. Bennet was a woman on a mission in this story, and she was willing to do what it took to achieve her goal. Mrs. Bennet was the persistent type and didn't care.

Mrs. Bennet is described by the author as "a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper." As a young lady she was good looking and won her husband through her looks, but that eventually wore off when her crass behavior began to overlook her beauty. Underneath that beauty was a loud and blunderous woman. To add to the list of her not so flattering qualities, she wasn't the most intelligent person either, and she pretty much made a fool of herself whenever she spoke. Being in the upper middle class of a Georgian British society, she felt she had the right of passage to conduct herself in a rude manor and believed she deserved to get what she desired. Everyone in the story at one point or another felt that Mrs. Bennet was just a nuisance, and was very ignorant in what she said and did. I'm sure her daughters felt as if she was just too nosey and was in their personal life too much.

Throughout the book Mrs. Bennet's opinions on people change sporadically. Her feelings toward men usually change based on the belief of whether or not they will be a good fit for her daughters. She expects nothing but he best for her daughters, which is why she was so desperate for a suitor for them. Although, in her Mrs. Bennet's rude behavior she even turned away some of the same suitors she had been trying to attract. She later even becomes a major deterrent in the paths of Bingley and Darcy in the pursuit of her daughters. Mrs. Bennet was a "gold digger" so to speak, and that's why she married Mr. Bennet so she would be set for life and wouldn't have to worry. She wanted her daughters to do the same thing and be just as well off or even more so than her.

Mrs. Bennet's role as a parent was not played very well. Neither was her husband Mr. Bennet's parental role played out well. Mr. Bennet preferred to withdraw from the never ending marriage concerns of the women around him rather than offer help, and he was known for not being there for his family in trivial times. Mrs. Bennet however was overly concerned with the whole marriage situation. She fails to realize the sensibility of the situation and the true feelings of her daughters. For example, she wants Elizabeth to marry the pompous, idiotic Mr. Collins and she ridicules Jane for her love for Bingley. Her permissiveness