Elizabeth Bennet - The novel’s protagonist. The second daughter
of Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth is the most intelligent and sensible of the five
Bennet sisters. She is well read and quick-witted, with a tongue that
occasionally proves too sharp for her own good. Her realization of Darcy’s
essential goodness eventually triumphs over her initial prejudice against him.
Fitzwilliam Darcy - A wealthy gentleman, the master of Pemberley,
and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Though Darcy is intelligent and honest,
his excess of pride causes him to look down on his social inferiors. Over the
course of the novel, he tempers his class-consciousness and learns to admire
and love Elizabeth for her strong character.
Jane Bennet - The eldest and most beautiful Bennet sister.
Jane is more reserved and gentler than Elizabeth. The easy pleasantness with
which she and Bingley interact contrasts starkly with the mutual distaste that
marks the encounters between Elizabeth and Darcy.
Charles Bingley - Darcy’s considerably wealthy best friend.
Bingley’s purchase of Netherfield, an estate near the Bennets, serves as the
impetus for the novel. He is a genial, well-intentioned gentleman, whose
easygoing nature contrasts with Darcy’s initially discourteous demeanor. He is
blissfully uncaring about class differences.
Mr. Bennet - The patriarch of the Bennet family, a
gentleman of modest income with five unmarried daughters. Mr. Bennet has a
sarcastic, cynical sense of humor that he uses to purposefully irritate his
wife. Though he loves his daughters (Elizabeth in particular), he often fails
as a parent, preferring to withdraw from the never-ending marriage concerns of
the women around him rather than offer help.
Mrs. Bennet - Mr. Bennet’s wife, a foolish, noisy woman
whose only goal in life is to see her daughters married. Because of her low
breeding and often unbecoming behavior, Mrs. Bennet often repels the very
suitors whom she tries to attract for her daughters.
George Wickham - A handsome, fortune-hunting militia officer.
Wickham’s good looks and charm attract Elizabeth initially, but Darcy’s
revelation about Wickham’s disreputable past clues her in to his true nature
and simultaneously draws her closer to Darcy.
Lydia Bennet - The youngest Bennet sister, she is gossipy,
immature, and self-involved. Unlike Elizabeth, Lydia flings herself headlong
into romance and ends up running off with Wickham.
Mr. Collins - A pompous, generally idiotic clergyman who
stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property. Mr. Collins’s own social status is
nothing to brag about, but he takes great pains to let everyone and anyone know
that Lady Catherine de Bourgh serves as his patroness. He is the worst
combination of snobbish and obsequious.
Miss Bingley - Bingley’s snobbish sister. Miss Bingley bears
inordinate disdain for Elizabeth’s middle-class background. Her vain attempts
to garner Darcy’s attention cause Darcy to admire Elizabeth’s self-possessed
character even more.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh - A rich, bossy noblewoman; Mr. Collins’s patron
and Darcy’s aunt. Lady Catherine epitomizes class snobbery, especially in her
attempts to order the middle-class Elizabeth away from her well-bred nephew.
Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner - Mrs. Bennet’s brother and his wife. The
Gardiners, caring, nurturing, and full of common sense, often prove to be
better parents to the Bennet daughters than Mr. Bennet and his wife.
Charlotte Lucas - Elizabeth’s dear friend. Pragmatic where
Elizabeth is romantic, and also six years older than Elizabeth, Charlotte does
not view love as the most vital component of a marriage. She is more interested
in having a comfortable home. Thus, when Mr. Collins proposes, she accepts.
Georgiana Darcy - Darcy’s sister. She is immensely pretty and
just as shy. She has great skill at playing the pianoforte.
Mary Bennet - The middle Bennet sister, bookish and
pedantic.
Catherine Bennet - The fourth Bennet sister. Like Lydia, she is
girlishly enthralled with the soldiers.
Analysis of Major Characters
Elizabeth Bennet
The second daughter in the Bennet family, and the most intelligent and
quick-witted, Elizabeth is the protagonist of
Pride and Prejudice and
one of the most well-known female characters in English literature. Her
admirable qualities are numerous—she is lovely, clever, and, in a novel defined
by dialogue, she converses as brilliantly as anyone. Her honesty, virtue, and
lively wit enable her to rise above the nonsense and bad behavior that pervade
her class-bound and often spiteful society. Nevertheless, her sharp tongue and
tendency to make hasty judgments often lead her astray;
Pride and Prejudice
is essentially the story of how she (and her true love, Darcy) overcome all
obstacles—including their own personal failings—to find romantic happiness.
Elizabeth must not only cope with a hopeless mother, a distant father, two
badly behaved younger siblings, and several snobbish, antagonizing females, she
must also overcome her own mistaken impressions of Darcy, which initially lead
her to reject his proposals of marriage. Her charms are sufficient to keep him
interested, fortunately, while she navigates familial and social turmoil. As
she gradually comes to recognize the nobility of Darcy’s character, she
realizes the error of her initial prejudice against him.
Fitzwilliam Darcy
The son of a wealthy, well-established family and the master of the great
estate of Pemberley, Darcy is Elizabeth’s male counterpart. The narrator
relates Elizabeth’s point of view of events more often than Darcy’s, so
Elizabeth often seems a more sympathetic figure. The reader eventually
realizes, however, that Darcy is her ideal match. Intelligent and forthright,
he too has a tendency to judge too hastily and harshly, and his high birth and
wealth make him overly proud and overly conscious of his social status. Indeed,
his haughtiness makes him initially bungle his courtship. When he proposes to
her, for instance, he dwells more on how unsuitable a match she is than on her
charms, beauty, or anything else complimentary. Her rejection of his advances
builds a kind of humility in him. Darcy demonstrates his continued devotion to
Elizabeth, in spite of his distaste for her low connections, when he rescues
Lydia and the entire Bennet family from disgrace, and when he goes against the
wishes of his haughty aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by continuing to pursue
Elizabeth. Darcy proves himself worthy of Elizabeth, and she ends up repenting
her earlier, overly harsh judgment of him.
Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley
Elizabeth’s beautiful elder sister and Darcy’s wealthy best friend, Jane and
Bingley engage in a courtship that occupies a central place in the novel. They
first meet at the ball in Meryton and enjoy an immediate mutual attraction.
They are spoken of as a potential couple throughout the book, long before
anyone imagines that Darcy and Elizabeth might marry. Despite their centrality
to the narrative, they are vague characters, sketched by Austen rather than
carefully drawn. Indeed, they are so similar in nature and behavior that they
can be described together: both are cheerful, friendly, and good-natured,
always ready to think the best of others; they lack entirely the prickly
egotism of Elizabeth and Darcy. Jane’s gentle spirit serves as a foil for her
sister’s fiery, contentious nature, while Bingley’s eager friendliness
contrasts with Darcy’s stiff pride. Their principal characteristics are
goodwill and compatibility, and the contrast of their romance with that of
Darcy and Elizabeth is remarkable. Jane and Bingley exhibit to the reader true
love unhampered by either pride or prejudice, though in their simple goodness,
they also demonstrate that such a love is mildly dull.
Mr. Bennet
Mr. Bennet is the patriarch of the Bennet household—the husband of Mrs.
Bennet and the father of Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty, and Mary. He is a man
driven to exasperation by his ridiculous wife and difficult daughters. He
reacts by withdrawing from his family and assuming a detached attitude
punctuated by bursts of sarcastic humor. He is closest to Elizabeth because
they are the two most intelligent Bennets. Initially, his dry wit and
self-possession in the face of his wife’s hysteria make him a sympathetic
figure, but, though he remains likable throughout, the reader gradually loses
respect for him as it becomes clear that the price of his detachment is
considerable. Detached from his family, he is a weak father and, at critical
moments, fails his family. In particular, his foolish indulgence of Lydia’s
immature behavior nearly leads to general disgrace when she elopes with
Wickham. Further, upon her disappearance, he proves largely ineffective. It is
left to Mr. Gardiner and Darcy to track Lydia down and rectify the situation.
Ultimately, Mr. Bennet would rather withdraw from the world than cope with it.
Mrs. Bennet
Mrs. Bennet is a miraculously tiresome
character. Noisy and foolish, she is a woman consumed by the desire to see her
daughters married and seems to care for nothing else in the world. Ironically,
her single-minded pursuit of this goal tends to backfire, as her lack of social
graces alienates the very people (Darcy and Bingley) whom she tries desperately
to attract. Austen uses her continually to highlight the necessity of marriage
for young women. Mrs. Bennet also serves as a middle-class counterpoint to such
upper-class snobs as Lady Catherine and Miss Bingley, demonstrating that
foolishness can be found at every level of society. In the end, however, Mrs.
Bennet proves such an unattractive figure, lacking redeeming characteristics of
any kind, that some readers have accused Austen of unfairness in portraying
her—as if Austen, like Mr. Bennet, took perverse pleasure in poking fun at a
woman already scorned as a result of her ill breeding.
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