Mrs. Bennet
Silly Mrs. Bennet? I beg to differ…
It has been alluded to by many scholars that Mrs. Bennet is simply a figment of Jane Austen’s comical imagination. That she is, simply put, a silly character. In order for us to agree or disagree with these scholars, we must first decide the make up of a silly character. If it is merely the fact that we can laugh at her, mock her nuances and ridicule her as we get to know her, then the Bennet mother fits the bill perfectly. She is after all, a narrow-minded and short tempered mother who’s “business of her life was to get her daughters married.” But is such a woman, who dedicates her life to the well-being of her daughters, knowing that without marriage her daughters are likely to be victims of entailment, as silly as we’d like to think? Or is she just a loving mother with “poor nerves.”
If you were to study Mrs. Bennet’s personality chart you would realize that her poor nerves are always in consistent relation to her negative self-appraisals. When a lady with such a small reservoir of self-control, attacks or is attacked at matters concerning her esteem, she is bound to behave impulsively. Lo and behold the first aspect of her “silly” nature. She means no harm to her own family but oozes of suspicion, jealousy, envy and paranoia towards others. Changing her mind towards the nature of people, like a light switch turns on and off, the mother of five daughters is known to be unbearable by most who meet her. However there might be a lesson in this madness that Austen has intended for only a select few to learn. Have you ever related so well with a particular storybook character that you pictured him or her to be you as you read along? It could, therefore mean that Austen is introducing a woman’s worst friends to the female readers through the use of Mrs. Bennet. So think not of her as a ridiculous character, rather as a sympathetic one from whom much can be learned.
Another idea that contradicts most scholarly opinions is that
It has been alluded to by many scholars that Mrs. Bennet is simply a figment of Jane Austen’s comical imagination. That she is, simply put, a silly character. In order for us to agree or disagree with these scholars, we must first decide the make up of a silly character. If it is merely the fact that we can laugh at her, mock her nuances and ridicule her as we get to know her, then the Bennet mother fits the bill perfectly. She is after all, a narrow-minded and short tempered mother who’s “business of her life was to get her daughters married.” But is such a woman, who dedicates her life to the well-being of her daughters, knowing that without marriage her daughters are likely to be victims of entailment, as silly as we’d like to think? Or is she just a loving mother with “poor nerves.”
If you were to study Mrs. Bennet’s personality chart you would realize that her poor nerves are always in consistent relation to her negative self-appraisals. When a lady with such a small reservoir of self-control, attacks or is attacked at matters concerning her esteem, she is bound to behave impulsively. Lo and behold the first aspect of her “silly” nature. She means no harm to her own family but oozes of suspicion, jealousy, envy and paranoia towards others. Changing her mind towards the nature of people, like a light switch turns on and off, the mother of five daughters is known to be unbearable by most who meet her. However there might be a lesson in this madness that Austen has intended for only a select few to learn. Have you ever related so well with a particular storybook character that you pictured him or her to be you as you read along? It could, therefore mean that Austen is introducing a woman’s worst friends to the female readers through the use of Mrs. Bennet. So think not of her as a ridiculous character, rather as a sympathetic one from whom much can be learned.
Another idea that contradicts most scholarly opinions is that