190 Austen, Jane
Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia—focusing mainly
on the experiences of the two eldest as they learn to
cope with the trials of society and the perils of love
with few familial connections and little fortune. Jane
and Elizabeth (Lizzy), as even their father admits,
are less silly than most girls their age and, therefore,
a great deal of the family’s hopes for the future hang
on them. With no son to whom the family estate
may pass upon Mr. Bennet’s death, it will be trans-
ferred to the girls’ ridiculous cousin, Mr. Collins.
Therefore, at least one daughter must marry a rich
man so that she will be able to support the family
upon their father’s death. The novel follows the lives
and affections of Jane and Lizzy as they navigate
both London and country society, fall in love with
men of great wealth, and overcome the impediments
associated with status and family in order to achieve
happy marriages. Jane’s beau, Charles Bingley, must
learn to grow up and shake off the control of his
friend and sisters in order to pursue his feelings for
the eldest Bennet daughter. However, the obstacles
facing Lizzy and Fitzwilliam Darcy—his pride and
her prejudice, or her pride and his prejudice—are
much greater and more difficult to overcome, as first
impressions often are.
Laura L. Guggenheim
Gender in Pride and Prejudice
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Jane Ben-
net, the eldest daughter of a country gentleman,
epitomizes the feminine ideal; she possesses all of
the qualities early 19th-century English citizens
believed a woman should. She is beautiful, mild,
obedient, sensible though capable of deep feeling,
slow to judge others, always socially amenable, and,
most important, virtuous. Each of her younger
sisters—Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia—and
every significant female character in the novel strays
further and further from this ideal, and the extent
to which each deviates parallels the extent to which
each achieves marital happiness. Mary is virtuous
and obedient, but she is certainly not sensible or
well-mannered. Her social gaffes embarrass her
sisters more than once, and she never marries. Kitty
and Lydia are described as “silly” and “vacant” and
have no talents beyond their ability to discuss the
latest fashions and admire redcoated militia officers.
Although Elizabeth and Jane’s influence improves
Kitty’s disposition, she is still unmarried when the
novel ends. Lydia, however, distinguishes herself by
her total lack of virtue, a deficiency she publicizes
when she elopes and nearly ruins her family’s repu-
tation. Lizzy, the second daughter and heroine of the
novel, embodies most of the feminine qualities Jane
possesses, though she lacks her sister’s mildness and
can be quick to criticize others. Once she receives
the letter from Mr. Darcy that details his prior
relationship with George Wickham, she begins to
recognize her flaws, and, upon correcting them, she
is able to make a very happy and prosperous match.
None of her three younger sisters nor her mother
has learned to fully perform their feminine role, and
therefore, happy marriages are impossible for them.
Mrs. Bennet makes herself ridiculous in her
attempts to be overly feminine; she fancies herself a
victim of others’ cruelty, constantly complaining that
no one regards her “nerves.” She has little respect
for decorum and embarrasses her eldest daughters
with her public prattling about private matters.
Her marriage, built on physical attraction, is now a
loveless union. Charlotte Lucas, Lizzy’s best friend,
also makes a loveless, though sensible, match when
she marries Mr. Collins. Charlotte is almost an old
maid, rather plain, poor, and eminently practical.
After Lizzy refuses Mr. Collins’s marriage proposal,
Charlotte schemes to catch the rejected rector for
herself, an activity highly discouraged among vir-
tuous women, because, as she says, marriage is the
best way to guarantee her future security. Cunning
women, however, are not virtuous women, as Mr.
Darcy meaningfully reminds Miss Bingley, a woman
who schemes so often and so overtly that she is
unable to secure a marriage of any kind. She is, per-
haps, the least feminine of all the female characters
because of her deviousness.
Male characters’ ability to perform their mas-
culine gender role parallels their wives’ capacity
to perform the feminine. Charles Bingley is an
almost-perfect specimen of early 19th-century mas-
culinity. He is charming, well-mannered, wealthy,
sensible, and good-humored. It is no wonder that
he and Jane fall in love; they each embody all of the
gender characteristics thought appropriate to mem-
bers of their sex. Fitzwilliam Darcy, on the other