A Woman of Mean Understanding: A Closer Look into The Subversive Behavior of Mrs. Bennet by Hannah Lathrop

Hannah Lathrop

Professor Sinowitz

Tps:Romantic Comedy

11 March 2020

A Woman of Mean Understanding: A Closer Look into The Subversive Behavior of Mrs. Bennet

In class discussions, we often criticized the brash decisions Mrs. Bennet makes to get her daughters married. Certainly, Jane Austen never intended for anyone to read the character, Mrs. Bennet, seriously; her dialogue and actions venturing on shameless. However, while there are strong points of criticism towards Mrs. Bennet, she naturally subverts tradition. Her character's motivation to make sure her daughters are financially secure is legitimate. She is outspoken against the entail, constantly questioning why her daughters cannot inherit the property that should be theirs. She is not afraid to speak against Mr. Darcy despite his superior rank. She fully accepts and welcomes Lydia after her elopement with Wickham. While Mrs. Bennet is portrayed with an air of obliviousness to the social conventions around her, she does what she wants. In this way, Mrs. Bennet pushes traditional social boundaries.

The novel tends to depict Mrs. Bennet as foolish or stupid. Likewise, the “reasonable” characters of the story all view her as such. Mr. Bennet, for example, frequently condescends his wife. From the first chapter, he mocks her. Mrs. Bennet desperately wants her husband to meet with Mr. Bingley, yet Mr. Bennet holds that over her head. He claims he won’t with the full intention of irritating her. Mrs. Bennet is juxtaposed against her husband as "a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news"(Austen, 4). From the beginning, the narrator emphasizes Mrs. Bennet’s ill-temperament. While the exchange highlights Mr. Bennet’s quick wit and sarcasm and Mrs. Bennet’s lack thereof, it exposes the incessant quality the story has of belittling her character.

Despite being teased for it, Mrs. Bennet has a legitimate reason for her insistence that her husband meets with Mr. Bingley. She holds the misplaced yet genuine motivation to see her daughter’s future secured. Mr. Bennet has no male heir, so his property is entailed on his cousin, Mr. Collins. Thus, upon the death of Mr. Bennet, his daughters get nothing. If they want to retain their extravagant lifestyle, they have no choice but to marry well. Mrs. Bennet recognizes this and has made it her business to get her daughters married because no one else will. Jane's passivity and Lizzie’s resistance to marriage fail to recognize the direness of their financial situation. While Mrs. Bennet’s schemes verge on destructive, her actions are all for the sake of her daughters.

Not only does Mrs. Bennet wants the best for her daughters, but she also speaks against the misogynistic tradition. She complains, “I do think it is the hardest thing in the world, that your estate should be entailed away from your own children; and I am sure, if I had been you, I should have tried long ago to do something or other about it” (Austen, 31). While the text implies Mrs. Bingley can’t understand the concept of an entail, she more so can’t comprehend the injustice of it. Elizabeth and Jane try to explain the entailment as inevitable, yet Mrs. Bennet wants something done about it. And, that might not be so crazy. According to an analysis of the synchronal English land law, “If the restriction on Longbourn was an entailment standing alone—which would have in all likelihood cut off any provision for the Bennet daughters—then the current life tenant (i.e., Mr. Bennet) could have ‘barred the entail’. This term means that Mr. Bennet could have stopped the property from going to Mr. Collins through a fairly simple legal proceeding” (Appel, 609). If Austen was aware of the law at the time, this implies Mr. Bennet never tried or simply didn’t care to stop the entailment. Under this light, it is highly ironic that Mrs. Bennet is mocked for her calls to action.

In part, characters look down on Mrs. Bennet for her low social standing. For example, Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine both intervene in their daughters' marriage. However, Lady Catherine has the wealth and status to be recognized by others. The property, upon Lady Catherine's death, will go to her daughter, Anne. She says, “Your father’s estate is entailed on Mr. Collins, I think. For [Charlotte's] sake, I am glad of it; but otherwise I see no occasion for entailing estates from the female line. It was not thought necessary in Sir Lewis de Bourgh’s family” (Austen, 74). Unlike Lady Catherine, Mrs. Bennet is the daughter of a Meryton lawyer. Her marriage with Mr. Bennet raised her to the gentry class, but due to the entail, she has no claim over any land. Due to her lower class, Mrs. Bennet’s actions are often considered out-of-turn.

Mrs. Bennet’s status also contributes to her degradation within her marriage. Due to her low familial status, Mr. Bennet is her social superior. While Mr. Bennet raised her social status, she contributes nothing to the marriage. The circumstances of their nuptials foreshadowed their bitter arrangement. Mr. Bennet married Mrs. Bennet for her beauty. Beyond this shallow attraction, he held no love for Mrs. Bennet. Mr. Bennet does not respect his wife: “to his wife he was very little otherwise indebted, than as her ignorance and folly had contributed to his amusement” (Austen, 105). He derides Mrs. Bennet as punishment for his folly. Mr. Bennet’s behavior and comments towards his wife only further trivialize her character.

Despite her low position in the family, she sticks up for her daughters with no regard for her own propriety. For example, she condemns Mr. Bingley for leaving Jane, “He used my daughter extremely ill; and if I was her, I would not have put up with it. Well, my comfort is, I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart; and then he will be sorry for what he has done” (Austen, 101). She quickly jumps in defense of her daughters. However, in doing so, Mrs. Bennet talks out of turn. She openly insults Mr. Darcy: “What is Mr. Darcy to me, pray, that I should be afraid of him? I am sure we owe him no such particular civility as to be obliged to say nothing he may not like to hear” (Austen, 46-47). She wears her opinion on her sleeve. While she does so against Lizzie’s wishes, she has Lizzie’s best intentions in mind. Mrs. Bennet shows fearlessness in a society where reputation is everything. In one of the most scandalous moments of the book, Lydia elopes with Wickman. The action sent the house into a frenzy, and Mrs. Bennet would not leave her room for the shock of it. However, she fully accepts the return of Lydia to the Bennet estate. While the rest of the family attempts to ostracize Lydia, Mrs. Bennet only expresses pride for her marriage. Moreover, she refuses to condemn her daughter for her sexuality. While she acts with what others would consider too much liberty, she does not apologize for it.

Mrs. Bennet in her impertinence incites irritation from the reader and the characters around her. Her actions are loud and ineffective; her silliness makes her incapable of going about things respectably. Mrs. Bennet’s foolishness delegitimizes her intentions in Pride and Prejudice. However, while the book constantly belittles Mrs. Bennet’s character, she still advocates for her daughters. Mrs. Bennet speaks out against what she finds unjust and acts in her own fashion. In her shamelessness, she has freedom from societal tradition.

Works Cited

Appel, Peter A. A Funhouse Mirror of Law: The Entailment in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice , 41 Ga. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 609 (2013),

Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/fac_artchop/959

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Modern Library, 1995. Print.