PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Caroline Bingley
The younger of Bingley's two sisters, Miss Bingley is rich, attractive, elegant, snobbish, and conniving. She is determined to marry Darcy, flattering him constantly -- though in vain -- and disparaging Lizzy at every opportunity. She treats Jane like a dear friend while secretly undermining her relationship with Bingley, who she hopes will marry Darcy's little sister.


Charles Bingley
Bingley is half as rich as Darcy, meaning very rich indeed, and he has just begun renting a manor house near the Bennets'. He is outgoing, affable, good-looking, charming, and so open and artless that everyone can tell almost immediately that he is in love with Jane. But he is also somewhat flighty -- boasting to Mrs. Bennet that "whatever I do is done in a hurry" -- and thus susceptible to the persuasions of Darcy and his sisters, who oppose his marrying into the Bennet family.


Elizabeth Bennet
The second of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's five daughters, who has inherited her mother's beauty and her father's intelligence. At 20, Lizzy has perfect manners, but she is as witty and independent-minded as the period's strict social code will allow. She finds her mother's vulgarity humiliating, but reproaching her for it, even in private, would be a breach of decorum. On the other hand, she publicly teases Mr. Darcy for his lack of chivalry, and her willingness to assert her own opinions shocks Lady Catherine, who is used to the deference and even the awe of those around her.


As attractive as they are to modern readers, however, Lizzy's independence and willfulness are the chief obstacles in the book's romantic plot, for they lead her to the prejudice of the title. The night she meets Mr. Darcy, he shows obvious contempt for her family, friends and neighbors, and she accidentally overhears him making some belittling remarks about her. That is enough to convince her to dislike him on principle. Though Wickham later misrepresents Darcy's character to her, she is too eager to believe him, and too willing to ignore the inconsistencies in his story, because of her determination to think badly of Darcy.


Otherwise, however, she is a model of late-18th-century upper-class feminine virtue: like her father, she reads a great deal; she both plays the piano and sings well; she is clever of speech; and she is a devoted and affectionate friend and sister. When Jane falls ill during her visit to Netherfield, Lizzy hikes three miles across country to take care of her -- climbing over fences and muddying her petticoats -- rather than recall any of her father's horses from their vital farm work. Bingley's sisters deride such unladylike exertion, but it speaks volumes about Lizzy's sensibility, self-reliance, and compassion.


Fitzwilliam Darcy
Mr. Darcy supplies the pride of the title, and he has good reason for it: he is not only tall, handsome, and clever, but filthy rich. At 28, he is the sole owner of the Pemberley estate in Derbyshire, which generates an annual revenue of 10,000 pounds, making him one of England's 400 richest people.


Darcy is well bred -- he attends to all the formalities that civility demands of him -- but he does not go out of his way to make others feel comfortable. He has no patience for frivolousness: he would rather sit silent than engage in vacuous small talk, and he doesn't like to dance, which is counted a serious fault in an eligible bachelor. Because of his natural dignity and contempt for vulgarity, his reticence makes him appear haughty -- though that appearance is heightened by his arrogant conviction that, in accompanying his friend Bingley to Hertfordshire, he has slipped several rungs down the social ladder. None of the locals likes him.


But after Lizzy refuses his (first) offer of marriage, he proves himself, in an attempt to "obtain [her] forgiveness" and "lessen [her] ill opinion," capable of great charm and generosity. He even ignores the difference in rank between himself and Lizzy's uncle and aunt Gardiner, who are not landowners. We also discover that the housekeeper at his estate has "never had a cross word from him" in 24 years, that he is "affable to the poor," and that he indulges and dotes on his younger sister -- though she still remains a little bit afraid of him.


George Wickham
Mr. Wickham was Darcy's boyhood companion and the son of his father's steward, a former lawyer and an honorable man who ran the Darcy estate until his death. Wickham is polite, devastatingly handsome, charming, well-spoken -- and utterly worthless. Darcy's father had bequeathed Wickham a parsonage, which would have provided him a good, comfortable living, but Wickham renounced it in exchange for three thousand pounds in cash, which he quickly squandered. When Darcy refused to give him any more money, Wickham seduced his 15-year-old sister and attempted to elope with her. He leaves huge debts wherever he goes, and tries to insinuate himself with every rich woman he meets.


Jane Bennett
Jane is the Bennet's oldest daughter, well bred, gentle, and even prettier than Lizzy -- though not as quick witted. Indeed, she is so mild mannered that her ardor for Bingley looks to Darcy like complete indifference. She finds it distressing to think badly of anyone and is consequently the only resident of Hertfordshire to find any virtue in Darcy. She cannot even motivate herself to censure Wickham, until she learns of his gambling debts. Jane and Lizzy are each other's most intimate confidantes.


Lady Catherine De Bourgh
Darcy's aunt and Mr. Collins's benefactor: arrogant and vain of her rank, yet ungracious and unusually direct in her manner of speech. She does very little herself but takes pleasure in instructing all those around her in the conduct of their own affairs. Despite her incivility, however, she requires constant company to stave off boredom.


Mr. Bennet
Mr. Bennet is a gentleman, meaning he lives off the rent and the farm revenue generated by his estate. He married his wife for her beauty and youthful exuberance, neither of which compensated very long for her inanity. He thus spends most of his time alone in his library, reading. While he commands deference as head of the household, his conversation is usually limited to mild but witty ridicule of his wife, neighbors, and younger daughters, whom he makes little effort to keep in line. Indeed, he makes little effort at anything. He is, however, devoted to Lizzy, in whose intelligence and satirical bent he sees the reflection of his own.


William Collins
Since Mr. Bennet has no sons, his 25-year-old nephew Mr. Collins is, to everyone's chagrin, the heir of his estate. He is also, in Lizzy's words, "a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man." Mr. Collins owes his current position as a parson to the patronage of Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh. He is awed by her nobility and talks about her, and the magnificence of her estate, almost constantly, adding shameless pandering to his habitual faults of long-windedness and pomposity.
Other CharactersMary Bennet: The third and plainest of the Bennet girls, Mary spends all her time playing the piano and reading moralistic literature that gives her an endless supply of sanctimonious aphorisms.


Catherine (Kitty) Bennet: The fourth of the Bennet girls, Kitty tags after Lydia and complains when she doesn't get as much attention.


Lydia Bennet: The youngest of the Bennet girls, Lydia is a somewhat less attractive version of her mother at 16: loud, exuberant, thoughtless, vulgar, and boy crazy.


Edward Gardiner: Mrs. Bennet's brother, an honest, honorable, friendly man who lives in London. He is wealthy, but since he made his money in trade, the landed gentry look down on him.


Mrs. Gardiner: Mrs. Bennet's sister-in-law, whose good sense, good manners, and perceptiveness make her a favorite with Lizzy and Jane.


Sir William Lucas: The Bennets' neighbor in Hertfordshire, Sir William is so outgoing that he sometimes oversteps the bounds of decorum, and so solicitous that he sometimes intrudes on other people's personal affairs. But no one doubts his good heart.


Lady Lucas: Lady Lucas is, aside from Mrs. Phillips, Mrs. Bennet's most regular gossip partner. The two women also have a friendly rivalry: Lady Lucas's estate is less grand than the Bennets', but her husband is a knight; her daughter is less pretty, but she manages to get married first.


Charlotte Lucas: Kind, plain, and practical, Charlotte is Lizzy's best friend -- until she shows the bad judgment of marrying Mr. Collins. At 27, however, Charlotte has few alternatives that will guarantee her as much security.


Marie Lucas: Charlotte's younger sister. Marie's sole purpose in the story is to be so overwhelmed by Lady Catherine's grandeur that she can hardly speak.


Georgiana Darcy: Mr. Darcy's sister, 12 years his junior, who worships her older brother and, because she finds his example so intimidating, is shy and diffident in public. Nonetheless, she is pretty, bright, kind, and accomplished.


Colonel Fitzwilliam: Darcy's cousin, who is much more affable and outgoing, but much less dashing.


Miss De Bourgh: Lady Catherine's daughter, a sickly, pale, emaciated little thing who hardly speaks but nonetheless finds ways to be inconsiderate. Her mother intends her to be Darcy's wife.


Louisa Hurst: The eldest of Bingley's two sisters, Mrs. Hurst serves only to second her sister's opinions and abet her connivances.


Mr. Hurst: Bingley's brother-in-law, who lives only to hunt, eat, drink, play cards and, when none of those options is available, to sleep.


Aunt Phillips: Mrs. Bennet's sister, who is, if anything, even ruder and more embarrassing.


Uncle Phillips: Mrs. Bennet's brother-in-law, who inherited her father's law practice in Meryton, a town just a mile or so from the Bennet estate.


Colonel Forster: The head of the militia unit in which Wickham enlists, which is initially quartered in Meryton.


Mrs. Forster: The colonel's wife, who, easygoing and exuberant herself, takes a liking to Lydia, thereby precipitating her disastrous elopement with Wickham.