How Does Jane Austen Present Mary Bennet

Mary Bennet is first introduced to the reader of Pride and Prejudice through the words of her father when he asks for her opinion on visiting Mr. Bingley in Netherfield: “What say you, Mary? For you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read great books and make extracts.” Mary, put on the spot, “wished to say something sensible, but knew not how.” Mr. Bennet’s sarcastic address perfectly establishes Mary’s mundane and simple character: she tries and tries to say something sensible, but ultimately does not know how. With less than a dozen lines of dialogue throughout the entire novel, she is undoubtedly the most forgotten Bennet sister. The dull and unromantic middle daughter, Mary is the only sister Jane Austen writes off as irrelevant.

Kitty has the “material advantage” of “proper attention and management” that allows her to become more like her two elder sisters – thus implying that she, too, will eventually end up with a suitable husband (263). Lydia’s reputation is saved by her marriage to Wickham. In contrast, Mary is the only sister that remains at home, unlikely to ever be married. At least, with her sisters gone, “she was no longer mortified by comparisons between her sisters’ beauty and her own” (264). However, Mary’s “happy ending” could have easily been much happier when one considers the lost potential of a marriage between Mary and Mr.

Bingley, and Elizabeth’s rejection, naturally the third Bennet sister should be next-in-line to marry Mr. Collins. In fact, the only indication we get of the existence of Mary’s romantic feelings comes from her admiration of Mr. Collins. She found that “there was a solidity in his reflections that often struck her,” and although she sought to “improve himself by such an example as hers,” she would have found him an “agreeable companion” (89). Instead, Mr. Collins’ third choice is Elizabeth’s dear friend Charlotte Lucas. Like Mary, Charlotte is plain in her looks, but she is also described as a “sensible, intelligent young woman” – two attributes Mary is not afforded. Elizabeth objects to Charlotte’s marriage to Mr. Collins on account that she thinks Charlotte is too good for his irksome personality. Although Charlotte does not think highly of “either man or matrimony,” she knows that marriage is the “only provision for well-educated young women of a small fortune” (88). At age twenty-seven, Charlotte was destined to end up a stay-at-home spinster; Mr. Collins was the only chance she had for a husband. The same can be said for Mary. Not only would her marriage to Mr. Collins have secured the Bennet estate for the family, but Mary would have a “happy ending” similar to her sisters. The fact that Austen had an opportunity to give Mary a husband but chose instead to hand it over to Elizabeth’s better qualified best friend indicates that Austen does