Among Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mrs. Bennet is the prime example of a static character. From the very beginning, learning of Mr. Bingley arriving into town, we see the wheels in Mrs. Bennet's mind start to turn. "Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune, four or five thousane a year. What a fine thing for our girls!" (6). Right away she is setting them up for the game, because in her head one of her girls has to marry the rich man. She views the thought of a wealthy man entering town as the perfect oppurtunity to have her daughters step up into the rich community. Marrying off her daughters serves as the main purpose in Mrs. Bennet's life, and she stays that way throughout the book. To everyone's dismay, Mrs. Bennet even has her eldest daughter travel to see the Bingleys by foot, since "it seems likely to rain, and then you must stay the night" (28).
Noah Bennet
Wm. S. Bennet, J.J. Lyon (LOC)
English: Detail of C. E. Brock illustration for th...Having her daughter walk through the rain and become ill was not a bad thing to Mrs. Bennet, but a way to get her daughter married off. Upon the proposal of Mr. Collins and Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet even goes so far as to say, "[I insist upon her accepting it], or I will never see her again" (96). Mr. Bennet goes on to say how she should not marry Mr. Collins, while Mrs. Bennet "talked to Elizabeth again and again, coaxed and threatened her by turns" (97). Mrs. Bennet will never give up on marrying off the girls, it's something she has always done, and always will do.
Detail of a C. E. Brock illustration for the 1895 ...
Lady Catherine confronts Elizabeth about Darcy, on...
English: Français : Une gravure de 1833 illustran...