Mr. and Mrs. Bennet

     The relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet is one that Austen illustrates as the typical husband-wife relationship of our time period. The father, Mr. Bennet, does what he thinks is best for the family and is tries to please his persistent wife. An example of this is early of the novel when Mrs. Bennet begs with the rest of her daughters to have Mr. Bennet meet with Mr. Bingley. Mr. Bennet gets some fun out of playing dumb and pretends to have no intentions of going to see him. Without his family knowing, he does in fact meet with Mr. Bingley and when the conversion turns towards being acquainted with him, Mr. Bennet slips in quite cleverly “but as I have actually paid the visit, we cannot escape the acquaintance now”. Mrs. Bennet and her daughters are overjoyed. Austen seems to create this ironic situation where Mrs. Bennet believes Mr. Bennet will not meet but “he had always intended to visit him, though to the last always assuring his wife that should not go”. Mr. Bennet to find some joy in teasing and poking fun at his wife but does what all husbands eventually do, this being do whatever pleases their spouse.

     Later in the novel though, there is an instant where Mr. and Mrs. Bennet disagree. In this instant, Austen uses the tone of the characters to convey the important of the disagreement. When Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet is infuriated because she sees the marriage and adventurous and tries to force Elizabeth into the marriage to have the family keep their house in the future. She uses am authoritarian tone to tell Elizabeth that if she does not marry Mr. Collins she will never see her again, and she asks Mr. Bennet to order Elizabeth to marry him. Austen then gives Mr. Bennet a challenging tone because he believes that Elizabeth’s morals on marriage are too important to be given up on for the family. He states strongly that he does not want her to marry Mr. Collins and to counter his wife’s threat, replies “your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do”. Ultimately, Elizabeth does not marry Mr. Collins but the significance of the event in terms of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s relationship is that as in every healthy relationship, there is some disagreement.

      Towards the end of the novel when Darcy asks for consent to marry Elizabeth, Mr. Bennet does what all fathers should for their daughter. He checks with Elizabeth to make sure this is what she wants. Finally after being convinced by Elizabeth that she truly loves Darcy, he says to her, “I have no more to say. If this be the case, he deserves you. I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to anyone less worthy.” He is happy for his daughter that she has found someone to love, but he may not have been as shocked or excited as Mrs. Bennet. At first, she is speechless but then after a minute is overjoyed. She says to Elizabeth “Good gracious! Lord bless me! Only think! dear me!...I am so pleased-so happy. Such a charming man!- so handsome! so tall!- Oh, my dear Lizzy!” Although Mrs. Bennet is a little more emphatic than Mr. Bennet, they use similar diction that praises Elizabeth on finding someone she loves. These words show that they both are proud of their daughter because, as parents, the goal is to see their children happy. Austen uses celebratory diction to represent the excitement they feel for their daughter, and this shows they achieved a goal as parents.

     Throughout the novel, Austen uses irony, tone and specific diction to describe the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. They are not only a husband and a wife, but also parents for their six daughters. They are successful in both departments because, as husband and wife, they seem to please each other for a majority of the book and as parents because at the end they have three daughters happily married daughters.

-Alex Finestone