by Lisa Asanuma

Created on: January 18, 2009

The very first characters we meet in Pride and Prejudice are Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, parents of the five Bennet girls, who form the central family in the novel. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are immediately set up as foils to one another. Mrs. Bennet is foolish and indulgent, focusing throughout the book on nothing but opportunities to get her daughters married off. Mr. Bennet on the other hand, is more sensible, but he never particularly bothers to cull his wife's sillinesshe'd rather go into his library and shut himself away from it all.

Now the Bennet girls themselves can, understandably, be divided into the older and younger girls. The older girls are Jane and Elizabeth Bennet, whose romantic entanglements form the heart of the book. We'll get back to them in a moment. The younger girls are Mary, Katherine (called Kitty), and Lydia. Mary is entirely pedantic. Everything she knows and everything she thinks comes directly from what she has read in booksshe has no observations and opinions of her own, though she goes to lengths to make her rote-memory views known. She plays the piano not for the music, but because piano-playing is a highly-appreciated skill. Kitty has even less to her characterKitty is a determined shadow to her younger sister, Lydia.

Lydia Bennet, however, is definitely worth taking a closer look at. Lydia is the youngest of the Bennet girls, but possibly the most headstrong among them. She is the most like her mother, silly, flirtatious, and completely uninhibited. She might be a very modern, impressive young woman, if she weren't so easily taken in by flattery and a bit too apt to leap before looking. Then again, she never regretsor indeed, seems to realize her mistakes in the novel. She looks for nothing but excitement and amusement, however improperly they come to her. It is Lydia's running away with the dubious Wickham that sets resolutions on their course, however, so we can hardly begrudge the girl for long.

And now we get to the meat of the story, Elizabeth and Jane, and their subsequent loves. Jane is everything sweet and good and proper, not to mention the unmistakable beauty of the family. This draws immediate attention from Mr. Charles Bingley, who is new to the neighborhood. In fact, it is the rich Bingley's arrival in the neighborhood that sparks the ever-so-famous "universally acknowledged" opening line. If Jane does have a flaw, it is that she is very shy and restrained about her feelings, leaving Bingley in question of them, and willing

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