---
type: Person
title: Catherine Bennet
description: Second-youngest Bennet daughter of Longbourn, overshadowed by Lydia until
  her sisters' marriages let her improve.
resource: raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt
tags:
- bennet-family
- longbourn
- hertfordshire
- gentry
aliases:
- Kitty
- Kitty Bennet
timestamp: '2026-07-16T18:15:29Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

Catherine — always called Kitty — is the second-youngest of [Mr.](../persons/mr-bennet.md) and
[Mrs. Bennet](../persons/mrs-bennet.md)'s five daughters.[^s1] Her father calls her and
[Lydia](../persons/lydia-bennet.md) "two of the silliest girls in the country" after overhearing them
talk of nothing but the militia officers, and she regularly walks with Lydia into
[Meryton](../misc/meryton.md) to see them.[^s2] When Lydia is invited to Brighton for the summer,
Kitty is bitterly jealous at being left behind.[^s3]

## After Lydia's marriage

When [Bingley](../persons/charles-bingley.md) arrives at Longbourn with an unfamiliar guest, it is
Kitty who first spots him from the window and identifies him — "it looks just like that man that
used to be with him before... that tall, proud man" — as [Mr. Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md).[^s4]
Later, when [Mrs. Bennet](../persons/mrs-bennet.md) tries to signal Kitty out of the room to leave
Jane alone with Bingley, Kitty fails to take the hint, asking innocently, "What is the matter, mamma?
What do you keep winking at me for?"[^s5] Walking with [Elizabeth](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md)
and Darcy toward Lucas Lodge, Kitty is "too much afraid of him to talk," and turns off to visit Maria
Lucas, leaving Elizabeth and Darcy alone together.[^s6] She later declines to join Elizabeth and
Darcy on a long walk to Oakham Mount, owning "that she had rather stay at home."[^s7]

After Elizabeth and Jane marry, Kitty spends most of her time with her two elder sisters; in their
superior society her improvement is great, and — kept carefully away from Lydia's bad influence —
she becomes, "by proper attention and management, less irritable, less ignorant, and less insipid."
Her father never allows her to visit the Wickhams despite Lydia's repeated invitations.[^s8]

## See also

- [Lydia Bennet](../persons/lydia-bennet.md)
- [Mr. Bennet](../persons/mr-bennet.md)
- [Mrs. Bennet](../persons/mrs-bennet.md)
- [Elizabeth Bennet](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md)
- [Jane Bennet](../persons/jane-bennet.md)
- [Fitzwilliam Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md)
- [Meryton](../misc/meryton.md)

## Sources

[^s1]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 783-789 — the Bennet family (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s2]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 1693-1696; 1833 — Mr. Bennet's assessment of Kitty and Lydia, and their walks to Meryton (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s3]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 8885-8896 — Kitty's jealousy at being left out of the Brighton invitation (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s4]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 12459-12465 — Kitty identifies Darcy from the window (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s5]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 12881-12885 — Kitty misses her mother's hint to leave the room (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s6]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 13662-13669 — Kitty's fear of Darcy on the walk to Lucas Lodge (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s7]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 14043-14046 — Kitty declines the walk to Oakham Mount (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s8]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 14419-14427 — Kitty's improvement after living with her elder sisters (ingested 2026-07-16)
