---
type: Person
title: Mrs. Bennet
description: Mistress of Longbourn, mother of five daughters, whose life's business
  is getting them married.
resource: raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt
tags:
- bennet-family
- longbourn
- hertfordshire
- gentry
aliases:
- Mrs Bennet
timestamp: '2026-07-16T18:15:29Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

Mrs. Bennet is the wife of [Mr. Bennet](../persons/mr-bennet.md) and mother of
[Jane](../persons/jane-bennet.md), [Elizabeth](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md),
[Mary](../persons/mary-bennet.md), Catherine ("Kitty"), and [Lydia](../persons/lydia-bennet.md).[^s1]
The narration describes her as "a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain
temper," who "fancied herself nervous" when discontented; "the business of her life was to get her
daughters married: its solace was visiting and news."[^s1] Her father had been an attorney in
Meryton and left her four thousand pounds; her sister married a Mr. Philips, her father's former
clerk, and a brother settled in trade in London.[^s2]

On hearing that [Netherfield Park](../misc/netherfield-park.md) has been let to a wealthy single
man, [Mr. Bingley](../persons/charles-bingley.md), she immediately presses her husband to visit
him for the sake of marrying off one of their daughters.[^s3] Elizabeth is the daughter she likes
least; she considers Elizabeth "not a bit better than the others," "not half so handsome as Jane,"
and "not half so good-humoured as Lydia."[^s4] When Elizabeth refuses [Mr. Collins](../persons/mr-collins.md)'s
proposal, Mrs. Bennet threatens never to speak to her again and tries, unsuccessfully, to have
Mr. Bennet compel the marriage.[^s5]

News that [Lydia](../persons/lydia-bennet.md) has eloped with [Wickham](../persons/george-wickham.md)
overwhelms her: she receives her daughters home "with tears and lamentations of regret, invectives
against the villainous conduct of Wickham," blaming everyone but herself and lamenting, "if I had
been able to carry my point in going to Brighton with all my family, this would not have
happened."[^s6] When word comes that Wickham has agreed to marry Lydia, her distress reverses into
uncomplicated joy — "My dear, dear Lydia!... this is delightful indeed! She will be married!" — and
her thoughts turn immediately to wedding clothes, with no sign of shame at the manner of the
match.[^s7]

## Bingley's return and two engagements

When news arrives that [Bingley](../persons/charles-bingley.md) is returning to
[Netherfield Park](../misc/netherfield-park.md), Mrs. Bennet revives all her old scheming to bring
him together with [Jane](../persons/jane-bennet.md), while loudly protesting to her sister,
Mrs. Philips, that "he is nothing to us" and she never wants to see him again.[^s8] On Jane's
engagement, she is beside herself with joy, unable to speak "her approbation in terms warm enough,"
and instantly forgets Wickham and Lydia in her delight.[^s9] On learning of
[Elizabeth](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md)'s engagement to [Mr. Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md),
whom she had always professed to dislike, she is struck speechless for several minutes before
erupting into rapture over his ten-thousand-a-year fortune, a house in town, and "what pin-money,
what jewels, what carriages" Elizabeth will have — with no apology beyond asking Elizabeth to make
her own excuses to Darcy for having disliked him.[^s10] The narration notes that even three
daughters' advantageous marriages never make Mrs. Bennet "a sensible, amiable, well-informed woman";
she remains "occasionally nervous and invariably silly" for the rest of her life.[^s11]

## See also

- [Mr. Bennet](../persons/mr-bennet.md)
- [Elizabeth Bennet](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md)
- [Longbourn](../misc/longbourn.md)
- [Lydia Bennet](../persons/lydia-bennet.md)
- [Jane Bennet](../persons/jane-bennet.md)
- [Fitzwilliam Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md)
- [Charles Bingley](../persons/charles-bingley.md)
- [Catherine Bennet](../persons/catherine-bennet.md)

## Sources

[^s1]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 783-789 — Mrs. Bennet's character and family (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s2]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 1659-1665 — Mrs. Bennet's father, sister, and brother (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s3]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 667-693 — Mrs. Bennet urges her husband to visit Mr. Bingley (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s4]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 757-759 — Mrs. Bennet ranks her daughters (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s5]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 4725-4735, 4789-4791 — Mrs. Bennet's reaction to Elizabeth's refusal of Mr. Collins (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s6]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 10746-10747; 10752-10753 — Mrs. Bennet's reaction to news of Lydia's elopement (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s7]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 11454-11458 — Mrs. Bennet's joy on hearing Lydia is to be married (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s8]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 12362-12368 — Mrs. Bennet's protestations to Mrs. Philips about Bingley's return (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s9]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 13002-13006; 13037-13038 — Mrs. Bennet's joy at Jane's engagement (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s10]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 14153-14169 — Mrs. Bennet's reaction to Elizabeth's engagement to Darcy (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s11]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 14400-14406 — the narrator on Mrs. Bennet's unchanged character (ingested 2026-07-16)
