32 Facts About Elizabeth Bennet

Elizabeth Bennet is the protagonist in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Elizabeth Bennet is often referred to as Eliza or Lizzy by her friends and family.

Elizabeth Bennet is regarded as the most admirable and endearing of Austen's heroines.

Elizabeth Bennet is considered one of the most beloved characters in British literature because of her complexity.

Elizabeth Bennet is 20 years old by the middle of the novel.

Elizabeth Bennet is described as an intelligent young woman, with "a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous".

Elizabeth Bennet's father is a landowner, but his daughters cannot inherit because the estate is entailed upon the male line.

Elizabeth Bennet is her father's favourite, described by him as having "something more of quickness than her sisters".

In contrast, she is the least dear to her mother, especially after Elizabeth Bennet refuses Mr Collins' marriage proposal.

Elizabeth Bennet's mother tends to contrast her negatively with her sisters Jane and Lydia, whom she considers superior in beauty and disposition, respectively, and fails to understand her husband's preference.

Elizabeth Bennet is often upset and embarrassed by her mother's and three younger sisters' impropriety and silliness.

The modern exegetes are torn between admiration for the vitality of the character and the disappointment of seeing Elizabeth Bennet intentionally suppress her verve and submit, at least outwardly, to male authority.

About feminist criticism of the character, the French critic Roger Martin du Gard wrote that the primary purpose of Austen was to provide jouissance to her readers, not preach, but the character of Elizabeth Bennet is able to manoeuvre within the male-dominated power structure of Regency England to assert her interests in a system that favours her father, Mr Darcy, and the other male characters.

Gard noted that the novel hardly glorifies patriarchy since it is strongly implied that it was the financial irresponsibility of Mr Elizabeth Bennet that has placed his family in a precarious social position.

Furthermore, it is Elizabeth who criticises her father for not doing more to teach her sisters Lydia and Catherine the value of a good character, which Mr Bennet disregards, leading to Lydia's eloping with Wickham.

Irvine states that the character of Elizabeth Bennet is clearly middle-class, while Mr Darcy is part of the aristocracy.

Irvine observes that Darcy spends about half his time in London while for people in Meryton London is a stylish place that is very far away, observing that a key difference is when one of the Elizabeth Bennet family is ill, they use the services of a local apothecary while Mr Darcy calls upon a surgeon from London.

Brownstein argues that Austen's ironical way of depicting Elizabeth Bennet allows her to present her heroine as both a "proto-feminist" and a "fairy-tale heroine".

At one point, Elizabeth Bennet says: "I am resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any other person wholly unconnected with me".

However, the way in which both Elizabeth Bennet's parents are portrayed as, if not bad parents, then at least not entirely good parents, implies that Elizabeth Bennet is more sensible and able to judge people better than both her mother and father, making her the best one to decide who her husband should be.

Elizabeth Bennet sees herself as an ironic observer of the world, making fun of those around her.

At one point, Elizabeth Bennet tells Darcy: "Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laught at them whenever I can".

However, Elizabeth Bennet is able to see, albeit belatedly, that Wickham had misled her about Darcy, admitting she was too influenced by "every charm of air and address".

At Pemberley, Elizabeth Bennet sees the "whole scene" from one viewpoint and then sees the "objects were taking different positions" from another viewpoint while remaining beautiful, which is a metaphor for how her subjectivity had influenced her view of the world.

Notably, Elizabeth Bennet is not guided by financial considerations, and refuses to seek favour with the wealthy aristocrat Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Johnson wrote that given the values of Regency England, it was inevitable and expected that a young woman should be married, but Elizabeth Bennet makes it clear that what she wants is to marry a man she loves, not just to be married to somebody, which was a quietly subversive message for the time.

Poovey argued that in this context, Elizabeth Bennet's wit is a merely her way of defending herself from the rules of "propriety" set out by the conduct books as opposed to being a subversive force.

Unlike the conduct books which declared that women should look back on the past as a way of self-examination, Elizabeth Bennet says: "Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure".

Johnson noted that Collins approvingly quotes from Sermons to Young Women that women should never display any "briskness of air and levity of deportment", qualities that contrasted strongly with Elizabeth Bennet who has "a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous".

The liveliness of Elizabeth Bennet extends to the physical sphere, as she displays what Johnson called "an unladylike athleticism".

The narrator says that Elizabeth Bennet's temper is "to be happy", and Johnson wrote that her constant joy in life is what "makes her and her novel so distinctive".

The character of Elizabeth Bennet, marked by intelligence and independent thinking, and her romance with the proud Mr Darcy have carried over into various theatrical retellings.