JANE BENNET

JANE BENNET

1. KEY QUOTES

   • 'Her mild and steady candour always pleaded for allowances'.
     • Jane is gentle and credits people with good reasons for their actions.
   • 'Poor Jane! Who would willingly have gone through the world without believing that so much wickedness existed in the whole race of mankind'.
     • She takes an optimistic view of the human race.
   • 'My mother means well; but she does not know, no one can know how much I suffer from what she says'.
     • She protects herself so effectively that most people do not notice what she is feeling.

2. ROLE IN THE NOVEL

   • Jane is the eldest and most beautiful of the five sisters. She and Elizabeth are particularly close and are always able to speak honestly to each other, though their characters are contrasted.
   • She dances with Bingley at the first ball and are immediately attracted to each other.
   • She is invited by Bingley's sisters to Netherfield, where she falls ill and is visited by Elizabeth.
   • She is invited to London by the Gardiners and hopes to meet Bingley again, but is hurt and disappointed when she receives only a single visit from Miss Bingley
   • She accepts Bingley's offer of marriage when he eventually returns to Netherfield.

3. TOP TIP

   • Contrast Jane with Elizabeth, and also with Charlotte Lucas about the theme of marriage.
   • It would be impossible for Jane to ever scheme to catch a husband.
   • Her misplaced trust in Caroline Bingley leaves her unsuspecting of the true reasons for Bingley's absence.