Do you consider Mr and Mrs Bennet to be good parents?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Pride and Prejudice coursework

5. Do you consider Mr and Mrs Bennet to be good parents?

I do not consider Mr or Mrs Bennet to be good parents. Jane Austen does not present them in a favourable light and I think anyone who reads this novel would get the impression that they are not good parents.

A responsibility of fathers in society in Austen's day was to provide financially for his children so they have secure futures. However, Mr Bennet does not do this. He pays little thought to the girls' futures and seems to be a man who does not really consider anything seriously. We know this because Austen tells us, after Lydia had run away and Mr Bennet believes himself in the debt of Mr Gardiner, that Mr Bennet had often wished that he had saved an annual sum for the "better provision of his children, and of his wife" and that now he "wished it more than ever." This shows us he is unthoughtful and makes foolish decisions, which later on he regrets.

Mr Bennet does not take anything seriously or talks to Mrs Bennet with respect or