So, when you think about it Mr and Mrs Bennet are not close or even remotely like each other. They have nothing in common and don’t even get along – an example of this is when Mrs Bennet says, “You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion on my poor nerves.”
As for the relationships between the sisters, we know that Jane and Lizzy are sensible, but close – they share their secrets and stick together a lot. Kitty and Lydia also stay together, but they’re more frivolous and wild. Then there’s Mary who’s completely on her own because she is caught in the middle of reality and fiction, leaving her dreaming.
Jane, being the eldest, has priority over the other sisters because she gets all the wealth when their father dies. This means that the rest of them have to rely on their looks and if you’re like Mary, you have no hope! I think this affects the relationship between the sisters because there could be jealousy amongst them over this ruling in Jane’s favour.
As for Elizabeth Bennet, she is lively, quick-witted, sharp-tongued, bold, and intelligent. She is also, like Jane, very good looking; her eyes are her main features. However, all she’s concerned about is good manners and virtues, not wealth or titles. This could be a reason why her and Mrs Bennet do not get along too well because they act like complete opposites, they contrast each other.
Elizabeth and Jane are constantly forced to put up with the foolishness and poor judgment of their mother and the sarcastic indifference of their father but they do manage to develop strong characters in spite of the negligence of their parents. Perhaps this was through the help of Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, who are the only relatives in the novel that take a serious concern in the girls' well being – “My dear, dear aunt… you give me fresh life and vigour,” says Jane to Mrs Gardiner.
One major problem in the family is that Bennet’s daughters are seen as low class and ill mannered. The fact that they aren’t very well educated is down to their parents at the end of the day. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's failure to provide this education for their daughters leads to the shamelessness and foolishness of Lydia, with Wickham.
Lydia ran off with Wickham because she knew there was no real life for her at home and that her parents didn’t care about her anyway. This was a chance to prove that she wasn’t a complete failure and that she could get married. Mrs Bennet favours Lydia over all because they are both very similar characters, but she never actually cares for her well being, no more than she does for the rest of the Bennet sisters.
To be quite honest the Bennet family aren’t at all what you would call a perfect family. They create many problems and disagreements amongst themselves. They don’t respect each other, communicate well, or even do things as a family. But then again how do you define ‘perfect’? It’s all down to a matter of opinion!
Who am I to judge? This is where all the prejudice comes in that affects people’s opinions of one another. The Bennet family has their good points too, like when Lizzy walks many miles in the dirt just to see her sister, Jane – “Elizabeth was convinced that they held her in contempt for it”, she was referring to the Bingley sisters, Darcy etc. Obviously, this action was out of pure love for her sister, which goes to show, no family is perfect, but everyone has a good side.
