I've been reading some commentary about Jane Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice" – in order to write a decent rebuttal to a Facebook comment about her that I disagreed with – and I've found that there are quite a wide variety of opinions about her, ranging from "The moral backbone of the novel" to "A parody of the overly perfect heroines of other literature of the time." What do you think?
I think Jane Bennet is a complex character in her own way, but I don't think she's either the moral backbone or a parody.
Jane Bennet is a foil for her sister Elizabeth. I think they respond to their overly cynical and insulting father in opposite ways, Elizabeth joins along while Jane tries to think the best of people. Neither of them get it right, but Jane is the one who thinks they need more information, while Elizabeth relies on her first impressions. Both of them correct themselves and move closer to the centre: Jane is more clear-eyed when Caroline writes to her after her engagement and Elizabeth has learned how foolish she was about Darcy and Wickham. It's interesting that Wickham is a big factor for both of them, Jane refused to accept people in the world could be that bad, Elizabeth was taken in by him.
Instead of a parody of perfect heroines, I think Jane comes off as more of a tragedy of following expectations. Her modesty and good manners mean she does as unrealistically demanded by her society and doesn't betray how much she likes Bingley. Unfortunately, this is used against her as evidence that she doesn't love him. She does everything right and still loses.
As an addition, I've also seen some weird criticism that Jane Bennet's goodness is never shown in actions, but of course that is false. It's Jane to shoulders all of the care of Mrs. Bennet during the Lydia crisis. It's Jane who looks after her little cousins while Elizabeth vacations with the Gardiners. She is very Eldest Daughter and I think we can comfortably assume that she's constantly taking on these caring tasks when Mrs. Bennet is upset.
Thank you for sharing these thoughts. Almost all of it is what I’ve felt myself.
Jane’s goodness not shown through actions?! That’s one complaint I’ve never read before! What nonsense! Jane lives a very constrained life that doesn’t leave much room for big actions, especially because she’s also a supporting character in a novel. She shows her goodness in the many small ways she can within the limits of her sphere.
