Jane Bennet

Outer characterisation

Jane Bennet is one of the more important characters in Pride and Prejudice because of the focus on her relationship with both Bingley and her sister Lizzy. She is a static, or flat, character as she does not change much throughout the novel.

Her outer characterisation reveals that she is “almost three-and-twenty” (p. 154) years old and the eldest of the Bennet sisters (p. 7). We can assume her future dowry at marriage is £1,000 as this is what Elizabeth is also going to receive. By the end of the novel, she marries the wealthy Charles Bingley. She is considered the most beautiful of the Bennet sisters, especially by her doting mother (p. 30).

Inner characterisation

Jane’s inner characterisation is conveyed both directly by the narrator and other characters, and indirectly, through her actions and attitudes.

Overall, Jane is beautiful and good-natured. Her refusal to see people’s flaws and think badly of them is both a virtue and a weakness. On the one hand, she manages to see the positive of every situation and in every person and defends them which makes Elizabeth say:

‘Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life.’ (p. 9)

Elizabeth also teasingly says that Jane has the ability “to take the good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad” (p. 9)

However, this also makes Jane come across as naïve, such as when it comes to Wickham’s true character. When Elizabeth tells her that Wickham probably lied about his past with Darcy, Jane finds it hard to believe it: “It was not in her nature to question the veracity...