Pride and Prejudice Characters

Characters
Mr. Bennet is a gentleman with modest income and five unmarried daughters. In his youth he fell in love with a young and beautiful girl and married her without seeing her silliness and insularity. Now he hasn’t anything other left than his interest for the country and books, which have arisen his principal enjoyments. He supported Elisabeth when she decided not to marry Mr. Collins, because he knew that she would be unhappy in such a marriage. He didn’t want her to make the same mistake as he made, when he was young.

“An unhappy alternative is before you, Elisabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”[1]

He has a sarcastic, cynical sense of humour.
Mrs. Bennet is a foolish noisy woman whose purpose in life is to see her daughters married. She wants a well situated man for them and doesn’t care at all what the girls think about her choice. She is very superficial.
Jane Bennet, the oldest of the Bennet sisters. She is considered to be the most beautiful of them. She is tender, kind and never sees a fault in anybody else. She is quite reserved and that nearly was the reason for her loosing the love of Mr. Bingley.

Her look and manners were open, cheerful and engaging as ever, but without any symptom of any peculiar regard, and I remained convinced from the evening’s scrutiny that though she received his attention with pleasure, she did not invite them by any participation of sentiment.[2]

Elisabeth Bennet is the typical protagonist of Jane Austen´s novels. She is intelligent and independent. She is well-read and quick-witted, and has a tongue that is sometimes too sharp for her own good. She likes to laugh about follies and loves absurdity. She has courage and isn’t afraid of saying what she thinks. She has a very good relationship with her older sister. She stands with her every time she needs her.
Jane Austen wrote about Elisabeth:

"I must confess that I think her as delightful a character as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know".[3]

There is little description of Elisabeth, only that she is pretty and has dark eyes. She is considered to be the second prettiest of the sisters. In the beginning, Mr. Darcy doesn’t find her attractive,

“Which do you mean?” and turning round, he looked for a moment at Elisabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me;….“[4]

but then he likes her very much.

Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes.[5]

At the beginning she doesn’t like Darcy, too, but after the visit to Pemberley and seeing him there again, she begins to like him, too. First, she thought that it could not be so bad to be the Lady of Pemberley and she became really sure about the feelings to Mr. Darcy after she came to know that he helped her sister Lydia after the affair with Wickham.

… and never had she so honestly felt that she could have loved him, as now, when all love must be vain.[6]

So after all those complications and misunderstanding her love-story has a happy-end.
Lydia Bennet, she is the youngest of the Bennet sisters. Her character is very close to that of her mother. She is gossipy, immature and self-involved. Other characteristics typical of her are vanity, carelessness, idleness, etc. She is only interested in flirting with officers. She is the favourite child of her mother and she can do what she wants to. No wonder that her love affair with Wickham nearly put the whole family to shame. Mr. Bennet does not want to see her again, although she is already married to Wickham, but her mother is absolutely enthusiastic about the marriage of her dearest daughter.
The next most important characters are the future husbands of the two older Bennet sisters – Mr.Darcy and Mr.Bingley.
Mr. Darcy, a wealthy gentleman and the master of Pemberley. He is very intelligent and honest, but has too much pride and tends to look down on others. In my opinion he is a very good and pleasant companion, but only at his home or among good friends. In strange surroundings he could appear unpleasant and a parvenu. He is very attached to his sister and so he is rather worried about his friend Mr. Bingley. As he realises that Mr.Bingley is really in love with Jane, but is not sure if Jane is really in love with him, he immediately persuades Mr. Bingley to leave Netherfield. It is not because he does not like Jane, but he wants to save his friend from disappointment in love. Mr. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners.[7]
This is the first description of Mr. Bingley in the book. He always is friendly, unreserved. He is the best friend of Mr. Darcy, but has a completely different character.

Between him and Darcy there was a very steady friendship, in spite of a great opposition of character. Bingley was endeared to Darcy by easiness, openness, ductility of his temper, though no disposition could offer a greater contrast to his own, and though with his own he never appeared dissatisfied.[8]

Here we can see that in Austen´s work is peopled with many characters that represent the upper-middle class society. She characterises people not only directly through a description in the text, but indirectly through dialogues between the characters.

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[1] Austen, Jane : Pride and Prejudice, Penguin Books USA 1980, page 97-98
[2] Austen, Jane : Pride and Prejudice, Penguin Books USA 1980, page 167
[3] http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/ppdrmtis.html#ElizabethBennet
[4] Austen, Jane : Pride and Prejudice, Penguin Books USA 1980, page 12
[5] Austen, Jane : Pride and Prejudice, Penguin Books USA 1980, page 21
[6] Austen, Jane : Pride and Prejudice, Penguin Books USA 1980, page 232
[7] Austen, Jane : Pride and Prejudice, Penguin Books USA 1980, page 11
[8] Austen, Jane : Pride and Prejudice, Penguin Books USA 1980, page 16