Mr. Bennet Is As Much A Fool As Mrs. Bennet

Oh dear. I've finally realized something I've hidden from myself through the other 10 or so readings of this book over the years. Mr. Bennet is a fool.

It pains me but 'tis true! I've probably known it but ignored it because I was always so focused on Lizzy and Darcy and also agreed with him that Lydia and Kitty were hopeless, emtpy-headed girls. But now must admit that it's because he never took them in hand as a father should. Clearly, Mr. Bennet, frustrated with his lot of a silly wife, took the easy, low road, and denounced his daughters as silly (once, so far, he has included Lizzy and Jane in this name calling as well). This leaving him free to be his lazy self - hiding in his library/office, reading while chaos reigned.

Had Mr. Bennet been smart himself, he would never have been blinded by Mrs. Bennet's charms. He would have seen through to her vacuous soul and looked for love elsewhere. Maybe he married her for money - I'm sure someone has investigated who the parents might be - their backstory - but as I don't have the benefit of that information, I'll just say that he should have taken his chances and said no! He should have known better. Been a better man. Been a better father.

Yes, I can only conclude that he's a lazy, selfish, silly man himself. Just exhibiting it differently from his wife. He just doesn't want to be bothered. To accept no responsibility in the matter makes him a fool.

How he can resist and fail to truly comprehend Lizzy's impassioned plea for his intervention in Lydia's trip to Brighton with Col. Forster's wife, boggles the mind. And he, very unkindly, teases Lizzy about the suitors he supposes she's lost due to her younger sisters' impropriety.

Any father worth his salt would have said no to that trip, or sent Jane or Lizzy with her as chaperone. But the two of them act as a buffer between himself and his wife and the other daughters so are hard to do without. And he indulges in those little comments with them, that make clear his lack of affection and respect for his wife. That's bad form. Lizzy and Jane are intelligent and witty and have common sense (through no effort on his part) and they amuse him and are a source of pride. But do what little he can to preserve their dignity and possibility for future happiness? Never! Not when he can so easily retreat to the solace of his office and call it a hopeless case to try to govern his household.

I don't say that he deliberately allows the madness so it will reflect back on Lizzy and Jane and keep marriage proposals at bay, but he does nothing to guard them from that madness. And when Lizzy is going to visit Charlotte, instead of wishing her a good visit with a close friend that she's missed (to some degree),it is only mentioned that he so little wishes her to go that he asks her to write to him and almost promises to answer her letter! What a show of fatherly concern and affection to almost promise to answer your daughter's letter that you profess you will miss so much.

Now, I know I'm reading this with 21st Century eyes - the first time I read it was with 20thC eyes, ;) - and that a woman's happiness was of little consequence. A man's too, really. That marriage for love was thought a fanciful notion, so let's look at it as the contract that it was. Lizzy and Jane are Mr. Bennet's two best products. The only that he can put on the marriage market with any real sense of pride, as mentioned. To allow anything or anyone to tarnish the shine on those products and jeopardize their sale is utter foolishness. Especially when there have recently been two rich, eligible bachelors in the neighborhood who might return, want to marry one of the daughters and bring an influx of (probably) much needed cash into the household accounts. And when one of those shiny, sensible daughters, is very enamored of one of the bachelors and he of her. For that period, it could have been a slam dunk - love and money.

But then, there wouldn't have been any conflict and therefore no story. And that would have been a great loss indeed.

So I will just have to put up with Mr. Bennet being a fool and try to forgive him when he later admits to his foolishness. And suppress my wonder that Lizzy and Jane make it through this book to a happy ending at all! I will contribute it - and rightly so, that's the point - to their being examples to us all, even today, for how a woman should conduct herself, esteem herself, and, most importantly, know when she is wrong, have character enought to admit it, and alter her course of thought and action.

Comments

[Emily Michelle]

It's so tragically true, isn't it? I watched the movie before I read the book, and I remember that those first few times I saw it I liked Mr. Bennet; he's so henpecked that you kind of forgive him his bad behavior. But then I read the book the first time, and in chapter 29, I believe, Lizzie reflects that he has serious failings: "Elizabeth, however, had never been blind to the impropriety of her father's behaviour as a husband. She had always seen it with pain." For the first time I saw Mr. Bennet as flawed, and since then every reading and viewing has made me realize that Mr. Bennet really is as you say: he married foolishly, and rather than make the best of the situation, he has spent his life withdrawing from part of his family, treating his wife with contempt, dismissing his younger daughters. It really is a wonder that Jane and Lizzie turned out as well as they did.

[Heidi]

This is a great post full of new things for me to think about. I have always been so amused by Mr. Bennett that I never really dug any deeper into his character. One of my favorites: "What am I to do on the occasion? It seems a hopeless business." which I use quite often - in my head of course. I can only imagine the reaction if I were to spit that out during a business meeting!