Jane Bennet Quotes

Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, and danced with her twice! Only think of that, my dear; he actually danced with her twice! and she was the only creature in the room that he asked a second time…I am quite delighted with him. He is so excessively handsome!

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 3. Mrs. Bennet’s first impressions of Charles Bingley couldn’t be more positive. She has had her eye on him as a potential husband for one of her five daughters, so is delighted at the attention Bingley shows to daughter Jane at the Meryton ball.

"He seemed quite struck with Jane as she was going down the dance. So he inquired who she was, and got introduced, and asked her for the two next. Then the two third he danced with Miss King, and the two fourth with Maria Lucas, and the two fifth with Jane again, and the two sixth with Lizzy, and the Boulanger – "
"If he had had any compassion for me," cried her husband impatiently, "he would not have danced half so much! For God’s sake, say no more of his partners. Oh that he had sprained his ankle in the first dance!"

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 3. Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Bennet are talking about Charles Bingley’s attentions towards Jane at the Meryton ball. Mrs. Bennet is convinced of Bingley’s interest in Jane on account of the fact that he danced with her twice. But Mr. Bennet seems indifferent to his wife’s account of the ball and becomes irritated with her.
So much ease, with such perfect good breeding - Pride and Prejudice

"He is just what a young man ought to be," said she, "sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! – so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!"
"He is also handsome," replied Elizabeth, "which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 4. Jane and Elizabeth discuss Charles Bingley after their first meeting with him at the ball. Jane who was previously cautious in her praise of Bingley now tells her sister how much she admires him. While Darcy seemed snobby and rude to them, his friend Bingley appears polite and well-mannered – character traits that were very important in Austen’s day. The positive first impression Bingley has on Jane foreshadows their close relationship later in the story. Elizabeth agrees with her sister, jokingly saying that Bingley is also handsome which makes his character "complete." The dangers of relying soley on first impressions are highlighted here, as this eligible bachelor is later shown to have one important character flaw: in matters of the heart he is too easily persuaded by family and friends.

But that is one great difference between us. Compliments always take you by surprise, and me never.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 4. Elizabeth makes this comment to Jane, who has said that she was flattered by Charles Bingley paying her the compliment of asking her to dance a second time. This shows how the outspoken Elizabeth is different from Jane and her other sisters. She doesn’t see herself as intellectually or socially inferior to men, but as an equal mind with her own independent voice.

"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."
"I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think."
"I know you do; and it is that which makes the wonder. With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enough – one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design – to take the good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad – belongs to you alone. And so you like this man’s sisters, too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 4. After the ball in Meryton Elizabeth and Jane hold a post mortem, during which they discuss Charles Bingley’s interest in Jane and also what Elizabeth says is the bad behavior of Bingley’s sisters. Elizabeth accuses Jane of being too quick to see the good in everybody and being blind to people’s faults. But Jane is reluctant to criticize the Bingley sisters and tells Elizabeth that she is too quick to judge others harshly. Elizabeth’s suggestion that her sister’s judgment of people is flawed turns out to be ironic, since Elizabeth turns out to be a poor judge of Mr. Darcy’s and Mr. Wickham’s characters, which almost costs her her happiness. This exchange is also foreshadowing of how Jane will put her own happiness at risk by failing to see the bad intentions of her manipulative false friend Caroline Bingley.

"You began the evening well, Charlotte," said Mrs. Bennet with civil self-command to Miss Lucas. "You were Mr. Bingley’s first choice."
"Yes; but he seemed to like his second better."
"Oh! you mean Jane, I suppose, because he danced with her twice. To be sure that did seem as if he admired her – indeed I rather believe he did – I heard something about it – but I hardly know what."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 5. Mrs. Bennet damns Charlotte Lucas with faint praise when she remarks how she was Mr. Bingley’s first choice of dance partner at the ball. Then the conversation turns to how Bingley danced twice with Jane Bennet and seemed to admire her.

It is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin freely – a slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement. In nine cases out of ten a women had better show more affection than she feels.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 6. Charlotte has a very pragmatic view of love, born of necessity from the patriarchal society that the women of the novel live in. If a woman remains single, especially one of modest means, then she could face an uncertain financial future. So Charlotte’s philosophy on love is that a woman must show more affection than she feels and use manipulation to get a husband. Charlotte is speaking to Elizabeth here about her sister Jane’s attraction to Charles Bingley, advising that Jane should not conceal her affection for Bingley but display it more openly to him.

When she is secure of him, there will be leisure for falling in love as much as she chooses.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 6. Charlotte says this to Elizabeth, when advising how Jane should behave if she wishes to end up being married to Charles Bingley. Charlotte believes you don’t need to love someone in order to marry them. She feels Jane is being too reserved and should simply work at winning Bingley’s attention and getting him to marry her. There will be plenty of time for love after that, as much as she chooses. This is foreshadowing Charlotte’s later decision to marry, not for love, but for security and a home.

Jane was therefore obliged to go on horseback, and her mother attended her to the door with many cheerful prognostics of a bad day. Her hopes were answered; Jane had not been gone long before it rained hard. Her sisters were uneasy for her, but her mother was delighted. The rain continued the whole evening without intermission; Jane certainly could not come back.
"This was a lucky idea of mine, indeed!" said Mrs. Bennet more than once, as if the credit of making it rain were all her own.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 7. Mrs. Bennet is obsessed with marrying off her daughters and has little regard for their happiness or welfare. Here she schemes for Jane to travel by horseback rather than carriage to Charles Bingley’s Netherfield home, so that she will have to stay overnight. Mrs. Bennet knows that rain is expected, and when Jane is caught our in it she falls quite ill. Parents are meant to look out for the welfare of their children, but Mrs. Bennet’s harmful parenting leaves a lot to be desired.

If your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illness – if she should die, it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley, and under your orders.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 7. Mr. Bennet teases Mrs. Bennet with one of his famous tongue-in-cheek comments about her placing Jane in danger through her obsession with getting her daughter married. This is after Elizabeth reads a note from Jane in Bingley’s Netherfield Park to say that she is ill with a sore throat and headache after being out in the storm. The passage is an example of Austen’s wonderful use of verbal irony – Mr. Bennet means the opposite of what he appears to be saying to Mrs. Bennet.

Oh! I am not at all afraid of her dying. People do not die of little trifling colds. She will be taken good care of. As long as she stays there, it is all very well. I would go and see her if I could have the carriage.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 7. The incorrigible Mrs. Bennet is dismissive of Jane falling ill after being out in the rain when Mrs. Bennet obliged her to travel on horseback to Netherfield. She is more concerned with Jane getting closes to Mr. Bingley than she is with her daughter’s health. Mrs. Bennet wouldn’t win parent of the year award.

I have an excessive regard for Jane Bennet, she is really a very sweet girl, and I wish with all my heart she were well settled. But with such a father and mother, and such low connections, I am afraid there is no chance of it.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 8. Early on in the novel class conscious Caroline Bingley expresses her disapproval of any union between her brother Charles and Jane Bennet due to her low social status. She goes on after this passage to mock Jane’s lowly relations living in Cheapside.

Miss Bennet’s lovely face confirmed his views, and established all his strictest notions of what was due to seniority; and for the first evening she was his settled choice.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 15. Having now a good house and income, Mr. Collins has decided to marry and goes to Longbourn with the intention of choosing one of the Bennet sisters for a wife. On seeing Jane’s "lovely face" and without knowing anything of her character, he announces his intentions towards the eldest Bennet sister. On his quick first impressions of her, she fits the bill for the position of Mrs. Collins.

Mr. Collins had only to change from Jane to Elizabeth – and it was soon done – done while Mrs. Bennet was stirring the fire. Elizabeth, equally next to Jane in birth and beauty, succeeded her of course.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 15. After setting sights on Jane Bennet for his wife, Mr. Collins has no problem switching his attentions to Elizabeth, when Mrs. Bennet points out that Jane is soon to be engaged to someone else. In his search for a wife, the ridiculous Mr. Collins doesn’t really care who he marries.

"They have both," said she, "been deceived, I dare say, in some way or other, of which we can form no idea. Interested people have perhaps misrepresented each to the other. It is, in short, impossible for us to conjecture the causes or circumstances which may have alienated them, without actual blame on either side."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 17. Jane says this to Elizabeth, when she hears from her sister of George Wickham’s accusations about Darcy. Wickham alleges that Darcy used a loophole in a will to stop Wickham getting money left him by Darcy’s father to pursue a career in the ministry. However, Jane prefers to keep an open mind and suggests that they both have been deceived. She turns out to be right about Darcy. But she fails to see the true character of Wickham, who is an unprincipled liar and deceiver.

"It is difficult indeed – it is distressing. One does not know what to think."
"I beg your pardon; one knows exactly what to think."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 17. Jane Bennet debates with Elizabeth the credibility of George Wickham’s allegation made to Elizabeth that Mr. Darcy cheated him out of an inheritance. The more steadfast Jane hesitates to condemn Mr. Darcy, but Elizabeth shows her prejudice towards Darcy by siding with Wickham, who has deceived her with a false story.

The prospect of the Netherfield ball was extremely agreeable to every female of the family…Jane pictured to herself a happy evening in the society of her two friends, and the attentions of their brother; and Elizabeth thought with pleasure of dancing a great deal with Mr. Wickham…The happiness anticipated by Catherine and Lydia depended less on any single event, or any particular person, for though they each, like Elizabeth, meant to dance half the evening with Mr. Wickham, he was by no means the only partner who could satisfy them, and a ball was at any rate, a ball.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 17. Dancing was a very important part of the courtship ritual during Jane Austen’s time. So the Netherfield ball is a hugely important event in the social calander and an opportunity for single men and women to mingle and get to know one another. The Bennet sisters look forward to a night of pure joy and happiness, with Jane hoping to attract the attentions of Charles Bingley, and Elizabeth dancing the evening away with George Wickham. Though things don’t quite turn out as planned – especially for Elizabeth, as we shall soon hear.

As Elizabeth had no longer any interest of her own to pursue, she turned her attention almost entirely on her sister and Mr. Bingley; and the train of agreeable reflections which her observations gave birth to, made her perhaps almost as happy as Jane. She saw her in idea settled in that very house, in all the felicity which a marriage of true affection could bestow.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 18. Happiness can be infectious. Elizabeth turns her attention to how her sister Jane and Mr. Bingley interact at the Netherfield ball. The narrator describes how Elizabeth’s observations metaphorically give birth to happy thoughts about Jane’s romance blossoming into marriage. This makes Elizabeth almost as happy as Jane.

Is it not clear enough? Does it not expressly declare that Caroline neither expects nor wishes me to be her sister; that she is perfectly convinced of her brother’s indifference; and that if she suspects the nature of my feelings for him, she means (most kindly!) to put me on my guard? Can there be any other opinion on the subject?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 21. An upset Jane Bennet has received a letter from Caroline Bingley suggesting that Charles Bingley no longer cares for her. But Jane doesn’t realize that a deceptive Caroline is trying to persuade Jane of this in order to break up their relationship.

Indeed, Jane, you ought to believe me. No one who has ever seen you together can doubt his affection. Miss Bingley, I am sure, cannot. She is not such a simpleton. Could she have seen half as much love in Mr. Darcy for herself, she would have ordered her wedding clothes. But the case is this: We are not rich enough or grand enough for them.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 21. Elizabeth attempts to convince her sister Jane that Charles Bingley really loves her. She tells her that Caroline Bingley is trying to keep them apart because the Bennets are not wealthy enough or of high enough class.

If, upon mature deliberation, you find that the misery of disobliging his two sisters is more than equivalent to the happiness of being his wife, I advise you by all means to refuse him.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 21. Elizabeth says this to a despondent Jane, who asks her can she be happy in accepting a man whose sisters and friends are all wishing him to marry someone else. Caroline Bingley has been attemping to break Jane and Charles Bingley up because she hopes he will marry Georgiana Darcy.

Hope was over, entirely over; and when Jane could attend to the rest of the letter, she found little, except the professed affection of the writer, that could give her any comfort. Miss Darcy’s praise occupied the chief of it. Her many attractions were again dwelt on, and Caroline boasted joyfully of their increasing intimacy, and ventured to predict the accomplishment of the wishes which had been unfolded in her former letter.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 24. Jane receives a letter from Caroline Bingley to say that her brother Charles and the family have settled in London. Caroline, who pretends to be Jane’s friend, is trying to break up the relationship between Jane and Charles. To Jane’s dismay, Caroline writes of the growing intimacy between Charles Bingley and Georgiana Darcy and predicts their marriage to each other.

She could not think without anger, hardly without contempt, on that easiness of temper, that want of proper resolution which now made him the slave of his designing friends, and led him to sacrifice his own happiness to the caprice of their inclinations.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 24. Elizabeth is contemptuous of Charles Bingley’s weakness of character, which allowed his sisters and friend Mr. Darcy to determine his affections. She is referring to his breakup with her sister Jane. Elizabeth’s complaint that Bingley can’t direct his own feelings is ironic, since her affections and feelings are being directed by George Wickham and his lies.

He may live in my memory as the most amiable man of my acquaintance, but that is all. I have nothing either to hope or fear, and nothing to reproach him with.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 24. Jane Bennet tries to put a brave face on it, after Charles Bingley quits Netherfield for London. A letter arrives from his sister Caroline to say that they they are have all settled in London for the winter. But Jane as usual only sees the bright side and tells Elizabeth that Bingley has not wronged her.

My dear Lizzy, do not give way to such feelings as these. They will ruin your happiness. You do not make allowance enough for difference of situation and temper. Consider Mr. Collins’s respectability, and Charlotte’s steady, prudent character. Remember that she is one of a large family; that as to fortune, it is a most eligible match; and be ready to believe, for everybody’s sake, that she may feel something like regard and esteem for our cousin.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 24. Jane says to Elizabeth, when her sister expresses disbelief at her friend Charlotte entering a loveless marriage with Mr. Collins. Jane, who likes to see the good in everyone and everything, says that Mr. Collins is respectable and Charlotte sensible. From the point of view of Charlotte’s financial security it is a good match, she says.
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