Mr. Bennet: Lack Of Propriety: Pride And Prejudice
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Mrs Bennet, for example, exhibits a lack of propriety throughout the entire novel, constantly embarrassing herself and consumed by the desire to have her daughters married. Her invasion into individuals privacy, such as Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley, in the novel alienates them, rather than attracts them to her daughters as she had hoped, letting her pursuit of this goal backfire. This is particularly evident at the Netherfield Ball where Mrs Bennet openly and loudly insults Mr Darcy: “What is Mr Darcy to me, pray, that I should be afraid of him? I am sure that we owe him no such particular civility as to be obliged to say nothing he may not like to hear,” this statement reveals Mrs Bennet’s coarseness and willingness to humiliate people such as Mr Darcy.…show more content… This is evident when Mr Bingley enters the Bennet’s home in order to greet and proceed to propose to Jane where Mrs Bennet, upon his arrival, immediately mentions her daughter Lydia’s marriage to Wickham, showing a great amount of pride and happiness in it when one should have no pride in it as it was scandalous, having eloped and lived together before their marriage. This reveals to the reader that Mrs Bennet has a lack of insight and sense of reality, being too self-involved to realise the enormity of events such as Lydia’s elopement with Wickham. Mrs Bennet also shows amlack of propriety in that she complains to Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy about Lydia’s engagement announcement, stating that it was not released correctly, essentially criticising it. This is not only embarrassing as she should not involve them in these private, scandalous affairs, it is also embarrassing as Mr Darcy released the engagement announcement, unbeknownst to Mrs Bennet, and thus is criticising Mr