Weekly Response 6

"To be a character in Austen is to get continually contrasted, juxtaposed, related to others, and, as such, to help build the thematic architecture that critics then discern." (Woloch, 3)

"'I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good humoured as Lydia. But you are always giving her the preference.'

'They have none of them much to recommend them,' replied he; 'they are all silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters.'" (PP, 45)

If Pride and Prejudice focuses around Elizabeth as the protagonist, why does Austen include the other four sisters in the novel?

"In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth's sisters play a much more important role in the narrative, and it is more difficult to argue that they are there simply to represent the difficulty that they cause Elizabeth by being there." (Woloch, 4). If what Woloch says is correct, then what is the purpose of the other four Bennet sisters. I have to agree with Woloch on this one and say that the sisters aren't there simply to represent the difficulty they cause Elizabeth. The quote above from Pride and Prejudice occurs within the first chapter and focuses on Lizzy. By doing so, Austen shows that Elizabeth is the main character of the novel. Austen also uses the sisters, though, to not only show Elizabeth as the main character, but to show off all the qualities that make her the main character.

Mrs. Bennet says that "Lizzy is not a bit better than the others" and that she "is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good humoured as Lydia." She is also not so accomplished as Mary. Mrs. Bennet is so focused on marriage, that she only looks at the qualities that will allow her daughters to obtain a husband. For example, Jane is beautiful -- in fact, the most beautiful of all the sisters -- and this is what draws Bingley to her in the first place. As Elizabeth points out later on, though, she has the inability to see the bad in anyone, and that is one of her biggest downfalls. She is unable to see the bad in both Darcy and the Bingley sister's, and they are one of the reasons she ends up losing Bingley. Lydia, on the other hand, while she ends up marrying Mr. Wickham, disgraces the whole family. And while Mary is accomplished, she doesn't hold any beauty. It is Elizabeth that is a mix of all these things; while she is not the most accomplished, she does know how to read and write and has her wit. She is still beautiful, although not the most beautiful of the sisters. It is almost like each sister has one or two main characteristics that the novel focuses on (such as Jane's beauty, or Lydia's good humour, and so on) and those characteristics are their biggest flaws. But by combining all of those, they become balanced out so that Elizabeth doesn't focus on one characteristic too much.