2.1.2 His Partiality to Elizabeth and His Negligence of the Other Three Daughters

We know that Mr. Bennet loves and cherishes his Elizabeth very much. His firm support of Elizabeth’s refusal to Mr. Collins shows his approval of her judgment and decision. Being an indolent in writing letters, Mr. Bennet promises to write to Elizabeth on her visit to Mrs. Collins, which indicates his yearning for her. When Elizabeth returns, his saying voluntarily to Elizabeth to welcome her return carries his desire of her company. And his inquiry and censure to Elizabeth’s acceptance of Darcy’s proposal demonstrates his earnest concern for her happiness. All these show his spiritual intimacy with and love for Elizabeth. Of course, Elizabeth, with intelligence and beauty, easy playfulness and tender feelings, is worthy of his regard. However, being a father, his partial to Elizabeth and his negligence of his other girls is unseemly. 来!自-优.尔,论:文+网www.chuibin.com

From the description in the novel we are informed that Mary is a girl of plain appearance. There are two distinctive traits in her. Firstly, she is a pedant, working hard for knowledge and accomplishments, yet she has neither genius nor tastes. Secondly, she is vain and always impatient for display. If penetrating deeper we will come to investigate the reasons for her behavior. For the first point, we may find that, being the only plain girl in the family, Mary realizes that there is not much beauty to recommend herself, and she need to struggle for accomplishments to make a remedy. However, she has neither genius nor tastes. I believe that it is the result of little guidance from her father. We may assume that genius may be predetermined but tastes could be developed. Mary does extensive reading and makes extracts. She reads a lot but understands little. Mr. Bennet is a sensible man, he has the ability to teach her and cultivate her and direct her to reason and good tastes, the failure in Mary may indicate his little attention paid to her education and refinement. For the second point, as she recollects, vanity is others’ opinions of us, her impatience for display essentially shows her eagerness for attention and recognition. In the Longbourn family, Mary is almost in isolation. She is the one who receives the least attention from her parents and sisters. It is manifests in the fact that, Mr. Bennet loves and cares about Elizabeth and Jane, and Mrs. Bennet makes Lydia and Kitty her favorites. Mary opens her mouth five times in the novel, each of which is perfectly neglected and made no responses to. As a father, Mr. Bennet indeed neglects her feelings and pays little attention to her.