Mary Bennet

Mary, aged 19, is the middle Bennet sister, and can really be said to suffer from ‘middle child syndrome’ as she is the most looked over of all the sisters, both by the narrator and the other characters. She is described to be the only plain sister, and although bookish and clever, she is described as having “neither genius nor taste; and though vanity had given her application, it had given her likewise a pedantic air and conceited manner.” Elizabeth finds to be one of the embarrassing members of the family, particularly in the scene at Netherfield where Mary insists on playing the piano and singing a song quite badly. The narrator seems to mostly share the other characters’ sentiments about Mary being generally a boring and irritating person, and is harsh and unsympathetic in her descriptions of her. Although Mary has little bearing on the main plot, she just drop one nugget of wisdom whose insight leaves Elizabeth literally speechless; “the loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.”