Mr and Mrs Bennet
The marriage between Mr and Mrs Bennet is the first marriage that is introduced by Austen in her novel “Pride and Prejudice”. The marriage is an interesting one as it includes many faults, mainly because they have very different characters.
The contrariness of their characters is first apparent from the very start of the novel, when Mrs Bennet acknowledges his wife’s announcement that “Netherfield Park is at let at last", with “no reply”. The lack of reply to his wife’s remark is the reader’s first indication of disharmony in their marriage and highlights the lack of respect which Mr Bennet holds towards his wife. The strong differences in their characters causes Mr Bennet to disrespect his wife throughout the novel, which unmistakably infuriates Mrs Bennet, who answers his jokes with "how can you be so teasing?" .
The main cause of the disrespect which Mr Bennet holds towards his wife is the distinct differences in their intelligence- Mr Bennet is a sharp, knowledgeable man, who is "so an odd mixture of quick parts", whereas Mrs Bennet is a woman of little intelligence and of "mean understanding". As a result of their clear differences in education, Mr Bennet is constantly driven to exasperation by his wife and is often "fatigued by [her] raptures", leading him to tease and disrespect her.
The Bennet parents also have noticeably contrary roles in the Bennet household. Mrs Bennet is an extremely boisterous member of the family, which is yet another reason why Mr Bennet is regularly aggravated by her and as a result tends to remain in his study, where he can find privacy and quiet. Mrs Bennet is also constantly consumed by the desire to see her daughters married, "determining when [she] should ask [men] to dinner". Mr Bennet, however makes it as clear as possible to his wife that he does not want to get involved with the process of marrying his daughters and sees "no occasion" for introducing himself to Mr Bingley, much to his wife's...