Helllo

Helllo

Mauricio Arambula
Mrs. Niederpruem
English 4 Honors
11 September 2013
Distant and Persistent
In January of 1813, Jane Austin published her novel Pride and Prejudice, which introduces readers to Mr. Benet – father of Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty, Mary and husband to Mrs. Benet. Throughout the beginning of the novel, Mr. Benet seems to have the same attitude towards his family, therefore, illustrating no character development just yet.
First and foremost, commencing to digest the fist couple of chapters you can infer that Mr. Benet has a detached relationship with his wife. Their communication lacks interest and Mr. Benet is not nonchalant about it either. As a matter of fact Mr. Benet often does not even reply to Ms. Benet’s announcements about what goes on throughout her day and at times states that “[She] wants to tell [him], and [he] has no objection to hearing it” (Austin pg.12). This type of behavior between spouses does not surprise mainly because of the fact that divorce is at an immense percentage in our society today, however; for Mr. Benet to turn down a chance for one of his daughters to fall in love simply because he “[sees] no occasion for [it]” (Austin pg.14) is far from any typical marriage issues he and Mrs. Benet may have – conveying a distant relationship with his family.
In continuation, Mr. Benet’s distant state within his family is portrayed whenever Mrs. Benet and their girls go out to events without his company. Mr. Benet never seems to agree with Mrs. Benet and always manages to tick her off causing her to use sarcasm – “What an excellent father you have, girls!” (Austin pg. 29) – in attempt to insult Mr. Benet, quite childish I believe, however; you see many spouses behaving like such today. Furthermore, Mr. Benet’s inability to ingratiate himself with his family members continues throughout the early chapters of the novel and no development within his character has occurred.
In further analysis, Mr. Benet’s character has not...