{ about }

[moralized]

ABOUT

Mary Bennet is the third of five daughters of Mr Bennet of Longbourn in Hertfordshire, England. Possessing the least amount of beauty out of the five, Mary strives to learn as much as she can of the world and of human nature, in order to have accomplishments that can be spoken of instead of unfavorable comparisons to her sisters' looks. However, she has little natural sense and relies on the words of authors to inform her opinions.

With her sisters pairing off in their confidences and Mary convincing herself that she is the most intelligent person around, she has no true friends and spends her days reading or playing the pianoforte. As they had no governess or musical tutor, Mary is self taught and therefore believes herself to be right when she is not and musically talented when she plays technically well but without any passion or soul.

Staying isolated within her small community has given her vanity at her accomplishments and intelligence, but by the novel's end with the house empty of sisters she no longer feels the need to compete for attention amongst them and there is an opportunity for future growth. Perhaps if she mixes more with the world or travels she can fully let go on her need for praise and accomplishments and all the pressure that comes along with that. She may be able to stop comparing herself to others and form lasting bonds with them without comparing them to herself and finding herself lacking.

quotes

“I admire the activity of your benevolence,” observed Mary, “but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion, exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.”

“To this Mary very gravely replied, 'Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures! They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me—I should infinitely prefer a book.'”

“While I can have my mornings to myself,” said she, “it is enough—I think it is no sacrifice to join occasionally in evening engagements. Society has claims on us all; and I profess myself one of those who consider intervals of recreation and amusement as desirable for everybody.”

Pride and prejudice exposition on Mary

"...she was eagerly succeeded at the instrument by her sister Mary, who having, in consequence of being the only plain one in the family, worked hard for knowledge and accomplishments, was always impatient for display."

"Mary had neither genius nor taste; and though vanity had given her application, it had given her likewise a pedantic air and conceited manner, which would have injured a higher degree of excellence than she had reached."

"Mary was obliged to mix more with the world, but she could still moralize over every morning visit; and as she was no longer mortified by comparisons between her sisters’ beauty and her own, it was suspected by her father that she submitted to the change without much reluctance."