Pride and Prejudice Character List
The novel’s protagonist and most intelligent of the Bennet sisters is Elizabeth, often referred to as Lizzy by her family. She is one of English literature’s best known female characters. Fond of reading, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s second daughter has a quick wit and a sharp tongue that sometimes get hers into trouble. At first prejudiced against Mr. Darcy, she goes on a journey of self-discovery which brings her to the realization of the essential goodness of Darcy.
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Jane Austen’s most famous heartthrob, Mr. Darcy, is the other central character in the novel, and male counterpart to heroine Elizabeth Bennet. He is rich, intelligent and master of Pemberley country estate. He is initially disliked by Elizabeth because of his excessive pride and superior air. But he is shown to be at heart noble and compassionate. He is the hero who rescues Lydia and the Bennets when they are enveloped in a scandal.
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The most beautiful of the Bennet sisters is Jane and she is also the eldest. She has a good nature and a kind heart. She always likes to look for the best in other people. But this is also her blind spot, for she fails to see through the manipulations and falseness of Caroline Bingley when she tries to break up Jane’s relationship with Charles Bingley.
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Austen’s genius for irony sparkles through the witty dialogue she gives to Mr. Bennet, patriarch of the Bennet family. He is a gentleman of modest means with a silly wife and five daughters needing husbands. He takes refuge from his troubles in his sarcastic and often cynical sense of humor.
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The foolish and talkative Mrs. Bennet has only one aim and purpose in life – to find wealthy husbands for her five daughters. But her alck of decorum often drives away the eligible men she tries to attract for her girls. She herself is in a loveless marriage to Mr. Bennet, who likes to tease and annoy her.
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Darcy’s wealthy best friend Mr. Bingley decides to rent Netherfield Park, causing a stir in the area, especially in the Bennet family. This provides the impetus for the novel as Mrs. Bennet sets her sights on the friendly and easygoing Bingley as a husband for one of her daughters. The handsome and courteous Bingley falls for Jane Bennet.
Read full analysis of Charles Bingley
Mr. Collins is a vain and pompous clergyman who by a quirk in the law stands to inherit the Bennets’ Longbourn home. He is one of Jane Austen’s most comical characters. His mixture of pride and obsequiousness to his benefactor Lady Catherine de Bourgh, makes him one of the most universally ridiculed characters in literature and film.
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The youngest of the Bennet sisters is irresponsible, spoiled and likes nothing better than to flirt with men in uniform. Allowed out in society at 15 with no proper parental supervision, it’s no surprise that she invites trouble on herself and her family. It comes in the form of reprobate George Wickham, as she runs away with the militia officer to London.
Read full analysis of Lydia Bennet
Wickham is the handsome and charming member of the militia who deceives Elizabeth Bennet and sweeps her youngest sister Lydia off her feet. His affair with 15-year-old Lydia and their flight to a love nest in London causes scandal and consternation for the Bennets. She wasn’t the first young woman he beguiled. Previously this serial predator attempted to elope with Darcy’s teenage sister Georgiana, in order to get her fortune.
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Lady Catherine is the quintessential upper class snob. She is Mr. Darcy’s meddling aunt and patron of Mr. Collins, who treats the imperious lady with fawning servility. The rude and autocratic aristocrat epitomizes extreme class-consciousness. In one of the most famous battle of wills in literature, she tries to order the middle-class Elizabeth not to marry her upper class nephew Darcy.
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While Charles Bingley is amiable and largely unconcerned with class differences, his sister Caroline is an unmitigated and unpleasant snob. Superficial and vain, rude and manipulative, she tries to flatter Darcy in a vain attempt to win his affections. She is cruel to Jane, as she tries to split up Jane and her brother Charles. She is mean to Elizabeth, making nasty comments about her to Darcy to turn him against her.
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Charlotte is Elizabeth Bennet’s best friend. But while Elizabeth is romantic and refuses to marry without love, Charlotte is more pragmatic when it comes to marriage and matters of the heart. So when the “irksome” Mr. Collins proposes marriage to her, she accepts. Charlotte is less interested in romance, and more in a comfortable home and economic security.
Read full analysis of Charlotte Lucas
Minor Characters
Mrs. Gardiner is the Bennet sisters’ aunt and she and her husband play a nurturing and supportive role in their lives. They often turn out to be better parents to the five Bennet girls than Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. In contrast to Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Gardiner is a smart, sensible and caring person. She is described in the novel as an “amiable, intelligent, elegant woman.”
Sir William is a friend of the Bennet family and lives within a short walk of their Longbourn home. Described as empty-headed and friendly, he was elevated to a knighthood when he served as Mayor of Meryton. He is father to Charlotte and Maria Lucas.
Mrs. Bennet’s brother Mr. Gardiner is described as “a sensible, gentlemanlike man, greatly superior to his sister, as well as by nature and education.” He is also said to be “well-bred and agreeable.” A merchant by trade, he impresses Mr. Darcy with his behavior when he visits Pemberley. Darcy even invites him to fish there as often as he likes while in the area.
Darcy’s sister Georgiana, who is at least 10 years younger than him, is extremely shy, very beautiful and accomplished on the pianoforte. She looks up to her older brother and hits it off with Elizabeth from their first meeting. The two Bingley sisters, Caroline and Louisa, want their brother Charles to marry Georgiana, but that doesn’t happen as Charles has other ideas.
Mary is the third and middle child of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and the plainest of the Bennet sisters. She is bookish, serious, preachy and pedantic. She is also vain, when she insists on singing and playing the piano badly at Netherfield, she is described as having “neither genius nor taste.” She exposes herself and the family to ridicule.
The fourth Bennet sister, Catherine “Kitty” Bennet, seems to imitate a lot of the behavior of the youngest sister Lydia. She is described by the more sensible Elizabeth as being “weak-spirited, irritable, and completely under Lydia’s guidance.” We are told of her “wild giddiness” and how she is “hopeless of remedy.” Like Lydia, Kitty also likes to flirt with every militia officer in Meryton.
She is the longtime housekeeper at Mr. Darcy’s Pemberley country estate. She greets Elizabeth and her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner when they visit Pemberley and gives them a tour of the house and grounds. She impresses Elizabeth with her praise of the good natured character of Darcy, whom she has known since he was four years old.
Col. Forster is a senior officer in the militia regiment that is quartered at Meryton. After the regiment leaves for Brighton, Col. Forster allows his wife to take Lydia there, with disastrous results. Lydia runs off with George Wickham. Col. Forster helps track the pair down in London.
Col. Fitzwilliam is Mr. Darcy’s cousin who joins him on his visit to Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s home at Rosings Park. He is pleasant and mannerly and takes an interest in Elizabeth. But the eligible bachelor confesses that as the younger son of an earl, he needs to marry a woman with money.