Mary Bennet, Basic Character Information

Mary Bennet is alone in the middle of her family as her two elder and two younger sisters have neatly paired off together. She is probably the Bennet daughter who gets the least attention.

Basic Information:

Age: Somewhere between 18 and 20, based on the fact that Kitty is two years older than Lydia, and Elizabeth is less than 21 years old. Of course, Kitty and Mary could possibly be fraternal twins, something that would have given Mrs. Bennet a longer rest between pregnancies, though I doubt that is what Austen had in mind for them.

Spouse: One of her Uncle Phillips’s law clerks (an apprentice lawyer), according to James Edward Austen-Leigh’s A Memoir of Jane Austen.
Primary Residence: Longbourn ( novel), Meryton (following her marriage)

Physical Characteristics: Mary is the only plain Bennet daughter.

Personality Characteristics: Mary is studious, and apparently the most accomplished of the Bennet sisters (she is actually described as the most accomplished girl in the neighborhood at one point), but unfortunately she lacks genius and taste and has too much pedantry and conceit. She is probably the most ignored of the Bennet daughters, which in my opinion is why she puts so much effort in trying to impress people. Apparently after her sisters went away, Mary also improved quite a bit as she was finally given a consistent amount of her mother’s attention.

What to call her:

• Mary – close friends and family
• Miss Mary / Miss Mary Bennet – everyone else, when an unmarried Jane or Elizabeth is present
• Miss Bennet – everyone else, when Jane and Elizabeth are not present and after their marriages