Pride & Predudice
In Pride And Prejudice, by Jane Austen, each one of the Bennett daughters has a purpose. Jane is used to create conflicts between Darcy and Lizzy through her relationship with Bentley. Lizzy is used to create a major conflict between herself and Darcy as well through her loyalty to her family and her opinionated personality. Lydia is the black sheep of the family, who rebels against her family, putting them to shame. Mary is the daughter who is neglected by both her father and mother and yearns for attention. However, Kitty has no real stance in the plot nor is she characterized to the extent her sisters are. Instead of characterizing Kitty to the same extent of her sisters, Austen uses Kitty for other reasons. Using Kitty Bennett, Austen reveals more about Lydia's and Mrs. Bennett's character, provides Darcy with more ammunition for disapproving the Bennett's, and shows her case for young ladies needing gracious, ladylike role models so they will turn out well. The purpose of a sidekick is so the major characters will have someone to confide in, vent to, and reveal their innermost thoughts to, thus characterizing the characters more and giving readers a window into the character's minds
Kitty and Lydia are the worst mannered of all of the daughters. Their bad manners reveal more information about their mother since she is their primary influence. Mrs. Bennett is impatient and intolerant when it comes to her family, but she also shows a sort of unreasonableness to her family that is not restricted to the matter of getting husbands for her daughters. At the end of the novel Kitty is more under Lizzy's influence than under her mother's. Since her husband takes most of her time, Lydia no longer exerts such a strong influence on Kitty. This allows Lizzy to take her hand and help Kitty in improving her behavior. Kitty then makes a change for the better. Even though Kitty Bennett is not characterized to the extent that her sisters are or does she play a major role in the plot, she plays an important role to the characterization of several characters, mainly Lydia and Mrs. Bennett. She allows readers to get a more in-depth look at the characters and see them for whom they really are. Through the similarities of their unladylike qualities Mrs. Bennett, Lydia, and Kitty reveals to reader that young ladies need ladylike role models so that they them selves will become proper young ladies. "The situation of your mother's family, though objectionable, was nothing in comparison to the total want to propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly, betrays by herself, your three sisters, and occasionally even by your father." (Austen 276) Mrs. Bennett is not a gracious, ladylike role model for her daughters to look up to and imitate in presence and behavior. Without a positive role model Jane and Lizzy looked to their father and the Gardner's for lessons in manner. Unlike them Lydia and Kitty did not have positive influ
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Approximate Word count = 1178
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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