The variety in Austen’s characters is her strongpoint. Many are fully developed, psychologically well drawn and believable. Very few are superficial caricatures. Discuss with specific reference to at least five characters.
...vel, a sensible individual in a society which is composed of a selection of ‘fools’ (Chapter 53). As the daughter of Mr Bennet, she does not employ as insulting a tone as her father does, but chooses to define it as ‘impertinence’. After Darcy’s proposal is accepted, Darcy tells her that one of the reasons why he fell in love with her was ‘the liveliness of your mind’, showing that her intelligence adds to her realistic and well developed character. Austen develops My Bennet’s chief characteristics as having an ironic detachment and a sharp, cutting wit. The distance that he creates between himself and the absurdity around him often draws the reader in. To associate the author’s point of view with that of Mr Bennet, however, is to ignore his ultimate failure as a father and husband. He is endlessly witty, but his distance from the events around him makes him an ineffective parent. Mr Bennet’s character develops as he proves unable to handle Lydia’s elopement situation. Clearly it was necessary for Mr Darcy, decent and energetic, and the Gardiners, whose intelligence, perceptiveness and resourcefulness make them the strongest adult force in the novel, must step in. No other character is similar to Mr Bennet, making the huge variety in Austen’s characters her strongpoint. Mr Collins’s chief characteristics are of a pompous, conceited man, again creating a variety in Austen’s characters. A stupid and haughty character reveals his deficiencies in his first letter to Mr Bennet and later reinforces them by his ridiculous conversation. His false humility and servile admiration of his patroness are the symptoms of the worst sort of pride, a pride that contrasts with both the initial sense of superiority and the mature dignity of Darcy. Austen allows this frustrating character to exist and unravel, using him as an unwitting clown that entertains the reader. Mr Collins serves as a link between Longbourn and Rosings, and he therefore allows Elizabeth to contrast the behaviour of Darcy’s family with the behaviour of the Bennets. Whilst Mr Collins has a structural role of some importance, he is, however, best remembered as a wonderful caricature that makes us laugh at absurdity. Austen fully develops Mr Darcy into a clever, dignified and complacent character. Mr Darcy, the true hero of the novel, was brought up with “good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit” and “to think meanly of the rest of the world” (Page 297). This attitude, together with his resentful temper gives the reader a misrepresentation of himself. This allows Austen to develop the character throughout the novel. Darcy’s first appearance at the assembly ball in Meryton sets the gossips buzzing at his “fine, handso...