From the opening paragraphs of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, we meet the character of Mrs Bennet. This mother of five daughters, who we are told are all out in society, is portrayed as a giddy goose with no real intelligence. She doesn’t engage her brain when speaking and as a result constantly mortifies her two eldest daughters, Jane and Elizabeth. This pair are real ladies in comparison to their three younger sisters – Kitty, Mary and especially Lydia, who ends up making a disgrace of the entire family.

All Mrs Bennet can think of is getting at least one of her daughters married to a man of good fortune. She knows the name and income of every eligible bachelor in the district and would settle for a member of the militia as a son-in-law if she had to.

Her hopes rest on Jane, the pretty one. So when she hears that the local big house Netherfield is let to an eligible young man, she is over the moon. “A single man of large fortune, four to five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls,” she gushes to her husband as she plots a meeting and marriage.

No wonder it’s so easy to be dismissive of Mrs Bennet. To see her as a small-minded woman with no taste or education or even manners. But I beg to differ. Yes, she is conniving and scheming and always putting her foot in it. But what mother wouldn’t do the same if she was in Mrs Bennet’s shoes? Mrs Bennet is demented with the situation she and her five daughters are facing. She knows that upon the death of her husband, who is no spring chicken, that their home, estate and income will transfer to the obnoxious Rev Collins. This will leave her and her daughters at his mercy or literally on the side of the road.

The girls are too high up the social pecking order to have jobs and even if they had, it would be as governesses or companions. Unfortunately they are too poor to support themselves and are no catch financially as they have dowries of only £50 a year. What’s even worse is that her high-minded put passive husband has failed to put a penny aside as savings for his daughters. He failed to look after their interests even though he knows full well that the roof over their heads and any income he has will go to his cousin after his death. And yet he is always mocking his wife for her concerns as the exchange below clearly shows.

“A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

“How so? How can it affect them?”

“My dear Mr Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”

“Is that his design in settling here?”

“Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.”

“I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr Bingley may like you the best of the party.”

This annoys Mrs Bennet no end and she falls back on her nerves. But her husband continues to mock her.

“Mr Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way! You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion on my poor nerves.”

“You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.”

So every week that passes makes the success of Mrs Bennet’s mission more imperative and you really have to marvel at how far she is prepared to go to get her daughters well settled.

When Jane is invited for tea at Netherfield, the plan was for her to go by carriage. But when Mrs Bennet realises there’s a storm brewing, she sends Jane by horseback instead. She knows full well that this way Jane will have to stay overnight and that might give her and Bingley a chance to fall in love. Of course, on the downside, Jane could catch a serious cold and end up dead, as Mr Bennet rather sarcastically points out. “Well, my dear,” said Mr Bennet, “if your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illness — if she should die, it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr Bingley, and under your orders.”

“Oh! I am not at all afraid of her dying. People do not die of little trifling colds. She will be taken good care of. As long as she stays there, it is all very well.” Mrs Bennet.

I doubt if today any mother with daughters would get away with trying to nab a husband for one of them. But to be fair to Mrs Bennet, today’s young women aren’t facing losing everything – including their home – upon the death of their father. Nowadays most young women are well educated and in a position to support themselves and their mother without the help of a man. That certainly wasn’t the case 200 years ago.

By the end of the book Mrs Bennet has Jane married to Mr Bingley and Elizabeth married to an even bigger catch in Mr Darcy. Lydia, the wild one, has married Mr Wickham, but under a cloud and only with the financial support of Mr Darcy. As for Mrs Bennet, well she is content. The business of her life was to get her daughters married. Happy ever after didn’t come into it.