'Her mild and
steady candour
always pleaded for
allowances'.
Jane is gentle and credits
people with good reasons for
their actions.
'Poor Jane! Who would willingly have gone
through the world without believing that
so much wickedness existed in the whole
race of mankind'.
She takes an optimistic view
of the human race.
'My mother means well; but she does
not know, no one can know how much I
suffer from what she says'.
She protects herself so effectively that most
people do not notice what she is feeling.
ROLE IN THE NOVEL
Jane is the eldest and most beautiful of the five sisters. She and
Elizabeth are particularly close and are always able to speak honestly to
each other, though their characters are contrasted.
She dances with Bingley at the
first ball and are immediately
attracted to each other.
She is invited by Bingley's
sisters to Netherfield,
where she falls ill and is
visited by Elizabeth.
She is invited to London by the Gardiners and hopes to meet
Bingley again, but is hurt and disappointed when she
receives only a single visit from Miss Bingley
She accepts Bingley's offer of
marriage when he eventually returns
to Netherfield.
TOP TIP
Contrast Jane with Elizabeth, and
also with Charlotte Lucas about
the theme of marriage.
It would be impossible for Jane to ever scheme to catch a husband.
Her misplaced trust in
Caroline Bingley leaves her
unsuspecting of the true
reasons for Bingley's absence.