Hennessy 1
Haley Hennessy
McGee
AP English 12
11 January 2011
The Pride and Prejudice Confidante
The protagonist of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet, shares
her personal thoughts, feelings, and impressions with her elder sister Jane Bennet.
Through confiding in Jane, Elizabeth shares more. She allows Jane to share her pleasure
and distress. As Elizabeth’s confidante, Jane influences the plot, theme, and message that
Jane Austen conveys in the novel.
Jane is a natural confidante for Elizabeth. She is a relative and therefore more
inclined to be understanding of Elizabeth’s disposition and, often, her needs, views, and
desires. Jane is also more readily available when Elizabeth is searching for a place to
confide. Being involved in many of the affairs Elizabeth encounters, Jane can regularly
relate and contribute her own experience. “When Jane and Elizabeth were alone” the two
women expressed the confidential first impressions they received of Darcy and Bingley
from the ball (Austen 10). Their truest feelings are shared with one another, even those
withheld from the rest.
An even more prominent advantage of the sisterhood that Jane and Elizabeth
share is a result of being raised together. Elizabeth has unwavering respect, love, and
trust in her sister, which provides the foundation that allows Elizabeth to confide in Jane.
Elizabeth’s dedication to her sister is represented by her three mile walk and
uncomfortable stay at Netherfield to attend to Jane when she falls ill. This devotion is
Hennessy 2
driven by her admiration and love of her sister, who she regards as having “sweetness and
disinteredness that are really angelic” (Austen 116) and that she feels “as if she had never
done her justice, or loved her as she deserves” (Austen 116). Elizabeth expresses her
love of Jane by explaining that she “only wants to think her perfect” (Austen 116).
The mutual trust between the women creates an environment that encourages
openness with one another and the ease of revealing information to each other. It is
because of the pivotal aspect of trust that Elizabeth is able to confide in her sister. This is
proven when she “related to Jane the next day what had passed between Mr. Wickham
and herself” even though she kept the exchange secret from everyone else and Jane
“listened with astonishment and concern” (Austen 73).
Elizabeth’s trust in Jane is strengthened by the weakening of trust in her dear
friend Charlotte Lucas. Elizabeth is, naturally, shocked when she hears that Charlotte is
engaged to be married to Mr. Collins mere days after Elizabeth herself had refused his
hand in marriage. “In as short a time as Mr. Collins’s speeches would allow, everything
was settled between them to the satisfaction of both” (Austen 106). Jane’s role as
confidante is strengthened by this sudden marriage arrangement because Elizabeth’s
“disappointment in Charlotte made her turn with fonder regard to her sister, of whose
rectitude and delicacy she was sure her opinion could never be shaken” (Austen 112).
Jane’s role as confidante proves influential on Elizabeth when Wickham’s claims
that Mr. Darcy’s “behavior to him had been scandalous” (Austen 67) because of his
cheating Mr. Wickham out of “the next presentation of the best living in the late Mr.
Darcy’s gift” (Austen 68) were discovered to be untrue. When word reaches Elizabeth
and Jane that their youngest sister, Lydia, had “gone off to Scotland with one of Colonel
Hennessy 3
Forster’s officers; to own the truth, with Wickham” (Austen 231) Elizabeth begins to
place blame on herself for the incident, and confides in Jane her guilt by saying “Oh,
Jane, had we been less secret, had we told what we knew of him, this could not have
happened!” Jane’s influence as confidante is emphasized by her ability to ease Jane’s
anguish when confided in. After Elizabeth reveals her fears, Jane counters them by
adverting that “perhaps it would have been better, but to expose the former faults of a
person, without knowing what their present feelings were, seemed unjustifiable” and that
“they had acted with the best intentions” (Austen 247) and Elizabeth’s guilt does not
surface again.
Elizabeth’s confidante is an essential aspect of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It is
because Jane earns Elizabeth’s trust, affection, respect, and love that Elizabeth so highly
regards her opinion and is able to be saved from prejudice. Jane was actively present for
many of Elizabeth’s experiences with Mr. Darcy and personally informed of many others.
Elizabeth reveals many of her intimate feelings and opinions to Jane without censoring or
concealing. As the confidante, Jane often receives the information regarding their
relationship firsthand. Jane’s being informed combined with her temperament of
“universal goodwill” (Austen 116) to help Elizabeth overcome prejudice. Jane’s
resistance to “see a fault in anybody” (Austen 11) offset Elizabeth’s quickness to deem
Mr. Darcy a most disagreeable man and contributes to Elizabeth’s dramatic shift in
feelings. Jane Austen’s use of a confidante character aids the triumph over pride and
prejudice.
Hennessy 4
Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Bantam, 1981. Print.