Why I don’t Hate Caroline Bingley

Caroline Bingley is the star of my debut novel, Prideful and Persuaded, in a statement that I hope isn’t a spoiler (she’s the heroine) she will get a happy ending. You might ask, why? Why would I give such a horrid woman a whole novel and a happy ending? Does she deserve it? Isn’t she a false friend and a shameless social climber? Wasn’t she mean to Elizabeth Bennet, our favourite heroine?!?

                This essay is a defence of Caroline Bingley. I will not argue that she is a paragon of virtue (keep in mind, Elizabeth isn’t either), but that she is a very real person with understandable flaws and reasonable motives. I will also argue that she did at least one noble thing in Pride and Prejudice, maybe two. I will show why the way she acted is very understandable, given her circumstances. When it comes to Jane Austen, I firmly believe that she does not write psychopathic or one-note characters. There are always touches of true humanity in all of her characters.

                I am going to clarify something first, when I quote or refer to Caroline’s opinions, often Mrs. Hurst is included or saying the same thing. The book makes it very clear that the two sisters think together, so while I will be quoting Caroline, it will often say “they” or “the sisters”. When the story begins, Caroline is trying to attract Mr. Darcy. He doesn’t seem interested, but she keeps trying. Why?

                Modern readers may not understand fully (and this is from a lot of reading myself), but Mr. Darcy is one of the most eligible bachelors in England. If there was a Regency People magazine, he’d be on the front every year. He’s not a peer (duke etc.), but he is the nephew of an Earl, that places him near the top of the gentry class in status. He is fabulously wealthy. Don’t trust those currency convertors, they don’t work well over two hundred years. If we rank Darcy against everyone else, he’s in the top 1%. The average income of a titled man (peer) at this time is 8,000 pounds, he has 10,000. As a point of interest, the average for a member of the gentry is 1,500, that’s Darcy’s own class. Also, he is only 28 years old and already in control of his fortune. A lot of young men at this age are still waiting to inherit. His mother is deceased, so no annoying dowager hanging around.

                He has one more interesting feature that today we might not appreciate, he only has one sibling. Because the first son usually inherited almost everything, he would also have a duty to provide for his younger brothers and sisters. If Darcy was the first of a large brood, he’d be buying younger brothers commissions into the military, livings as a clergy, and every time a sister married fortune would be leaving the family. Darcy has one sister and because his family is so wealthy in general (the Earl and Lady Catherine seem fine), he also gets to keep almost everything for himself. To sum up, he’s handsome, tall, in control of his fortune, high status, filthy stinking rich, and no one is grubbing for his money. Can we blame Caroline for trying so hard? He’s basically fallen into her lap by staying with their family.

                Here is the first description of Caroline, which is narration: “They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of being agreeable where they chose it; but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank; and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.” So yes, Caroline is snobby and selfish. Caroline is also very wealthy, so like Mr. Darcy, she has some claim on being proud. She also knows that to make her family entirely respectable, her brother needs to buy an estate and she needs to marry into the gentry.

                When it comes to Jane, Caroline seems to actually like her or at least think she’s the best person to befriend in Hertfordshire. Here is Caroline’s first impression of Jane Bennet: “but still they admired her and liked her, and pronounced her to be a sweet girl, and one whom they should not object to know more of.” and the second impression, “though the mother was found to be intolerable, and the younger sisters not worth speaking to, a wish of being better acquainted with them was expressed towards the two eldest.” Notice that? Caroline likes both Jane and Elizabeth enough to want to know them better. Also notice that Caroline’s assessment of the family is the same as the one formed by Darcy and Elizabeth herself. Jane and Elizabeth are the only two members of the family that conduct themselves in society properly. Caroline sees that Jane is sweet and well-mannered and she decides that forming a friendship would be acceptable. Elizabeth is also judged to be fine. What happens? Well that very chapter, this happens:

“Your conjecture is totally wrong, I assure you. My mind was more agreeably engaged. I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”

Miss Bingley immediately fixed her eyes on his face, and desired he would tell her what lady had the credit of inspiring such reflections. Mr. Darcy replied with great intrepidity,

“Miss Elizabeth Bennet.”

                Darcy tells Caroline, point blank, that he is interested in Elizabeth. Of course Caroline gets jealous! But why did Darcy do this anyway? It doesn’t seem like he told anyone else, not even his male friend Bingley. He either did it to give Caroline a hint that she would not succeed or (my favourite) he did it because he disregards other people’s feelings. We know that at this point he makes jokes at expense of the Bennet family (“She a beauty!—I should as soon call her mother a wit”) and we know that he considers himself far above them in manners and rank (he really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger). After this evening, Caroline no longer likes Elizabeth Bennet. They have been set up as rivals by Mr. Darcy himself. When Caroline wants a friend, she sends for Jane alone.

                Next, her treatment of Jane when she gets sick at Netherfield. We hear from Elizabeth’s perspective, “The sisters, on hearing this, repeated three or four times how much they were grieved, how shocking it was to have a bad cold, and how excessively they disliked being ill themselves; and then thought no more of the matter: and their indifference towards Jane when not immediately before them, restored Elizabeth to the enjoyment of all her original dislike.” Now at this point, Caroline has known Jane for a few weeks and Jane has a cold because for a crazy reason: her mom sent her out on horseback in the rain. Also, the illness of Jane has brought Elizabeth right into the house, which obviously is making Caroline jealous. Since Elizabeth is doing most of the work anyway, I can forgive the sisters for not being attentive. If Elizabeth had not come, we can probably assume the sisters would have been more actively involved.

                It’s also not like Caroline completely ignore Jane, “Miss Bingley had spent some hours of the morning with the invalid”. We also know that by the time the Bingleys leave, Jane and Caroline are intimate enough as friends that they use each other’s first names.

                Then we come to the letter of departure and the visit in London. A very important event happened before these two slights to Jane: the Netherfield Ball. We all know that at the Netherfield Ball, Mrs. Bennet, Mary, Lydia, and Kitty all made fools of themselves and in importantly, Mrs. Bennet loudly talked about how rich Jane would be after marrying Bingley. We also have good information from Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Mr. Darcy that Jane did not look like she was in love. So, knowing that Caroline helped separate Charles and Jane, how harshly should we judge her for it?

                Caroline is Jane’s friend, but her loyalty must be to her family first. If as Darcy suspected, Jane was only a fortune hunter, pushed into the relationship with Bingley by her mercenary mother, then as his sister, I cannot blame Caroline for helping to separate them. Both Darcy and Caroline have ulterior motives for not wanting Bingley to marry Jane (the same motive actually, they want Bingley to marry Georgiana), but that does not mean they don’t also share concern for him. Who would want their brother married into such a vulgar family unless the woman really loved him? Caroline gives up her friendship with Jane, exemplified in the letter, which gives a strong hint that Jane should give him up, and the cold visit in London, to protect her brother. While Caroline doesn’t apologize on page, it’s easy to imagine that once the marriage actually occurs, she would try and repair her relationship with Jane.  She does like Jane, I mean, who wouldn’t?

Side Note: The lettesr from Caroline that tells Jane to give up on Bingley can be seen as either cruel or kind. Cruel: ha ha, my brother is going to marry Miss Darcy. Kind: Jane, we like you, but we don’t think it’s a good idea for Charles to marry you. I am giving you the opportunity to move on.

                Caroline interfering with Jane and Bingley can be judged as good (service to her brother) or bad (attempt at social climbing), but there is one thing that Caroline does that I judge as wholly good and even self-sacrificial. Caroline tries to warn Elizabeth away from Wickham. Now this is what Elizabeth thinks about it, “Insolent girl!” said Elizabeth to herself. “You are much mistaken if you expect to influence me by such a paltry attack as this. I see nothing in it but your own wilful ignorance and the malice of Mr. Darcy.” Now we know that Darcy did not truly act with malice towards Wickham, but Elizabeth also misses an obvious fact here, it would be much better for Caroline if Elizabeth did like Wickham.

                Remember Caroline’s motivations, she wants to marry Darcy. She knows that Darcy hates Wickham, so the best thing for her to do is actually encourage Elizabeth to go for Wickham, it solves all her problems! Now you may think that she just wants to make fun of Elizabeth, but there are far better ways to do that. Four good ways to make fun of Elizabeth are wandering around Netherfield as Caroline speaks. Also, Caroline is not rude in public. All of the fun she has mocking the Bennets happens behind closed doors and with people who are responding in kind. So why would she warn Elizabeth about Wickham? My explanation: Regency Girl Code.

                Remember, in 1800s Regency England, marriage was forever and women are almost entirely subject to their husbands. If Elizabeth is deceived in Wickham’s character, she could doom herself for the rest of her life. It is my opinion that Caroline was so disturbed by Darcy’s anger towards Wickham that she decided to go against her own interest and warn Elizabeth. There are two other explanations, she is trying to protect Darcy from slander (not a bad motive) or Caroline is an idiot, because making fun of Elizabeth once against her interests is just stupid. I do not think Caroline is that stupid, especially not socially. Yes, she warned Elizabeth with a sneer, but she did warn her correctly.

                Caroline Bingley isn’t a saint, but she’s also not a devil or villain. She is a normal person with rational motives. She probably does like Jane Bennet, even though she separated her from Bingley. She is jealous of Elizabeth, but she still warns her away from Wickham. She is snobby and selfish, but those are faults she shares with Darcy for about half of the book. I cannot hate her enough not to give her a happy ending. And for all those people who imagine her unmarried and a dependant on her family? You forget that she is stinking rich herself. Someone is going to marry that 20,000 pounds, no matter who is attached to it!

Source for income statistics: More or Less How Rich was Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy?