Literary characters don't come better than Mrs. Bennet

Dear Oprah's Book Club:

Since I have never had the opportunity to join a book club, but I have an opinion anyway, here are my thoughts after rereading the best book on my shelf - the others are under the bed.

Mrs. Bennet from "Pride and Prejudice" may give the impression of being inane and meddlesome, but that is only because she is inane and meddlesome. Yet for all the misfortune she brings onto the lives of her daughters by causing their happiness to be dually postponed, she does have style for contributing to rising conflict.

Perhaps for this reason, more than any other, I wish to have Mrs. Bennet's aptitude for being the subject of the joke and the derision of her good name. Every story needs a lame duck character that shifts from being the impetus for a crisis to being the occasional push for said crisis to keep rolling.

Without Mrs. Bennet's consistent tendency for foppish indulgences, like three-course meals to net Jane a husband or even her blatant favoritism of Lydia and her trysts with soldiers for the purpose of living vicariously, could a love story like "Pride and Prejudice" be half as introspective to the discrepancies between pride and vanity or property-holding males and unwedded females? Regency England, indeed, would have turned out quite dull if every character's sole purpose was prudence and wit.

Mrs. Bennet's overall presence was not only to act as foil to her daughters' marriages of equally matched intellect and values compared to her marriage, which stood for fleeting beauty and lasting cheek, but was for humor.

Her pride and not her insipidity would prevent her from comprehending the real intent of her husband's banter, as she would probably phrase it, but she accepted her role with true grace.

Even when Lizzy found true happiness even after two failed proposals, one public and the other hushed, Mrs. Bennet first blessed herself for the good fortune of three daughters married, regardless of whether it was for true love.

In an instant, Mrs. Bennet denounced Jane's good fortune by reminding Lizzy of how much richer her life and station were to be. And of course, her crass behavior towards Mr. Darcy could be easily smoothed over by the request, "But my dearest love, tell me what dish Mr. Darcy is particularly fond of, that I may have it tomorrow."

In all the characters throughout this great novel, it has always been Mrs. Bennet that remained the most honest. Her character never develops from aversion to newly discovered love. In fact, her character barely develops, unless it changed to allow for enhanced obsequious behavior. She never had the trouble of expressing her candor, even at the expense of her family's humility. Mrs. Bennet remained true to herself, even if this did occur through misguided attempts on her daughters' futures.

Give me not a Jane or a Lizzy, but show me the real Bennet. Raising five landless daughters would be enough to make any provincial woman high-strung, yet Mrs. Bennet remained mercurial until the end. Because she worried about her fate as mistress if Mr. Bennet expired early, leaving her to "make way" for Charlotte Lucas and because she always found a way to create a problem where there was none before - case in point, her misguided attempt to coerce a prolonged meeting at Netherfield to the detriment of Jane's health - she is my favorite. One has to admire the fixed stance she manages to erect, only to change it by the course of a better offer.