From the Vault: Character Analysis on Kitty Bennet

Don’t steal me.

I spent all day writing this… literally, all day. It drove my family nuts and I kept freaking out… but the result was worth it: my teacher said it was “nothing short of fabulous,” which is quite the opposite of something worth complaining about.

Character Analysis on Kitty Bennet

            As one of the most abstruse and waspish characters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Catherine “Kitty” Bennet is subject to greater influence than any of the other characters. In this essay, I will briefly discuss the roles of the other Bennet sisters, then Kitty’s role in the Bennet family—a role that determines how she speaks, acts, and reacts throughout the course of the story. I will discuss how those actions relate to the minor themes of the book—that is, individuality, influence, and reputation—then cover where Kitty fits in the grand themes of pride and prejudice.

Of the five Bennet sisters, Kitty is the only one whose individuality is nonexistent—questionable, at best. Jane is defined by her sweet graciousness; Elizabeth, by her unrelenting faithfulness to what she holds to be true. Mary is the family pedant—filling her mind with knowledge yet living in ignorance of most everything, then there is Kitty, “weak-spirited, irritable, and completely under Lydia’s guidance” (203). This Lydia, the youngest, is also their mother’s favorite, a reprehensible flirt whose only thoughts are of fun and amusement.

Kitty’s idiosyncrasies are the result of two singular aspects of her life. The first is the influence Lydia holds over her, which will be explained in greater depth further on in this essay. The second is the lack of acknowledgement Kitty receives from her family. Even her parents are guilty of this unintended negligence. In the first few chapters, when Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are quarreling about Mr. Bingley, Mrs. Bennet, in lieu of a better comeback, “began scolding one of her daughters. ‘Don’t keep coughing so, Kitty, for heaven’s sake!’” (6).

On more than one occasion, the conniving Mrs. Bennet would pull a “Come here, my love, I want to speak with you” in order to get another daughter alone with a suitor (328). If Kitty, to her mother, is little more than a shallow, trifling soul in the grand scheme of Project: Get the Bennet Girls Married, she is mere amusement to her father. He is quite satisfied by laughing at the foolishness of his youngest daughters, and occasionally sets Kitty as the brunt of his dry jokes, such as Kitty’s carelessness with her coughs—“she times them ill.” (6)

Her role in the Bennet family therefore, is as the delicate, easily-hurt and easily-teased flirt whose substance is largely borrowed from Lydia.  When the Elizabeth-Won’t-Have-Collins fiasco was going down, it was Lydia who first ran up to Charlotte with her characteristic, “I am glad you are come, for there is such fun here!” (108). Only then does Kitty show, and she only comes “to tell the same news” (108).  She does not have an original idea in her head; she follows Lydia’s lead in every matter, only her lack of confidence restrains her from reacting with equal alacrity.

When Collins, during his visit, pulls down a monstrous tome, “Kitty stared at him, and Lydia exclaimed” (65). Although only Lydia is berated for such insolence, the family is confident that its effects are felt by Kitty was well. For a great portion of the novel, the two are spoken to and speak collectively. When Kitty and Lydia meet Jane and Elizabeth upon their return from abroad, Lydia doesn’t shut up, but never once does Kitty say a word. Indeed, throughout much of the book, she leaves Lydia to voice her opinions and it isn’t until the latter is preparing to leave that their speech is divided.

As Lydia is packing to go, “the luckless Kitty continued in the parlour repining at her fate in terms as unreasonable as her accent was peevish” (218). She complains that, if anyone was invited, it should have been her—after all, she the older of the two. Aside from voicing complaints, Kitty is rather reserved with her tongue, being much too afraid of [Darcy] to talk” (346).

A large portion of Kitty and Lydia’s life is dedicated to soldiers and balls, in that order. With little care for money or upholding a reputation, Elizabeth describes the duo thusly: “Kitty and Lydia…are much too young in the ways of the world, and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome young men must have something to live on, as well as the plain.”

Indeed, when things get boring at Longbourn, the two would take their vacant minds their minds to Meryton, which “was necessary to amuse their morning hours and furnish conversation for the evening.” (26)

When Lydia does leave, her letters to Kitty are longer, but “much too full of lines under the words to be made public” (226). The readers later learn that Kitty had known, through these letters, of Lydia and Wickham’s plan to elope.  “Kitty then owned, with very natural triumph on knowing more than the rest of us, that un Lydia’s last letter she prepared her for such a step. She had known, it seems, of their being in love with each other many weeks” (276). As Lydia’s confidant, she takes advantage of every possible occasion to feel as important as possible.

Indeed, it is in reactions such as these that most accurately give a portrait of Kitty’s character. When Mr. Bennet informs Kitty and Lydia that he is convinced they are two of the silliest girls in the county, “Catherine was disconcerted, and made no answer” (27), while Lydia waves it away lightheartedly. Her forehead knots when Mr. Bennet jokes about Kitty running away next, and she fretfully exclaims, “I am not going to run away, Papa, if I should ever go to Brighton, I will behave better than Lydia.” He then informs her that such a thing will never happen, nor will she be allowed to go out in society or to any balls for another ten years. “Kitty, who took all these threats in a serious light, began to cry” (285).

As far as themes are concerned, the first is individuality. Already, it is established that she owes a large portion of her vapid character to Lydia and that she is overlooked on account of her timidity. She passes out of concern as soon as another character achieves temporary importance, such as on the morning Bingley arrives to propose to Jane. Amid the uproar ensuing before Bingley arrives, Mrs. Bennet, out of frustration, exclaims,  ‘Oh, hang Kitty! What has she to do with it?” (328). Even when it comes to her marriage, her apathetic father makes little distinction between her and, in this case, Mary. While he is giving away his other daughters, he jests, “If any young men come for my Mary or Kitty, send them in, for I am quite at my leisure” (358).

The influence that Darcy has over Bingley is mirrored in the way Kitty looks to Lydia in every situation. It isn’t until the latter is married and gone that she begins to think for herself and, therefore, improve. “By the middle of June Kitty was so much recovered as to be able to enter Meryton without tears, an event of such happy promise as to make Elizabeth to hope that by the following Christmas she might be able to be so tolerable reasonable as to not mention an officer above once a day” (226). By the end of the book, by her spending so much time with her eldest sisters and the company they keep, Kitty’s “improvement was great. She was not of so ungovernable a temper as Lydia, and removed from the influence of Lydia’s example, she became, by proper attention and management, less irritable, less ignorant, and less insipid.” (367). It was really proper attention and good mentors that she needed the entire time. Due to this, her reputation goes from being thought “uncommonly foolish” (27) by her father, to a rather sensible young lady.

In the grand scheme of pride, Kitty has next to none, relying on Lydia to make all judgment s and following suit. What little prejudice she might have is ignored, as she goes about throwing herself at every attractive young man she meets, with no regard for sense.

In conclusion, the irascible Kitty Bennet is a woman in desperate need of guidance. By the end of the book, she finds reasonable role models and her quality of life is improved far beyond the status she would have remained at had she followed Lydia night and day