Mary Bennet

Basic Information

• Original names: Mary Bennet, Miss Mary
• Korean rendering: Mary Bennet
• Age: the third daughter, estimated to be about 18
• Family: third daughter of the Bennet family
• Residence: Longbourn
• First appearance: chunk_02 (Chap. 3)

Character Introduction

The only one of the five sisters not distinguished by beauty. As though to compensate, she devotes herself to reading and moral maxims, but her knowledge is superficial and pedantic. She plays the piano at the ball, overestimates her ability, and suffers the humiliation of being forcibly stopped by her father. Whenever an incident occurs, she responds with “observations on human nature” or quotations from moral treatises, most of which are ill suited to the situation.

Core Relationships

• Her father: dismisses or mocks Mary’s pedantic remarks
• Her sisters: the most isolated of the five; Jane and Elizabeth form one pair, Kitty and Lydia another, leaving Mary alone
• Collins: Mary is the only Bennet sister to converse with him at the ball; a faint interest is suggested but never develops

Translation Notes

• Mary’s speech is full of maxims and quotations, and its pedantry creates the comic effect. Deliberately use an excessively formal register to reproduce the awkwardness.
• “Mary had neither genius nor taste.” Do not soften Austen’s cold judgment.