Jealousy in July: Who is Jane Austen’s Most Jealous Character?

Is Caroline Bingley green with envy as she notices Mr. Darcy’s attentions to Elizabeth Bennet? Does Emma Woodhouse wish unspeakable horrors on Harriet Smith because of Harriet’s crush on Mr. Knightley? After Willoughby, does Marianne covet Elinor’s more sensible behaviour? We could go on for ages, but it’s only for this month so don’t miss a post!

Who is Jane Austen’s most jealous character? There are plenty to choose from. In Pride and Prejudice, Caroline Bingley is almost bursting with jealousy of Lizzy, as she perceives Darcy’s liking for her. Darcy, more quietly, doubtless has some moments – and painful they must be – when he perceives Lizzy’s early preference for Wickham. Mrs. Bennet is constitutionally envious of any girl who succeeds in marrying before her own daughters, and can scarcely forgive Charlotte for making off with Mr. Collins.

In Sense and Sensibility, Colonel Brandon is jealous of Willoughby, gloomily contemplating Marianne’s passion for him. Lucy Steele is jealous of Elinor, knowing very well that Edward has fallen in love with her – and Elinor, though little given to jealousy herself, endures the misery of Edward’s engagement with Lucy. Like her sister, Marianne’s is not a jealous nature, but she is in dreadful agony on seeing Willoughby with his soon-to-be fiancée. One of Jane Austen’s most amusing moments is when she portrays the jealousies of the couples in the end of this novel:

“[Lucy and Robert] settled in town, received very liberal assistance from Mrs. Ferrars, were on the best terms imaginable with the Dashwoods, and setting aside the jealousies and ill-will continually subsisting between Fanny and Lucy, in which their husbands of course took a part, as well as the frequent domestic disagreements between Robert and Lucy themselves, nothing could exceed the harmony in which they all lived together.”

Mansfield Park is filled with jealousy. In Fanny’s breast is hopeless jealousy of Mary Crawford; Mr. Rushworth is jealous of the “undersized” Mr. Crawford who steals away his wife; Edmund is jealous of the effect of the world on Mary; and Maria and Julia are jealous rivals for Mr. Crawford.

Emma has plenty of jealousy too – Jane Fairfax suffers torments of jealousy over Frank Churchill’s flirtation with Emma. Mr. Knightley too is deeply jealous of what he fears is Emma’s feeling for Frank, and Emma, of course, is always jealous of Jane Fairfax’s superiority – and suffers another kind of jealousy when she briefly believes Harriet is preferred by Mr. Knightley.

In Persuasion there is no lack of jealousy, for Anne has to endure the sight of her beloved Captain Wentworth amusing himself with Louisa Musgrove, while he is jealous of her apparent involvement with her cousin Mr. Elliot, and Mary Musgrove is envious of everyone. Northanger Abbey is perhaps Austen’s least jealous book. Catherine and Henry Tilney’s course of love runs fairly smoothly, impeded only by General Tilney’s avarice and John Thorpe’s scheming, but the young, simple hearted Catherine and clever, amusing Mr. Tilney, are too absorbed in each other to experience  any bitter envy.

So it was that Austen created a veritable gallery of jealousy, and when she has the Gardiners observe Darcy and Elizabeth with “the full conviction that one of them at least knew what it was to love,” we may conclude that Jane Austen herself knew all about how it felt to be jealous. We may imagine what may have been jealous moments in her own life – was she jealous of her older brothers for their education and experience of the world; of her sister for finding love and being engaged; of romantic situations where she was left to wither on the vine as a spinster; or of other novelists for selling more? We can only guess.

As for Jane Austen’s most jealous character, I have no hesitation at naming the one whom I believe most readers see as the most perfect, the most amusing portrait of jealousy, and that is the character I named first:  Caroline Bingley. She is so blatant, so shameless, so unconscious of how obvious she is, with her constant outrageous remarks to and about Lizzy, and her hilariously ludicrous, clumsy attempts to win Darcy for herself. She is so deliciously absurd, I think it is time to visit her again. Here goes:

Poor Caroline

Miss Bingley pulled her needleful of silk pettishly through the turban she was trimming.  “Do you not think it unconscionable, Louisa, for the gentlemen to be ignoring us in this way?”

Mrs. Hurst, whose tatting lay in her lap, unattended, leaned back languidly on the sofa, and gazed out the window of Netherfield’s front sitting-room, where she could see the sweep and the road down which any carriage or horsemen would appear.

“It is very odd indeed, Caroline. Four days in succession that Charles and Darcy have spent entirely at Longbourn. Do they not realise how tiresome it is for their sisters, to be left quite alone?”

Miss Bingley glanced over at Mr. Hurst, who was fast asleep on the sofa by the fire, snoring gently, a silk handkerchief over his face.

“Oh,” said Mrs. Hurst impatiently, “do not consider him; he is no company at all. But Charles forgets his duty.  His engagement is no reason for him to turn away from his sisters. He ought to include us, to pay more attention to us than ever, in my opinion.”

“No one has come near us this whole week,” Miss Bingley complained. “Any one who wishes to call upon the family will seek out Charles at Longbourn. It is as good as his home now.”

“I could not have believed it of him. Charles, so gentle, so affectionate, to be so wrapped up in that simpering, low bred Jane Bennet!  I knew we should never have encouraged his attentions to her, Caroline. You see how it has ended.”

“We only encouraged him just at the first. He was so struck by her pretty face, it was necessary to be agreeable. You know that as soon as ever we saw the danger, we, and Darcy, acted, and did all we could to keep them apart. But it was too late and too little. Now we pay the price, in having the mortification of Jane Bennet as our sister-in-law.”

“Pretty preferment,” snorted Mrs. Hurst, idly examining her barely-begun tatting work. “We will be having her impossible mother, and vulgar connections, in the house every day.”

“They are none of them here now. We are left as alone as if we were in Coventry. I am sure I hope Charles will be very happy in his choice, and it must be admitted that Jane Bennet is good-natured enough for such an empty-headed creature; but it is a most unfortunate choice, most.”

Mr. Hurst roused a little, and looked with one eye out from under his handkerchief. “’Pon my word, she is handsome, however,” he drawled. “You don’t see a gel that handsome once a year. Fine figure too, tall and formed. Charles has got himself an armful.” And he covered his face up again and dozed back into a light snore. The sisters looked at each other with expressions of disgust.

“Confess it, Caroline, it is not Charles you are minding,” said Mrs. Hurst. “It is Darcy.”

“Darcy? Why should I worry about him? He is Charles’s friend, naturally he stays with him. No doubt they are out shooting. Mr. Bennet must be laying on every pleasure to keep Jane’s lucky catch in thrall, and Mrs. Bennet will be keeping her cook busy concocting delicacies to please the gentlemen’s palates.”

“Nonsense,” persisted Mrs. Hurst. “You know very well no such blandishments are needed. Charles is firmly in Jane Bennet’s net, for good and all. Even if there were no sport, and only indifferent food, his passion would not change. No, mark my words, it is Mr. Darcy the Bennets are aiming at now.”

Miss Bingley tossed aside her work and walked restlessly over to the bay window, twiddling its sash, and searching the russet October horizon for signs of life. “That cannot be, Louisa!  Darcy has far too much pride. We can trust in that, at least, surely.”

Mrs. Hurst shook her head wisely, and the little yellow curls under her matron’s cap trembled a little. “I knew there was danger the moment he admired that girl’s fine eyes, Caroline, and so did you. I am afraid, quite afraid, to think what four days alone with that artful creature will produce. Lady Catherine was very alarmed, you know, about that girl’s designs.”

“Darcy to be brought down by such a little, scheming vixen as that!  No, no, never! Impossible!”

“It is not impossible at all, it is exactly because he has never been susceptible to all the mamma’s daughters who have been dangled in front of him, that he will fall the harder. Mark my words, Caroline, you had better prepare yourself for a disappointment.”

“Louisa! How can you be so unfeeling. I am sure that Darcy appreciates who his truest friends are. His warm affection for Charles, must lead to his wishing to be part of our family…I am persuaded he will.”

“He has not persuaded you of that himself,” pursued Mrs. Hurst. “The truth is, he has shown his indifference. It would be far better for you, Caroline, if you would prepare yourself, so you will receive the news graciously.  After all, you do not want to sever all ties to Pemberley, whoever is its mistress.”

Miss Bingley’s face grew long. “You are cruel, Louisa, cruel. There is not a symptom, not a shadow of an attachment between Darcy and…and that pert, little, sharp-nosed, big-eyed, calculating Miss Bennet!”

Her sister shrugged. “If you say so dear. I think you will see your folly.”

“It is not folly. Darcy has always been mine. I know it. You will see, Louisa. You are jealous, that is all. When I am mistress of Pemberley, you will be nothing, you will wait on me for charity. You – ”

Mrs. Hurst’s eyes darkened, but she only said, “Listen. There are the horses now.”

The sisters sat in silence for the time that it took for the horses to be stabled, and for Bingley and Darcy to come stamping in their boots into the sitting-room, their faces ruddy from the exercise, and with exalted expressions that would have announced great news, without a word being said.

“My dear sisters!” Charles exclaimed jovially. “You have such news to hear – oh, the happiest news in the world!  A wedding.”

“We know about your wedding,” answered Miss Bingley calmly. “Have you and Jane settled your plans?”

“Indeed we have, Caroline, but more to the point, so has Darcy. He is to marry Miss Elizabeth Bennet. There’s for you!  It is to be a double wedding. Now, is that not the happiest of news?”

Glancing at her sister’s white face as the blow was struck, Mrs. Hurst saw that she really could not speak, and she mustered up the necessary reply. “Many felicitations, Mr. Darcy,” she managed to say. “I am sure we wish you joy.”

“Yes, indeed,” echoed Miss Bingley faintly.

“There, Darcy!  I told you the girls would rejoice, and dance at our two weddings. In November, at Longbourn church, and we will depart with our brides for Pemberley straight from the church door. Darcy has been telling me of an estate only thirty miles from there, that I must look into – most eligible place for miles around, not far from Nottingham. You will be happy, won’t you, to be settled upon our own estate at long last? It is within quite easy riding distance from Derbyshire.”

“My dear Charles, the very thing!” exclaimed Mrs. Hurst. Her husband, seeing all the benefit of being established in such a comfortable home, bestirred himself from the sofa, hauled himself upon his legs, and poured some of Mr. Bingley’s good wine to propose a toast.

They were very merry over the toasts, and jubilant, all but Miss Bingley, and the two gentlemen were far too happy to notice how quiet she was. Darcy did glance at her once or twice, surprised to hear none of her usual prattling abuse of his chosen lady; but as her new quietness was so preferable, he dismissed her from his mind and lifted a toast to his own bride, his dearest, loveliest Elizabeth.

 

 

 

 

32 comments

Skip to comment form

    • Mari on July 12, 2016 at 7:07 am
    • Reply

    I thoroughly enjoyed your post. It is amazing how many of the main characters harbored jealous feelings, and it is not so amazing that jealousy made for so many uncomfortable moments.. I had not really considered how many there were. I would,say Wickham’s was the most jealous and his jealousy was destructive, with far reaching consequences. Second place goes to Caroline Bingley, hands down. I liked your vignette very much; it was well imagined, and made me smile. I have had trouble sleeping lately and waking up can be such a wrench. Today it wasn’t because I found this in my inbox. It was actually a pleasure to wake up! Thank you for giving us something to think about, and something to laugh about. Also, how can it be July already?!

      • Diana Birchall on July 12, 2016 at 1:59 pm
      • Reply

      I’m so glad if anything I wrote made you feel better, Mari! That’s great. And Jealousy in July is a most absorbing subject, isn’t it!

  1. I must agree that Carolinr takes first place. So many authors have taken a crack at Caroline’s behavior, and this one was very well done!

      • Diana Birchall on July 12, 2016 at 2:00 pm
      • Reply

      Thanks, June! She’s so odious it’s hard to find her in a sympathetic moment.

    • Glynis on July 12, 2016 at 8:54 am
    • Reply

    I must agree with you about Caroline being the most jealous. I enjoyed your little vignette and how she refused to believe her sister’s warning as the announcement was so much more shocking to her. Thank you.

      • Diana Birchall on July 12, 2016 at 2:01 pm
      • Reply

      Thanks, Glynis – well, one can *almost* feel sorry for her, losing Mr. Darcy, but what an unrealistic expectation in the first place!

    • Meg on July 12, 2016 at 10:07 am
    • Reply

    At Caroline we can laugh, at Wickham we cannot. Hats off for an entertaining scene!

      • Diana Birchall on July 12, 2016 at 2:02 pm
      • Reply

      I agree, Wickham’s about as funny as…well, he isn’t! Glad you enjoyed Caroline!

    • Jennifer Redlarczyk on July 12, 2016 at 12:41 pm
    • Reply

    That was cute! Poor Miss Bingley, thwarted once again by a JAFF author.

      • Diana Birchall on July 12, 2016 at 2:02 pm
      • Reply

      Caroline is pretty thwartable. Glad you enjoyed it, Jennifer!

    • Kristine Shore on July 12, 2016 at 1:58 pm
    • Reply

    I am not so sure the most jealous in Austen’s world would be Caroline. Even if she didn’t marry Mr. Darcy, she had a decent dowry and could marry elsewhere.

      • Diana Birchall on July 12, 2016 at 2:03 pm
      • Reply

      Very true, Kristine. But I had to pick someone, and Caroline is fun to write about! 🙂 Thanks for commenting.

  2. Love the explication of jealousy first, followed by the vignette of Caroline’s jealousy. Thank you so much, Diana! 🙂

    Warmly,
    Susanne 🙂

      • Diana Birchall on July 12, 2016 at 10:19 pm
      • Reply

      Thank you, Susanne, I’m so gratified you enjoyed it!

    • Carol hoyt on July 12, 2016 at 2:40 pm
    • Reply

    Love the article. I agree with your summations and your final decision

    Caroline Bingley by far is the most yellows eyed of them all!

    Enjoyed the vignette!

      • Diana Birchall on July 12, 2016 at 10:20 pm
      • Reply

      Thank you, Carol. There were a lot to choose from, but Caroline, I felt, led the field! 🙂 And I don’t see anybody arguing the point.

    • Carole in Canada on July 12, 2016 at 4:36 pm
    • Reply

    Well done! Caroline will continue to be jealous even if she does find someone to marry that needs her dowry but has a title! Thank you!

    • Diana Birchall on July 12, 2016 at 10:21 pm
    • Reply

    Let us hope the poor girl does not marry another Mr. Hurst! Though there is NOT another Mr. Darcy. Thanks for your comment, Carole, which has started me thinking about what kind of match “poor Caroline” might make…

    • Ann Garland on July 12, 2016 at 10:30 pm
    • Reply

    I still want Caroline to be compromised by someone like Wickham (or maybe Mr. Collins).

    1. That would be rather delicious, Ann. “Give a loose to your fancy,” as Lizzy wrote to Mrs. Gardiner, and write it!

    • Deborah on July 13, 2016 at 5:56 am
    • Reply

    This was such a fun post. Caroline was totally oblivious to the fact that Darcy would not choose her. I love how you portrayed that in this post. One thing Caroline would never acknowledge was that Elizabeth was above her socially….Caroline was a tradesman’s daughter while Elizabeth was a gentleman’s daughter. And talk about scheming, who was scheming? And I do think she was green with envy over the fact that Darcy was attracted to Elizabeth, more jealous than any of Jane’s other characters. Thank you for putting a smile on my face this morning.

    1. Deborah, so glad you got a smile! And you gave me one too, reading about Elizabeth being socially above Caroline. You’re right of course…but Caroline would be as oblivious to that as she was to Darcy’s indifference. Come to think of it, she and Mrs. Hurst spend all their time cackling over Lizzy’s low connections in trade – here we see Jane Austen’s fabulous humour and irony, considering THEIR money came from trade!

  3. As ever, Diana, you bring out the truly or literally there overt actuating impulses among the characters and show the parallel patterns in Austen’s novels. You prompt me to think about which character(s) experience this emotion to the point they destroy themselves and seek to destroy others, a kind of seething passion that goes beyond wanting something or someone for themselves. They can’t bare that others should have what they can’t or don’t, a kind of envious spite. We see this in her harridans (Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mrs Norris), her victims (Maria Bertram), those who show a tenacious seeking for power (Mrs Ferrars, Lady Denham). But the tragic dimension seems to be lacking; the jealousy is limited in its purchase. No Iagos or Margarets (I’m thinking of Shakespeare’s women in his historical plays), with the fiction arranged so that the world’s spite (say the longing of characters to see Lydia on the stteet) is limited too. Her villain males are too selfish and careless about others to be bothered in this way, and jealousy emerges as a good motive in the cases of say Mr Knightley and Wentworth as they want the best for their beloved too. If we might posit true sexual anxiety and a need to possess, the character is kept at such distance (Manwaring in Lady Susan) or so burlesqued (in the juvenilia), or just given their way quickly, the fictions are inoculated. One begins to ask good questions, like why readers remain satisfied and return to read again.

    1. Thank you for commenting Ellen – yes, much food for thought in a subject like Jealousy, isn’t there? It was me who came up with the topic suggestion and it was indeed interesting to think and to write about. You of course take it fascinatingly farther, thinking about which of Austen’s characters are actually destroyed by their own jealousy. In the first place, I would think she thought people don’t destroy themselves they survive, despite living in a hideous stew of their own making (the Norris/Maria menange). And she wasn’t going in for tragedy (“let other pens…”). So she didn’t play out the tragic aspects, though remember her comment on Crawford and the unjustness of his fate, spectulating there may be juster appointments in the hereafter. Well, well, one does begin to ask good questions! And readers are NOT satisfied – that’s just it – they return again and again to try to figure it all out!

    • Arnie Perlstein on July 13, 2016 at 10:49 am
    • Reply

    Such is JA’s genius that she could make Caroline Bingley her most openly jealous character, and then make her adversary, Elizabeth Bennet, her most covertly jealous character–because the person Eliza is most jealous of is…..Jane, as I spelled out in the following three posts in late 2014:

    http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2014/11/does-lizzy-wrongly-rationalize-not.html
    http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2014/12/lizzy-bennet-selfish-being-who-never.html
    http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2014/12/prudence-forbad-disclosure-is-undercut.html

    In a nutshell, I suggest that Elizabeth was so (unconsciously) jealous of Bingley falling in love with Jane, that Eliza did not lift a finger at any point when she had chances, in order to undo Darcy’s meddling, and to help bring Jane and BIngley back together again — and she did this out of jealousy and selfishness, because she wanted Darcy more for herself than she wanted Bingley for Jane.

      • Meg on July 13, 2016 at 11:04 am
      • Reply

      Oh my that’s going a bit far! Do you really think that of Lizzy?

        • Arnie Perlstein on July 13, 2016 at 3:03 pm
        • Reply

        Meg, I believe there are two versions of the story in P&P, both of which are plausible readings that Jane Austen intended.

        For an explanation of my shadow story theory, read these two earlier blog posts of mine:

        Austen’s 6 novels are double stories (2 parallel fictional worlds) undetected for 200 yrs http://tinyurl.com/onftqz7 http://tinyurl.com/jyfet25

        So, there is an Elizabeth who is not jealous of Jane, but there is another Elizabeth who is…..

      1. Meg, I think it’s going a bit far too and have said so in my reply!

    1. Arnie, it’s certainly interesting to speculate that Elizabeth is the jealous one, jealous of Jane’s romance; s I mentioned, it’s not unlike the situation when Cassandra was engaged, and Jane was not…was she jealous, just a little, just enough to be able to intuit that Lizzy might be, too? And might that be why she did not “fix” the Bingley/Jane situation when she could have done? But there we don’t agree. Jealousy of Jane for being beloved, would evaporate when Jane was “crossed” in love and lost Bingley; Lizzy would feel pity for her then. However, she could not fix the situation. She could not write to Bingley, and it’s even more absurd to think that she could “send” her father to intervene. No, she was powerless, and the only thing she could have done differently was to tell Jane that of the deception. But that would only make Jane feel worse, because she, too, could not write to Bingley, and she would have the pain of knowing friends’ machinations, in addition to losing him. I’ll grant Lizzy might have had some pangs of envy early on, but they would have gone when Jane lost Bingley. These feelings would have nothing to do with any calculating eagerness to marry Darcy. If she were a calculating scheming jealous man-hunter, she would have snapped him up at the first proposal!

        • Arnie Perlstein on July 13, 2016 at 3:45 pm
        • Reply

        Thank you for your reply, Diana, but you’ve mis-taken one of my key points — I never suggested that Elizabeth was a consciously scheming husband hunter— the brilliance of this depiction by JA is that it is completely unconscious on ELizabeth’s part- she would have been deeply mortified if she had become aware of her jealousy of Jane, and she then would, as you say, have done the right things.

        Recall her famous line

        “How despicably I have acted!” she cried; “I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust! How humiliating is this discovery! Yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind! But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself.”

        Add that to the list of exquisite ironies — this is what Elizabeth ought to have thought NOT about Darcy, but about Jane!!!!!

    • Sheila Majczan on July 13, 2016 at 10:26 pm
    • Reply

    “Pass the salt, Louisa” I have to eat my words.

    Thank you for your added words for Jealousy in July. A scene which fit the billing.

  4. Love Louisa and “pass the salt,” Sheila! Caroline just wouldn’t see it until it happened, which makes her situation all the more pathetic…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.