Pride and Prejudice, chapter 1
The first chapter of Pride and Prejudice begins with a conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, but the novel is not about them. It is impressive though, how deftly Austen manages to set up the plot and themes in the first chapter, and even subtly characterizes her heroine before that heroine even makes an entrance.
What do we learn: Mrs. Bennet’s stupid. Mr. Bennet is not. He knows it. We learn that an eligible man is moving to the neighborhood. We learn that more than anything, Mrs. Bennet wants to get her daughters married, and Mr. Bennet knows this, and is not expending the effort to accomplish this goal which she would wish. We learn “Lizzy” is the one he favors; this is the first we hear of her at all:
“…I dare say Mr. Bingley will be very glad to see you; and I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chooses of the girls; though I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy."
"I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good-humoured as Lydia. But you are always giving her the preference."
"They have none of them much to recommend them," replied he; "they are all silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters."
Elizabeth is introduced subtly, almost casually, but she is still introduced – she is the first to be mentioned apart from the mass of “our girls.” We have already established that Mrs. Bennett is an idiot and Mr. Bennett makes fun of her, and is not an idiot, and here we establish that Elizabeth is his favorite. We also establish that she is not her mother’s favorite. To her, Elizabeth is only one of “the girls;” not the most beautiful, and not the best natured. But she is still the favorite of her intelligent father.
Still, it’s interesting that he downplays his favoritism even as he first makes it known. He says they are “all” silly and ignorant, though Elizabeth has “something more of quickness” than her sisters. He deflects his wife’s charge of preferential treatment even as he acknowledges it. He won’t deny he gives Elizabeth preference, though he will deny there is anything significant to it. What’s at stake here is feeling; he won’t let her see his. He obfuscates the seriousness of his feelings with a joke, at the expense of the person he loves.
This establishes a pattern; he is intelligent, but rarely speaks completely seriously. He reveals his true feelings only indirectly; his language here would indicate on its face that Elizabeth is only the least objectionable of a large group of objectionable young women. But consider: “my little Lizzy.” Compare his obvious deflection earlier in the conversation, when he claims to not understand his wife while understanding her perfectly. By the end of the novel we'll know that this man loves his second daughter dearly, and thinks her superior to everyone, though he never expresses it explicitly. We’ll also know that she knows it, too.
Mr. Bennet’s love for Elizabeth is based in part on the fact that she is a pretty, lively mirror of him, and she has this same tendency towards indirectness. It’s a large part of what causes her trouble, and the primary source of the vanity which she will learn to overcome.
Elizabeth herself does not appear or speak in this chapter, and when she does in the next it’s still as one in a group of daughters. But she has been distinguished; she has already been made interesting. It’s only in re-reading that we can see how her personality has already been established, through her father.