Key Quote
“"Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr Collins, and I will never see you again if you do"”
Mr Bennet · Chapter 20
Focus: “I will never see you again if you do”
Mr Bennet's finest moment — using parallel structure and dry wit to support Elizabeth's independence against Mrs Bennet's mercenary pressure. A rare instance of his irony serving a genuinely protective purpose.
Technique 1 — ANTITHETICAL PARALLELISM
The perfectly balanced structure — 'Your mother will never see you... if you do not... and I will never see you... if you do' — creates an elegant parallelism (identical grammatical structure with reversed meaning). The wit lies in the symmetry: both parents threaten to disown Elizabeth, but for opposite reasons. The effect is devastatingly comic because the form is identical but the substance is contradictory.
The word 'stranger' carries legal and emotional weight — to be a stranger to one's parent in Regency England meant genuine social severance. Mr Bennet uses this serious word within a comic structure, creating bathos (an anticlimax from serious to comic) that undercuts Mrs Bennet's melodramatic ultimatum.
Key Words
RAD — PROGRESS
This is one of Mr Bennet's few moments of genuine paternal engagement — he uses his wit not to evade responsibility but to protect Elizabeth's right to choose. His irony here is constructive (building something positive) rather than merely defensive. It shows what he could have been as a father if he applied his intelligence more consistently.
Key Words
Technique 2 — COMIC INTERVENTION & POWER
Mr Bennet's intervention demonstrates the absolute patriarchal authority of the Regency father — a single sentence from him overrules Mrs Bennet's sustained campaign. His power is so complete that he can exercise it through humour rather than force. The comedy disguises but does not diminish the power dynamic: Elizabeth is free because her father permits it, not because she has independent legal standing.
Austen creates a complex moral moment: we applaud Mr Bennet's support for Elizabeth, but the scene simultaneously exposes the arbitrary (based on personal whim) nature of patriarchal power. Elizabeth's freedom depends entirely on having the right kind of father — a point reinforced by the contrast with Charlotte Lucas, whose father does not intervene in her marriage to Collins.
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Context (AO3)
MR COLLINS AS HEIR
Mr Collins will inherit Longbourn when Mr Bennet dies, making the family homeless. Mrs Bennet's pressure on Elizabeth to accept Collins is therefore rooted in genuine economic fear — not merely snobbery. Mr Bennet's dismissal of this concern, while protecting Elizabeth's happiness, also reflects his characteristic refusal to plan for his family's financial future.
THE MARRIAGE REFUSAL
A woman refusing a proposal in Regency England was socially risky — she might not receive another. Elizabeth's refusal of Collins (and later of Darcy's first proposal) marks her as unconventional: she prioritises personal integrity over financial security, a luxury made possible only by her father's support.
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WOW — BENEVOLENT PATRIARCHY (Wollstonecraft's Critique)
Wollstonecraft warns that even benevolent patriarchy is still patriarchy — a system where women's freedom depends on men's goodwill is not genuine freedom. Mr Bennet's support for Elizabeth looks like liberation, but it is actually licensed freedom — freedom granted by a patriarch rather than claimed by right. Austen's brilliance is in making the reader cheer this scene while simultaneously embedding the critique: Elizabeth needs her father's permission to refuse a man. True equality would not require paternal intervention at all.
Key Words