]

] Mr. Bennet seems to take pleasure in his wife's disappontments. I always thought that he must really dislike his wife if he hopd that the ball was less than she hoped it to be, since the only other conclusion would be that his daughters would be let down too!

Mr Bennet is certainly disappointed in his marriage -- and takes no pains to hide it! In P & P2, Elizabeth makes a remark to Jane that they see daily the results of marrying someone for whom you have no respect. In the film versions of P & P that I have seen Mrs B is always shown as being older than what was probably her actual age, which I would think to be late 30s, maybe early 40s at the outside (unless she married later in life, in which case she could be late 40s). She is apparently still quite good looking, although I am never quite sure if Mr Bs remarks to her that Bingley might find her atttractive (Chapter 1)are meant sarcastically or not.