The business of her life was to get her daughters married… (Chapter 1)

Mrs. Bennet in her lace cap with a super-sized butterfly net might present a silly yet surprising worrisome picture. Is she a shark circling and circling poor unsuspecting gentlemen of good fortune? I thought it might be fun to take look at what she has been up to over the first nine chapters but each of us must decide for ourselves whether she is just busy about her business or a man-catcher ready to scheme and trick the unwary. First, in Chapter 1 she implored Mr. Bennet to make a new acquaintance so he could marry one of their daughters. In Chapter 2 Mrs. Bennet was accosted by nerve-tearing coughs and was incapacitated till a good joke excited a tumult of joy. After said visit and failing to extract intelligence from her capricious husband in Chapter 3 she finagled it from her valuable friend Lady Lucas. Still in Chapter 3, Mrs. Bennet invited Mr. Bingley to dinner, planning several credible courses only to have her hopes dashed by his flying back to town instead of settling at Netherfield as he should. During the assembly ball Mrs. Bennet intensely observed and noted all of Mr. Bingley’s dance partners exhibiting appropriate glee when he danced with Jane and Lizzy and more than equal vexation when he danced with Charlotte, Miss King, and Maria Lucas. In Chapter 4 Mrs. Bennet was unaccountably quiet but returns in good form by Chapter 5 when she subtly reminded Charlotte that although she was Bingley’s first choice for a partner he told Mr. Robinson that Jane was the prettiest woman at the assembly. In Chapter 6, Mrs. Bennet sent her youngest daughters to Lucas Lodge primed to oblige her with an impromptu dance in which Bingley performed delightfully (most likely with Jane) according to Sir William. In Chapter 7 she sent Jane on horseback to dine at Netherfield so conspirator Rain would ensure she stayed the night and its companion Violent Cold would add a few days more. Not content and still liking a redcoat in her heart, Mrs. Bennet sent her youngest to Meryton to visit an officer’s wife. In Chapter 8 Mrs. Bennet slyly kept her endeavors to herself but rallied again in Chapter 9. She visited Jane at Netherfield, declaring her too ill to be moved. She then boasts about Jane’s patience and tactically revealed Charlotte had been needed about the mince pies further informing Bingley her daughters are brought up differently as well as dining with four and twenty families. Later in the same visit she tells the Netherfield party that Jane has already had one admirer who wrote sonnets (to her beauty I suspect) warning Bingley he has competition. ;D

Have I forgotten anything? :D