The Other Bennet Sister

A ten-year-old discovers the verdict her mother cannot forgive

Four of the five Bennet sisters are beautiful.

A ten-year-old discovers the verdict her mother cannot forgive

Four of the five Bennet sisters are beautiful. Mary, the middle child, is not. At ten years old, lingering outside the morning room with a sugar bowl, she overhears her mother tell her aunt that Mary is simply very plain and that she blames Mr Bennet's side of the family. The words land with the force of a blow. Mary climbs to her room, drapes a shawl over her mirror, and lets a single tear fall. She does not speak of it to Jane or Elizabeth. She simply accepts her mother's verdict as fact—that without beauty, no lasting happiness is possible. Her childhood playfulness evaporates. She becomes watchful, solemn, afraid to run or laugh for fear of looking ridiculous. The girl who once raced through gardens with grass-stained knees begins a long retreat into herself.

Piano, spectacles, and philosophy become her shield against contempt

She discovers the piano—the one arena where looks count for nothing. She practices obsessively, gaining technical precision but wringing the joy from music in the process. Elizabeth plays with spirit and false notes; Mary plays correctly and feels almost nothing. When her eyesight fails from years of reading in dim light, she defies her mother to consult an oculist. Mrs Bennet declares spectacles will make her unmarriageable, but Mr Bennet overrules his wife. The oculist's son, a shy young man named John Sparrow, fits her with lenses and quietly tells her she looks very well in them. Mary retreats to her books—Dr Fordyce, Mrs Macaulay, works of moral philosophy—building an intellectual identity that requires no beauty. She has fashioned a life that asks nothing of the world and receives nothing in return.

The oculist's son offers joy; Mary's fear snuffs it out

At the Meryton assembly ball—her first—Mary wears a gold-and-cream dress Mrs Hill helped her choose, the finest garment she has ever owned. After one dance with a schoolboy, John Sparrow appears and asks her to stand up with him. They dance twice, talking easily about books and his ambition to study medicine in London. For the first time, Mary feels carefree. Then Charlotte Lucas draws her aside with a warning: three dances with the oculist's son will be remarked upon, and Mrs Bennet will make a scene. Mary imagines her mother humiliating John before the assembly and cannot bear it. She refuses his third invitation, watches his bewildered face, and spends the rest of the evening hidden behind her mother's chair. She resolves never again to let her feelings betray her.