Pride and Prejudice · 1813
The Bennet sisters
Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, in order
The Bennet sisters are the five daughters of Mr and Mrs Bennet of Longbourn in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine (always called Kitty) and Lydia, from eldest to youngest. None of them can inherit their father’s estate, which is why their mother’s great business in life is getting them married.
Jane, Elizabeth and Lydia in the Jane Austen Photo Studio app. Mary and Kitty are coming soon.
The five Bennet sisters in order
From eldest to youngest. Ages are those the novel gives; it never states Mary’s or Kitty’s.
| Sister | Age | In a word | How her story ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Jane Bennet | 22 (“almost three-and-twenty”) | Kind | Marries Mr Bingley |
| 2. Elizabeth (Lizzy) | 20 (“not one-and-twenty”) | Witty | Marries Mr Darcy |
| 3. Mary Bennet | Not given | Bookish | Stays at Longbourn, unmarried |
| 4. Catherine (Kitty) | Not given | Easily led | Improves in her elder sisters’ company |
| 5. Lydia Bennet | 15 (“a stout, well-grown girl of fifteen”) | Wild | Elopes with, then marries, Mr Wickham |
Meet the Bennet sisters
The sisters fall into pairs with one in the middle. Jane and Elizabeth, the eldest, are close friends and the sensible ones. Kitty and Lydia, the youngest, chase officers around Meryton and are, in their father’s words, “two of the silliest girls in the country”. Mary sits alone between them with her books and her piano.
The eldest
Jane Bennet
The beauty of the family and the kindest person in the novel. Jane thinks well of everyone, so well that Elizabeth tells her, “You never see a fault in anybody.” She falls in love with Mr Bingley at the Meryton assembly, but hides it so well that his friends persuade him she does not care.
“I would wish not to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think.”
Sit as Jane Bennet With any portrait pack
The second daughter, and the heroine
Elizabeth Bennet
Her father’s favourite, because “Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters”. Clever, playful and quick to judge, she refuses two proposals before accepting the right one. Read her full story in our guide to Elizabeth Bennet.
“My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.”
Sit as Elizabeth Bennet Free to sit
The middle daughter
Mary Bennet
Mary, “the only plain one in the family”, works hard at reading and music to make up for it, and offers moral extracts that no one has asked for. At the Netherfield ball she sings until her father stops her: “That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough.”
“Pride… is a very common failing, I believe.”
The fourth daughter
Kitty Bennet
Catherine, always Kitty, is fretful, cough-prone and entirely led by Lydia. Mr Bennet complains that “Kitty has no discretion in her coughs” because “she times them ill”. Separated from Lydia at the end, she becomes much more sensible.
The youngest
Lydia Bennet
Loud, fearless and fifteen, Lydia is her mother’s favourite and wild about officers. Her elopement with Mr Wickham from Brighton threatens to ruin all her sisters’ chances, until Mr Darcy quietly pays for the wedding.
“Lord! how ashamed I should be of not being married before three-and-twenty!”
Sit as Lydia Bennet With any portrait pack
Mary and Kitty do not have a portrait in the app yet, so their cards show a monogram. Jane, Elizabeth and Lydia can all be sat for today.
Jane Bennet, the eldest
Jane is almost twenty-three and generally agreed to be the most beautiful girl in the neighbourhood. Bingley calls her “the most beautiful creature I ever beheld” on the night they meet. Her great quality is candour in the old sense: she refuses to think badly of anyone, including Bingley’s sisters, who are plotting against her, and Wickham, until the facts leave her no choice.
Her calm costs her Bingley for most of the book. Darcy, watching her at the Netherfield ball, decides she is indifferent to his friend and persuades him to stay in London. Only in chapter 55 does Bingley return to Netherfield and propose. Mrs Bennet is beside herself; Mr Bennet observes that they are both “so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on”.
Mary and Kitty Bennet: what happens to them?
Mary and Kitty are the sisters readers forget, and the novel is honest about why: they are the two whom nobody in the family attends to. Mary has made herself serious because she is plain; Kitty has made herself Lydia’s shadow because she has no ideas of her own. Both endings are small and quietly hopeful.
In the final chapter, Kitty spends “the chief of her time with her two elder sisters”, “to her very material advantage”: away from Lydia’s influence, she becomes less irritable, less ignorant and less insipid. Mary is “the only daughter who remained at home”. With no prettier sisters beside her, she is “obliged to mix more with the world”, and Austen suspects she does not mind.
Did Mary or Kitty Bennet ever marry?
Not in the novel. But Austen liked to tell her family what became of her characters, and her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh recorded two of her answers in his Memoir of Jane Austen (1870): Kitty was “satisfactorily married to a clergyman near Pemberley”, while Mary “obtained nothing higher than one of her uncle Philips’s clerks”, and was content to be a star in the society of Meryton.
Lydia Bennet and the elopement
Lydia is the youngest of the Bennet sisters and the boldest. At fifteen she has already been “out” in society for some time, a fact Lady Catherine finds astonishing. She lives for the regiment quartered at Meryton and longs to be the first of the five to marry.
“Lord! how ashamed I should be of not being married before three-and-twenty!”
When the regiment moves to Brighton, Lydia goes too, as the guest of the colonel’s young wife, against Elizabeth’s warning that at sixteen she will be “the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous”. From Brighton she runs away with Wickham, who has no intention of marrying her. A sister’s disgrace would have ruined the marriage hopes of all five, which is why the crisis matters so much, and why Darcy’s secret rescue wins Elizabeth’s heart.
She returns to Longbourn married and quite unashamed, showing off her ring and taking Jane’s place at the table “because I am a married woman”. Austen gives her no punishment except the life she has chosen: an improvident husband, constant debts and, before long, a marriage of indifference.
Why the Bennet sisters cannot inherit Longbourn
Mr Bennet’s property “consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation” (chapter 7). An entail fixed who could inherit an estate over several generations; this one says only a man can. With no son, Longbourn will pass on Mr Bennet’s death to his cousin, the clergyman Mr Collins.
The girls’ own fortunes are tiny: each can expect one thousand pounds after their mother’s death. That is the arithmetic behind the whole novel. Mrs Bennet’s schemes look ridiculous, but she is right to be frightened. A good marriage is the only security any of her daughters can hope for, which is why Mr Collins comes to Longbourn meaning to marry one of them, and why Charlotte Lucas accepts him.
Who played the Bennet sisters?
Five sisters means five parts, and the screen versions have launched more than one career: Carey Mulligan made her film debut as Kitty in 2005. These are the Bennet sisters, and their parents, in the three best-loved adaptations.
| Character | 1995 BBC series | 2005 film | 2026 Netflix series |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jane | Susannah Harker | Rosamund Pike | Freya Mavor |
| Elizabeth | Jennifer Ehle | Keira Knightley | Emma Corrin |
| Mary | Lucy Briers | Talulah Riley | Hopey Parish |
| Kitty | Polly Maberly | Carey Mulligan | Hollie Avery |
| Lydia | Julia Sawalha | Jena Malone | Rhea Norwood |
| Mrs Bennet | Alison Steadman | Brenda Blethyn | Olivia Colman |
| Mr Bennet | Benjamin Whitrow | Donald Sutherland | Rufus Sewell |
Netflix’s six-part series, written by Dolly Alderton, is released on 3 December 2026; Hopey Parish and Hollie Avery make their screen debuts as Mary and Kitty. For everyone else in the novel, from Mr Bingley to Lady Catherine, see the full cast on our Pride and Prejudice characters page.
Which Bennet sister marries whom?
| Sister | Husband | Where they live | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jane | Charles Bingley | Netherfield, then an estate in a county next to Derbyshire | 55, 61 |
| Elizabeth | Fitzwilliam Darcy | Pemberley, Derbyshire | 58, 61 |
| Lydia | George Wickham | Newcastle, with his new regiment | 51, 61 |
| Mary | Unmarried in the novel | Longbourn | 61 |
| Kitty | Unmarried in the novel | Mostly with Jane and Elizabeth | 61 |
Within a year of the novel’s end, then, three of the five are married, and the two the family overlooked are finally getting some attention. For the whole plot in order, see our Pride and Prejudice summary.
Four questions
Which Bennet sister are you?
Four questions from the novel. See whether you are a Jane, an Elizabeth or a Lydia, or someone else in Pride and Prejudice, then sit for the portrait.
- The same quiz as in the app
- Every result has its portrait waiting
- Share it and dare a friend to find their match
Question 1 of 4
At a ball, you…
- Dance every single dance
- Stand apart and judge the company
- Make sure the grandest person there knows you
- Look after whoever has been left out
- Hope one particular person notices you
Your questions
Questions about the Bennet sisters
Anything else? Write to us at [email protected].
What are the five Bennet sisters’ names in order?
From eldest to youngest: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine (Kitty) and Lydia.
How old are the Bennet sisters?
Jane is almost 23, Elizabeth 20, and Lydia 15 when the story opens. The novel never gives Mary’s or Kitty’s ages, only that they come between Elizabeth and Lydia.
Who is the most beautiful Bennet sister?
Jane. Everyone in the novel agrees, and Mr Bingley calls her “the most beautiful creature I ever beheld”.
Which Bennet sister marries Mr Darcy?
Elizabeth, the second daughter. Jane marries Mr Bingley and Lydia marries Mr Wickham.
Did Mary Bennet ever marry?
Not in the novel, where she stays at home at Longbourn. According to Austen’s nephew’s Memoir, Austen told her family that Mary married one of her uncle Philips’s clerks.
What happened to Kitty Bennet?
Away from Lydia, she spends most of her time with Jane and Elizabeth and greatly improves. Austen told her family that Kitty later married a clergyman near Pemberley.
Why can’t the Bennet sisters inherit Longbourn?
The estate is entailed on male heirs, so when Mr Bennet dies it will pass to his cousin Mr Collins. The sisters have only one thousand pounds each.
Who played the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice?
In the 1995 BBC series: Susannah Harker (Jane), Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth), Lucy Briers (Mary), Polly Maberly (Kitty) and Julia Sawalha (Lydia). In the 2005 film: Rosamund Pike, Keira Knightley, Talulah Riley, Carey Mulligan and Jena Malone. In Netflix’s 2026 series: Freya Mavor, Emma Corrin, Hopey Parish, Hollie Avery and Rhea Norwood.
Are the Bennet sisters a true story?
No. They are fictional characters in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, though Austen drew on the country gentry families she knew in Hampshire.
Keep reading
More from the novels
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Elizabeth Bennet
The quick, laughing heroine of Pride and Prejudice
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Mr Darcy
Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley, the hero of Pride and Prejudice
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Pride and Prejudice summary
The whole story, in a paragraph and then chapter by chapter
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Pride and Prejudice characters
Who’s who, from Elizabeth Bennet to Mr Collins
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Pemberley, Longbourn and Netherfield
Every house, town and county in Pride and Prejudice
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Pride and Prejudice quotes
The best lines, word for word, with the chapter and the scene
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If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Netherfield, and all the others equally well married, I shall have nothing to wish for.
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