“I said to Joe, I would love to play this part, but you’re not going to make her a caricature, are you? I think you have to understand her problem. He said, ‘absolutely. I wouldn’t want you to play it that way, I’m asking you because I think you won’t do that.’ 

Mrs. Bennet’s concerns are compounded by the fact that women had no status then. The inheritance laws mean that her husband’s estate, her family’s home, will be inherited by a distant cousin when Mr. Bennet dies. That means, she and her daughters could be cast out to fend for themselves or even sent to the workhouse. So the solution is, for at least one of her daughters, to marry a man wealthy enough to take care of all the family. She is trying to solve the problem as best as she knows how.”

(Brenda Blethyn)