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Born into a wealthy and well-respected family, Caroline Bingley is, both in manner and circumstance, Elizabeth's opposite. Described as handsome, regal, and possessing an easy gait, she is, by most accounts, a woman of great desirability. However, she is extremely duplicitous, as her polite and cultured appearance belies her conniving tendency toward deceit and selfishness. Miss Bingley is well-acquainted with social privilege and looks down on the Bennet family as inferior and unfit for any close connection. While at first, she takes a great liking to Jane Bennet because of her exceptional manners, she exerts an insidious and profound effort to stifle the burgeoning relationship between Jane and her brother Charles once she notes the seriousness of his affection for her. Miss Bingley likes Jane well enough but believes the inferiority of her birth makes a union between their families inappropriate and undesirable.
Miss Bingley’s distaste for Elizabeth is clear from the start, but it becomes even more overt when she is made aware of Mr. Darcy’s preference for Elizabeth. It has always been Caroline’s hope that Darcy would desire marriage with her. Miss Bingley views Elizabeth as a threat in this regard, endeavoring at every possible opportunity to tease at her inferiority. She only sometimes bothers to veil it with thin and insincere niceties, and frequently tries to get Darcy to join in her abuse. In doing so, she becomes a parody of a snobbish upper-class woman, contrasting with Elizabeth’s wit and independence.
