Mrs. Phillips is the sister of Mrs. Bennet and Edward Gardiner, sister-in-law to their spouses Mr. Bennet and M. Gardiner, and the aunt of their children: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, and Lydia Bennet, and the Gardiner children. She is considered vulgar by everyone in the novel except William Collins, who praises her hospitality.
She is married to Mr. Phillips, a clerk to her father the attorney who succeeded him in the business;[1] it is not said whether they have any children. Jane Austen told her nieces and nephews that Mary married one of her uncle's clerks,[2] which might suggest they were childless and the clerk would inherit the business through marriage like Mr. Phillips had.
Her nieces often visit her when they walk to Meryton, and she provides them with local gossip. Mr. Phillips visits the officers of the ----shire Militia while it is quartered in Meryton for the winter, which furnishes Mrs. Phillips with fresh gossip for her nieces.[1] Lydia and Kitty walk to Meryton to visit her twice in one week, on Wednesday and Saturday, to hear of the officers.[3][4]
Mrs. Phillips learns from Mr. Jones's shop boy that Jane and Elizabeth have returned to Longbourn. Her nieces visit Meryton again on Tuesday with their cousin Mr. Collins, and on their way, they meet the newly arrived George Wickham.[5]
Mrs. Phillips invites both Mr. Collins and Mr. Wickham to her card party the next day, where Mr. Collins offends her by comparing her drawing room to the summer breakfast parlor in Rosings Park until he explains the wealth and grandeur of Rosings to her. Mrs. Phillips listens to Mr. Collins throughout the evening, coming to believe his opinion of his own importance and planning to tell her neighbors everything he said later, while her nieces speak with the officers. She expresses concern at the end of the night about how much money he lost, but Mr. Collins assures her that the money is a mere trifle.[6]
After Elizabeth refuses Mr. Collins's proposal, she tells Lydia she should have accepted him. Mrs. Philips lends Lydia and Kitty one of her gowns so they can dress Chamberlayne up like a woman.[7]
She argues in favor of the Bennets visiting Brighton, citing Kitty's poor health as reason to try sea-bathing.[8] When Lydia runs away with Wickham, Mrs. Phillips stays at Longbourn for two days to comfort her sister and help Jane.[9] She visits repeatedly afterwards, supposedly to comfort them, but her news about Wickham's extravagance and irregularity only upsets them more.[10]
Mrs. Phillips learns from Mrs. Nicholls that Charles Bingley is returning to Netherfield Park, and she informs her sister the next day.[11] After he proposes to Jane, Mrs. Bennet tells her so she will spread the news all over the neighborhood.[12] Following the engagement she speaks familiarly to Bingley, but she is too in awe of him to do the same with Fitzwilliam Darcy after he becomes engaged to Elizabeth, though her vulgarity is still taxing.[13]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 7
- ↑ James Edward Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 12
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 14
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 15
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 16
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 39
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 41
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 48
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 53
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 55
- ↑ Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 60