This study investigates the childrearing skills of the fictional characters Mr. And Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, as well as their impact on the storyin general and on their children in particular. The spouses are first presented anddescribed individually, then as a married couple and finally as parents. This final andmajor part of the discussion conentrates on the oldest and the youngest of the Bennetdaughters especially, but touches briefly upon the other three as well. In performing thisanalysis, behaviouristic and psychoanalytical theories have been employed, in additionto biographic material on the author and historical accounts on childrearing, in order todetermine what aspects of the Bennet children's personalities and conduct should beascribed to their parents' handling of them. The results show that the Bennet parets failalmost completely in raising their daughters into healthy individuals, which should betheir aim according to the psychoanalytical model, and also in training them to becomethe functional, marriable ladies that they would have to be for their parents to beconsidered successful from a behaviouristic perspective. Their failure to secure a stableeconomy for their daughters adds to this. Not all the Bennet couple's efforts result infailure, however, and they both have traits to recommend them. Still, their treatment oftheir daughters affect both them and the course of events in the novel negativelly.