Miss Carteret
Miss Carteret, the Honourable Miss Carteret, is the daughter of the Dowager Viscountess Dalrymple and, through her mother, a cousin of the Elliot family. Her arrival in Bath, announced in the newspaper alongside her mother, throws Sir Walter Elliot and his eldest daughter Elizabeth into a frenzy of anxious social maneuvering, as they desperately seek to renew a lapsed connection with their titled relatives. For Anne Elliot, however, Miss Carteret represents the hollow triumph of rank over genuine merit, and her presence in the story serves to expose the vanity and snobbery that govern her father's and sister's world.
Identity and Appearance
Miss Carteret is introduced as a young woman of noble birth, the daughter of a dowager viscountess. She is described as being "so plain and so awkward" that she would never have been tolerated in Camden Place but for her birth. Unlike her mother, who has acquired the name of "a charming woman" through a smile and a civil answer for everybody, Miss Carteret has "still less to say" than Lady Dalrymple. Her physical plainness and social awkwardness stand in stark contrast to the elegance and consequence that Sir Walter and Elizabeth attribute to her rank, revealing the extent to which they value title over personal qualities.
Role in the Elliot Family's Social Ambitions
Miss Carteret becomes the primary instrument through which Sir Walter and Elizabeth seek to bolster their own social standing in Bath. The Elliots, having successfully re-established their connection with the Dalrymples after a long period of estrangement, eagerly display their relationship, constantly referring to "our cousins in Laura Place" and "our cousin, Lady Dalrymple and Miss Carteret." Anne is deeply ashamed of this behavior, observing that her father and sister are willing to flatter and follow others without being flattered and followed in return. Miss Carteret herself is largely passive in these interactions, serving as a symbol of the aristocratic connection that the Elliots crave rather than as an active participant in the social drama.
Narrative Significance
Miss Carteret's function in the novel is primarily thematic. She embodies the emptiness of rank without personal merit, a point that Anne explicitly makes in her conversation with Mr Elliot. When Anne defines good company as "the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation," Mr Elliot gently corrects her, asserting that "good company requires only birth, education, and manners." Miss Carteret, with her plainness and lack of conversation, is the living proof of Mr Elliot's worldly maxim, and Anne's distaste for her underscores the heroine's own more refined and principled values. Miss Carteret also serves as a foil to Anne herself: while Anne is overlooked and undervalued by her family, Miss Carteret is courted and celebrated solely for her title, highlighting the arbitrary and unjust nature of the social hierarchy that governs the Elliots' world.
