Favorite Side Characters

Last year, we had Friday Face Off posts for Jane Austen's heroes, heroines and villains, and we were supposed to have one for side characters, but it ended up getting cut in the mayhem.  To make up for that oversight, I thought we could just have a little chat over some tea and scones (or whatever you're drinking/eating) about our favorite Austen side characters.
Whether you favor the eccentric old cat pug ladies, the self-important dandies, or the tacky men and women who just seem to get in the way, you have to admit, Jane Austen certainly knew how to provide entertaining side characters.

Here are a few of mine, and I'm hoping you'll share some of yours in the comments.

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One of the most ridiculous figures in all of Austen, I can't help but cringe (in a good way. Sort of.) whenever Mr Collins enters a scene.  Much like Mr Bennet, I have the strong desire to ask him a question and then sit back and watch him go...

Again, I am a fan of the utterly ridiculous.  In real life, I think I might feel the need to throttle Mary Musgrove and give her something actually worth complaining about, but as long as she's confined to the pages of a book, I can't help but find her annoying - in the most obnoxious way.

Yep.  Another one I sorta wanna smack.  Mrs Elton's self-importance and pomp, and her continual use of pet names for Mr Knightley earn her a prime spot in the Austen Punchable Characters Hall of Fame.
Anyone else get the idea that Jane was always lurking around somewhere, taking notes on the ridiculous people she came across in everyday life, and ensuring that they would not want to spend time with her in the future, lest they provide her with more fodder?

I actually quite like Isabella Thorpe.  I know she's a Lydia, and she leads Catherine astray, and is responsible for Catherine's unfortunate introduction to John Thorpe, who gives me the heebie-jeebies, but she's fun.  She's a Jane Austen Mean Girl, and though you want to see them get what's coming to them at a certain point, you still somehow find yourself smiling at them when they say something biting but funny.

You've got to love a big personality, and Lady Catherine has that in spades.  Not to mention the reactions she causes in other people, and her ballsy domineering stance for a woman, and I can't help but love her, even when I hate her.

Harriet. Oh, Harriet.  You beautiful, utterly simple thing you.  She may be about as dumb as a bag of hair ribbons and shoe roses, but you can't help but want to smoosh the ridiculous little creature. ♥

So what are some of your favorites? The characters you love OR love to hate?

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