Does the world really revolve around Mrs. Bennet? She certainly hopes so and seems to count on it being so. She is even described as fancying herself ill when she is unhappy. In this case, Mrs. Bennet's vexations actually do have some foundation. If Mrs. Bennet were to become widowed she would need someone to take her in. There is urgency about meeting this new man and rightly so. Eligible men are at a premium and we had better be the first to welcome him (i.e. stake our claim). It is a truth universally acknowledged that a widowed mother in possession of no great fortune must be in want of a wealthy son-in-law.
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What you have to love about Mrs. Bennet is that she is focused, so much so that she is like a horse with blinders with the single aim before her of marrying off her daughters into well-to-do situations. This single-minded ambition on the part of Mrs. Bennet allows her husband to have a little fun with her, at least to amuse himself.
Sense and Sensibility shows the situation of a widow and her daughters, left without an inheritance, left to depend on the charity of the husband's next of kin. Would such thoughts have been running through Mrs. Bennet's mind in all of this? Quite possibly.
I like your "widowed mother...in want of a wealthy son-in-law".
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