Character Analysis
Molly Coddling
Molly is Jane's best friend. She has a husband, two kids, a hyphenated last name… basically everything Jane doesn't have and desperately wants. Seriously, she would just die if she could be Jane Hayes-Darcy-Firth. You can never have too many hyphens.
Another thing Molly has that Jane doesn't: the capacity for level-headed thinking. She bluntly tells Jane that her obsession with Mr. Darcy is crazy. And she tells Jane that she needs to stop setting herself up for disappointment by living in a fantasy world. Does Jane listen? No. But if she did, she wouldn't have met Henry/Mr. Nobley, so maybe that advice wasn't so great after all.
After Chapter 2, we only see Molly once more. Over e-mail. She enables Jane's snooping and encourages her to pursue her suitor.