Pride and Prejudice

As promised, here is the background information on the period and some of the class distinctions. Please feel free to use this space to ask questions, make comments, etc., as you read.

Notes on P'n'P:

Austen wrote during the Regency period, a point in British history covering the end of the 18th century and into the early 19th. It’s called the Regency because the King, George III, was mad as a hatter and his son, the Prince Regent, also not known for his stability and good choices, was running the country. Social rules were tight, but many of the titled nobility were also strapped for cash, so they had to look to the new money of the merchant class to keep things going. The upper classes generally looked down on people who worked – you lived off of your inheritance and your lands, maybe investments, and, if things got tight, your wife’s dowry. It is important to note that, while there are significant class distinctions in Austen’s novels, the people in them are generally of the upper class in general (she doesn’t write about, say, farmers or maids). In addition, being born into a rich family didn’t guarantee stability. All of the estate usually went to the oldest son, leaving younger sons to figure out something, whether that was the church, the military, or marrying well.

The role of women here is tricky – women had a brief period when they came “out” to society (generally between 16-20) and were shown around to all the prospective husbands, virtually always with the amount of money that came with them well advertised. Ideally, the young women would marry at the end of that “season.” The longer she waited, the less attractive her prospects. Unmarried women like Elizabeth (a shocking 20 to 21 years old) faced a more difficult future. There were no job opportunities for women, other than the hell of being a governess to a wealthy family, a strange position where you are neither servant or equal of the family. For women like the Bennet girls, who have little money to accompany them, marriage is the only security. Mrs. Bennet’s husband hunting for her daughters is funny, but it is based in very real concerns.

Let me explain an “entail.” An entail is a very restrictive inheritance provision that is legally attached to a piece of property restricting who may inherit it. In the Bennets’ case, their home and its lands are entailed upon a male heir. Since the Bennets have five daughters and no sons (points for trying), the estate will go to a cousin, Mr. Collins, when Mr. Bennet dies. If Mrs. Bennet is still living, she will have to leave the house and turn it over to him. Hence her desire to get a least one daughter married well, so that she will have somewhere to go!