Historical Context
Jane Austen
completed the original version of Pride and Prejudice in either 1796 or
1797, while the author was still in her early twenties. Publishers rejected the
manuscript, and Austen left it alone for several years. From 1809 to 1812 she
revised the work, and it was finally published in January 1813.
Austen and her
family lived in Steventon, England while she wrote Pride and Prejudice.
English society in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was
characterized by sharp stratification. Wealth, family connections, and property
ownership divided groups from each other, while royalty and wealthy, titled
landowners (often called “landed gentry”) comprised the highest ranks of
society. Inheritance in most families was bestowed on the eldest son, who
generally lived off it. Younger sons and men seeking to build fortunes were able
to earn substantial salaries in trade, as do Bingley and Sir William Lucas, law,
as does Mr. Philips, the military, as do Colonels Fitzwilliam and Forster, and
even the church, as does Mr. Collins. Though men were often able to leap
societal boundaries by earning large fortunes, until they purchased a large
estate and were able to give up working to pursue lives of leisure, they could
not be considered “gentlemen,” or men of the highest echelon.
Proper women,
meanwhile, could not work for money, and, with the exception of their dowries,
their fathers’ fortunes were inherited by the eldest son. In families without
any sons, such as the Bennets, the estate was often entailed to distant male
relatives. For these reasons, marriage became the chief means for women to
achieve a place in society. Finding a wealthy husband became of primary
importance, which is why the women of Austen’s novels are so obsessed with
making a good match. In order to attract suitable husbands, women were expected
to be “accomplished,” which meant holding several of the following talents:
being able to sing, play the piano, draw, read, dance, and speak French, among
other things. They also had to be well-mannered and pretty, and a large fortune
always helped. In fact, many marriages were the direct result of two families’
desire to unite fortunes.
The lower
ranks hardly appear in Austen’s novels, which is a direct reflection of the
society. The landed class did not mix with the poor, with the exception of the
maids who served them and the occasional charity work. Mostly, the people of
this time period socialized in very small circles, concerned only with people of
their own rank, while always trying to improve their status and leapfrog to
another level of society.
