Pride And Prejudice
(Jane Austen)
The most well known of Austen's works, 'Pride and Prejudice'is a scathing observation of Regency society. It is centred round the Bennett family, who were unfortunate enough to produce five daughters and no male heir. This makes marriage a necessity, as the estate is entailed to the next male heir and therefore the death of Mr Bennett would mean the family being 'turned out to starve in the hedgerows'.
Mrs Bennett is determined to marry off her daughters and the story follows the dance of the sisters through the steps of courtship through elopement, scheming relations, unwelcome suitors to the triumph of matrimony and an assured future. The pride and prejudice of the title refer to the second daughter, Elizabeth, and her suitor, the wealthy Mr Darcy. Mr Darcy is perceived as suffering from an excess of pride - 'the very rich can afford to give offence wherever they go' - and Lizzie develops a severe prejudice as a result.
The characters are drawn in brilliant detail - the world-weary Mr Bennett, the shallow and grasping Mrs Bennett, the sanctimonious Mary and the feather-brained Lydia. Austen describes the attitudes of her time with clarity and just enough exaggeration for us to understand and imagine the hothouse world that this small group of families lived in. The plight of such girls, brought up as poorer gentry but constrained by society to few recreations is one the is easy to feel sympathy for. Marriage was the only respectable way out of the childhood home. It was also a considerable lottery - locked in legal bonds to a partner only met in the presence of others. It becomes a lot easier to understand why it was such as obsession.
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