As with Austen's other novels, this is a comedy of manners in which she satirizes the gentry class, its rules and manners, of her time. The purpose of satire, of course, is to bring about social change.
The dilemma in this novel, published in 1813, is that the Bennets have five daughters, no sons, and the Longbourn estate is entailed. When Mr. Bennet dies the estate will go to a distant cousin, the next male in line to inherit, Mr. Collins. Mrs. Bennet and her daughters will have to leave their home and they will have to live on 200 pounds per year. That is why the "business of her life was to get her daughters married."
One of the ironic meanings of the novel's first line is that the law and custom of entail necessitates marriages of "convenience." This is expressed most clearly by the pragmatic Charlotte Lucas, the 27 year old friend of Elizabeth: "Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honouable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want."
In one sense hilarious but in another tragic.
I agree with your last sentence. It is also apparent that many marriages even now are for "pleasantest preservative from want."
ReplyDeleteHow unfortunate.
Hmm, maybe the weather is getting me down. Snicker
It seems to me that Austen's novels did a lot to change some things. Elizabeth Bennet will not marry for reasons other than "love." That's something I want to think about further.
ReplyDeleteHad a whole post about marrying for "love", but it even depressed me! So forgetaboutit. I'm glad I didn't live then, though if you believe a past life regression thingy, during that time I was a green groceries wife who kept chickens. Which sort of convinced me about past lives, because who would make that up?
ReplyDeleteI think then, as now, society puts so much "shoulds" on people. Some for good, "no you should not kill that person" but also a lot of "shoulds" that have made life difficult for people.
Perhaps when people get scared, loss of security, loss of loved ones, loss of hope, they just add more to what life "should" be about.
Don't know, I think I'm wandering here. Going to bed. Have to be up early and out of the house most of the day. Luckily I have a friend I can go see between doctor appointments.