Social Class in Jane Austen Essay Example

between one social strata and another. Some readers tend to stress, the fact that Austen was an unmarried woman and women were assumed to take their status from men, she views the world around from an outside angle. Lord Osborne, in the Watsons is most probably the one with the highest rank in her fiction.

Through her treatment of royalty it is very clear that she thinks that there is nothing divine about royalty. Hence, characters, with titles in her novels are very often disliked and not admirable -such as Sir Thomas Bertram, who overestimates his own family’s importance. From the other point of society, even women could have a title to their name. Lady Catherine, Lady Anne Darcy hold their titles in their own right, rather than through marriage. While Lady Bertram in Mansfield Park, Lady Middleton, Lady Russell in Persuasion have titles due to the fact that they are married to a knight or a sir.

Lady Anne Darcy is married to Mr. Darcy, and Lady Catherine points out that Darcy’s family is untitled, though Darcy’s 10,000 a year are seen as quite ‘splendid’. Elizabeth’s marriage to Darcy is one of the greatest matches but on the other hand, perhaps the most distinct. In Lady Catherine’s opinion, Elizabeth is simply a nobody, a woman who will ‘pollute the shades of Pemberley’. On the other hand, Elizabeth thinks that ‘he is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal’.

The country man, who lives a leisurely life and whose income is based on land and inheritance, is the best social possibility for women. One might assume that siblings in a single family

would mean that all are of the same rank , but in Jane Austen’s time , even here there are differences in status, not only between siblings of different genders but also between one son or daughter and another. The aristocracy and inheritance of land depended on the system that the eldest son can inherit it all.

This system unfairly gives privilege to one family member by giving him /her everything, for the preservation of the family name and the estate throughout the generations. Hence the five Longbourn girls are to be turned out upon their father’s death, since the estate is entailed to Mr. Collins. Charles Bingley is the most we witness of social mobility. He is a gentleman who lives a lavish life, and whose money was ‘acquired by trade’. He walks in his father’s footsteps, and once married to Jane, he does buy an estate.

This means that the ‘next generation will be a step upwards in their social ladder. His sisters on the other hand are status and power hungry and are ‘proud and conceited’. Darcy, rebutes, very realistically that the Bennet sisters’ connection with trade, will prove to be an obstacle to their happiness and will lessen their chance of marrying men of prestige. The quality of humans is judged by moral and humane standards. Charlotte Lucas chooses to marry the pompous Mr. Collins, not for love but it is simply a marriage of convenience, in which she is the one finding it convenient.

Through this Jane Austen presents the bleak and futile existence of women, as well as the happier outcome, of the heroine who finds fulfillment in marrying the man she

loves. The servants in Jane Austen’s novels represent the poor working class. The ‘poor’ are seldom mentioned, except through Lady Catherine’s scolding of degradation. Human worth should be judged by better standards than social status. In such a way, Jane Austen adopts the character’s methods of judging each other , and in turn judges them. Class and social distinction is the source of comedy and satire.

Austen shows us how such things, as social class matter; but she also shows us how they should not matter too much. Jane Austen remains an inspirational voice against social dissolution. Austen, however, has been criticized for upholding the traditions of her day, which limited opportunities for women, accepted social restrictions and class distinctions, and put great emphasis on conformity. However Austen emphasizes the ideals of social and individual responsibility. Each of her characters either has or develops a strong conscience and sense of personal accountability