Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice - Book Report/Review Example

Pride & Prejudice: Law and Relationship What does the source tell us about how law structures the relationship among individuals? In a “good society”women should “…have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages… and possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions…” 1 It was a dialogue of Caroline, one of the characters in Pride and Prejudice. She tries her best to attract Mr. Darcy’s attention but Darcy is not showing any interest in her. The protagonist Elizabeth Bennett was her arch-rival, because of Darcy’s attraction toward Elizabeth. She was very eager to marry Mr. Darcy as he was the land owner and one of the wealthiest persons. It was the necessary activity of the women, in Jane Austen’s time, to attract the wealthy and respected men. Their ultimate and only object was to achieve a wealthy future for them. This activity and approach would lead to a tough competition which eventually resulted into jealousy among each other. One more lady was in the race to marry Mr. Darcy and she was Ann de Bourgh, daughter of Lady Catherine. Why was this competition? Was it because they really love the person whom they were attracting? No. On the contrary it was because they looked for a good fortune with lot of wealth. The matrimonial relationship in those days was based on the money, property. There was hardly any love or affection in matrimonial relationship. The marriage was not just limited to the bride and bridegroom but it was the bondage between the families of bride and grooms. Hence there was no alternative for young women of “genteel” class except to get married. They were neither financially independent, nor were they in respectable professions. The main reason of prevailing money-mindedness among the women was the contemporary English laws. This law was strongly criticized by Daniel Dafoe by calling marriage as “legalized prostitution.”2 The novelist Jane Austen belongs to the Romantic era and her literary work has all those typical attributes of her era. “Jane Austen wants to show the difference between both sexes with showing how women had to suffer in the patriarchal society of the 19th century.”3 Her work has been studied by scholars from all over the world with different perspectives. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is the classic novel, which holds the theme of love, marriage and relationship. It is also a novel of social and legal realities of the Regency Period (1811 – 1820). Pride and Prejudice is an ideal novel for studying law students as it has some legal aspects of English Law. These legal aspects also are the main drivers of the plot. These legal aspects also are involved in establishing certain relationship among the characters. If discussed Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of a legal study, it may give a different dimension to the study of Miss Austen. While studying different kinds of relationships, it is necessary to study the legal system of England in the period of Jane Austen. Our discussion on legal issues in Pride and Prejudice is based on the acts related to property and marriage. As mentioned earlier, marriage was not at all the culmination of love or affection but rather it would decide the destiny of the women in Jane Austen’s time. So obviously the ultimate goal of Pride and Prejudice is marriage. The laws related to marriage and property, were very partial and unjust to women. The women in those days were not allowed to purchase or own a property. Marriage was not about love but it was about deciding her destiny. Hence women had to be careful while choosing their grooms. For men, marriage was his social privilege. According to the act, they could claim on the property of his wife after marriage. Whatever asset or wealth the wife had before her marriage would become the asset of her husband. As a wife, women had to live as a subordinate and they were treated like an asset of her husband. While defining the role of a woman or a wife English law calls it as ‘famme covert.’ It clearly defines her status as a subordinate. By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law; that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection and cover, she performs every thing… 4 Mrs. Bennett, Elizabeth’s mother was shown as a stereotype woman of the contemporary era. It was very important for Bennett daughters to find wealthy husbands. The story of Pride and Prejudice revolves around Bennett family. Mr. Bennett, his wife Mrs. Bennett, a daughter of Meryton attorney are the couple having five daughters. Elder was Jane. Second daughter was Elizabeth, then Mary, Kitty and Lydia. Being girls they had no right on their ancestral property according to the contemporary property law. Their property will straightway go to Mr. Bennett’s cousin Mr. Collin. It is described in chapter 13 of the novel. “I do think it is the hardest thing in the world that your estate should be entailed away from your own children; and I am sure if I had been you, I should have tried long ago to do something or other about it.”5 Mr. Bennett owned the estate at Longbourn from where he gets annual income of £ 2,000. In those days this income was quite fair for living a life of a respected person having good status in the society. The couple does not have a son so no male heir is there. Mr. Bennets property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mothers fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his.6 The only way to preserve the ancestral property was to marry to the person whom the ancestral property would be going. Hence it was strongly persisted by Mrs. Bennett that Elizabeth should marry to Mr. Collin apart from his stupidity and pompous behavior. Mr. Collin is the legal heir of Bennett property. Mr. Collin is a cousin of Mr. Bennett. It is the wish of Mrs. Bennett that Elizabeth should marry to Mr. Collin so that the property would remain in their family. She was concerned with the thought that if her husband Mr. Bennett dies, she and her five daughters had to give up the estate which was the major source of their income. Consequently the standard of their living would drop down. That was the main reason why she was insisting her daughters’ marriages before the death of her husband. “To maintain the continuity of estates and property transfer, it was necessary for women to produce a male heir.” 7 The calculation of money had strongly affected the relationship. Marriage was merely a contract. It was the socially accepted path to the contemporary women to become rich and powerful. We read that "Five thousand pounds was settled by marriage articles on Mrs. Bennett and the children.” At the time of marriage, a settlement was generally the part of an overall pre-marital financial agreement. The agreement would be between the wife or wifes family and the husband or husbands family. The negotiations made to Persuade Wickham to marry Lydia guarantee "by settlement, her [Lydia] equal share of the five thousand pounds secured among his children after the decease of [Mr. Bennet and his wife,] and, moreover, to enter into an engagement of allowing her, during his life, one hundred pounds per year."  8 The contemporary legal system in England greatly affected the relationships. The matrimonial relationship remained a contract, with no love. If the relationship is based on love and respect for each other, then only a happy married life is possible. The protagonist Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice is well aware of it. Jane Austen wants to show the pompousness of marriage due to the partial property and marriage laws of contemporary Britain. Elizabeth has challenged the established norms of marriages. She is firm in her decision and she strongly refused to marry Mr. Collin just because he was by default the heir of their property. On that occasion she has to face strong protest from her mother but she is not ready to give up her conscience. The opposite case is with Charlotte, Elizabeth’s best friend whom Austen describes as a “sensible, intelligent young woman about twenty – seven.” Being a sensible and intelligent, she is still unmarried. Her attitude towards marriage is also the outcome of legal issues. She very well knows that she will not be happy by marrying with a stupid person like Mr. Collin. But marriage is again her necessity. She does not want to spend her life with her parents. She wants financial security which makes her to accept Mr. Collin as her husband. Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.9 Social relationship: In the period of Austen, the person who possesses inherited property, used to gain social status and respect. His public relationship is affected by his inherited property than by working hard and gaining income. He squire of a great country house, in the eighteenth or nineteenth century, standing on his terrace looking out across his broad acres, was rarely the owner of his land or even his house. He was the life tenant, in possession of the family capital but unable to deal with his estates as if he owned them outright. His interests were subordinate to those of the family, and the family was of more importance than he was.10 The status of single women was horrible in contemporary society. "Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony"11 Jane Austen was against this partial custom and wants to convey the message that the unmarried girls should not forget their conscience and marry to the man whom they don’t love. Elizabeth at the same time is shown very intelligent and logical. Of course, she has many times prejudiced opinions about the people as she shows towards Darcy. But she is aware of her future and when she takes the decision to marry Darcy it was also a very thoughtful decision and based on emotional attachment. Bibliography 1. Jane  Austen, Pride and Prejudice.: Easy Read (Superlarge 24pt Edition2009) p.361 2. Karen Offen ,“A Brief History of Marriages, Marriage Laws and Women’s Financial Independence, Economica Women and the Global Economy http://imow.org/economica/stories/viewStory?storyId=3650 3. Susan Groag & Karen Offen Women the family & Freedom 1750-1880, (Stanford University Press 1983) .p33 4. English & Saville, (1983) p.11 5. Jeannette Nedoma “The Role of Women: A Comparison of Jane Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice” (GRIN Publication 2009) p.4 6. William Baker, “Critical Comparison to Jane Austen: A Literary Reference to her Life and Work . published by Infobase Publishing (2008) p.28 7. Emily Auebach “Searching for Jane Austen”, (Wisconsin 2004) p.228 Read More