Issues of Class in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

by Claudia Durst Johnson

Presents essays that examine class issues in "Pride and Prejudice," including levels of rank, social restrictions, male power, and marriages that cross class lines.

Genres: Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2008

Reviews

[Rei A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know already? I was hoping for a more granular examination of Georgian English social classes than this.

[Maggie]

"For it was their culture, in the broad sense of values standards, ideals and a fine quality of living, that the landowning classes had relied for so much of their authority. Their purpose had been to achieve hegemony--to win the loyalty and assent of their underlings by their moral example--rather than simply to rule them by force. And the English landed classes have been on the whole remarkably successful in this project. If this hegemony now started to crumble from within in a society already shaken to its roots by riots, spy scares, agrarian discontent, economic depression, working-class militancy, the threat of revolution abroad and invasion at home, then the situation could scarcely be more serious." (93) --Terry Eagleton, The English Novel, 2005. Oxford.

"Darcy's moral growth is measured in his attitude toward the Gardiner's . . . who run a business and live in the business district." "McAleer shows that Austen believes that levels of moral behavior are reinforced by the traditional class system. What is to be repudiated is not the system but the individuals in the ranks of society who have dispensed with the high morals expected of their rank." (64) "By telling Darcy that he has not conducted himself as a gentleman, Elizabeth opens his eyes to his moral failings." (72)

[Wendy Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting, though my favorite was definitely the last section.