Money Talks: Class Discrimination in Pride and Prejudice
Have you ever judged someone based on their wealth? Jane Austen would have
some opinions on that. Pride and Prejudice is an award-winning novel by Jane Austen.
Set in early nineteenth century England, the novel explores the coming of age of several
members of the Bennet family. Austen uses this book to make arguments on a wide
variety of topics including marriage, first impressions, and social class. In Pride and
Prejudice, Austen argues that class is a poor lens through which to view the worth of an
individual.
Austen grew up relatively well off but far from wealthy. She was one of 8 children.
Her father, George Austen, was a reverend. George also taught several students as an
additional method of income (Lutz). While a few wealthy relatives assisted the Austen
family, mainly with the gift of the property that the Austen’s would live in, they
themselves were certainly never wealthy. At seven years old, Jane was sent to receive
schooling from a family friend. These experiences gave Jane Austen a unique
perspective on life. She developed very progressive stances and was outspoken about
them (Bloom). This also greatly influenced her writing. Class is a prominent theme in
many of her novels, and it is especially important in Pride and Prejudice.
During the time period that this novel explores, class played a very important role
in the social interactions of people. Many historians divide the class system into nobility,
gentry, clergy, and working class, with members of each class having certain privileges
denied to the lower classes (Bloom). Jane Austen's family would be considered part of
the gentry. While her father was a reverend, he still would have been able to support the
family on rent alone.
As a member of the lower gentry, Austen witnessed many of these social
interactions firsthand. Her brother, Edward, married a member of a higher social class,
and as a result gained roughly 2000 pounds from the marriage. Jane herself fell in love
with a man named Tom Lefroy, but his social status was too high and they did not end
up marrying each other because of this (Lutz). Jane’s mother attempted to match Jane
with a reverend to improve her status, but the relationship never worked out. This
person would become the inspiration for Mr. Collins. Overall, these experiences and
others gave Austen a very negative view of the regency era class system (Nardin).
While Pride and Prejudice was Jane Austen’s most successful novel, it was not
her only one. Her first novel was Sense and Sensibility, written in 1811 (Lutz). This
novel was fairly popular and earned her roughly 140 pounds, equivalent to roughly 9000
pounds today. While this is a considerable amount of money, it did not make her rich by
any means. After the success of Sense and Sensibility, Austen revised First
Impressions, changing it to Pride and Prejudice. However, she had immense difficulty
finding a publisher and ended up selling the copyright for 110 pounds, an amount that
pales in comparison to how much the book ended up selling.
One of Austen’s criticisms of the class system is shown through Mr. Collins. He is
obsessed with the class system and is motivated to marry purely by the fact that it is the
social expectation. He comes across as unlikeable and shallow. This is shown through
the quote “Mr. Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable (Austen 158)”.
Collins directly represents someone that Austen met earlier in life. Through Collins,
Austen argues that the class system leads people to marry based on what is expected
of them rather than love.
Jane Austen also criticizes the class system as not being a good judge of one's
character. A prime example of this is Lady Catherine. Since Catherine is the person in
the novel that is highest up in the class hierarchy, regency era customs dictate that,
morally, she is the most correct. However, Austen portrays her as stuck up and
downright annoying. One example of this is the line “Lady Catherine was generally
speaking—stating the mistakes of the three others (Austen 209).” The class system
would dictate that Lady Catherine is morally superior, but that is clearly not how Austen
portrays her.
Austen’s opinion of the class system is revealed even more explicitly with the
introduction of the Gardiners. When Mr. Gardiner is introduced, he is described by the
narrator as “greatly superior to his sister (Austen 176)” despite the fact that he is
considered to be lower class. In fact, Austen writes that “the Netherfield ladies would
have had difficulty in believing that a man who lived by trade … could have been so
well-bred and agreeable.” This shock dictates one of Austen’s biggest complaints about
the social class system: It leads to people being judged not on their merits but on their
social status.
Overall, Austen has a very low opinion of the class hierarchy in regency England
and she makes this view clear to readers of Pride and Prejudice. This view was
informed by her experience growing up. In fact, many of the exact situations in Pride
and Prejudice happened in her life. Pride and Prejudice makes a very convincing
argument that class is a poor judge of character.
Austen's critique of the class system is still very relevant in modern times.
Although there has clearly been a lot of progress since Regency England, class still
plays a major role in everyone’s lives. People from lower socioeconomic backgrounds
often lack access to top tier education, healthcare, and employment opportunities. Like
in Regency England, class is often passed down through families. While many lower
class people are able to advance to the middle or upper class through education, cycles
of poverty leave this as a dream for many people. Since it is often so hard to break out
of a lower class, class is usually a better reflection of your ancestors than you. Because
of this, like Austen argues, class is a very poor system to distinguish individual worth
both in Regency England and in America today.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. "Background to Pride and Prejudice." Bloom's Literature, 2004,
online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/12?articleId=1911&q=Background%20t
o%20pride%20and%20prejudice. Accessed 14 Mar. 2023.
"Pride and Prejudice: On Money." bloo, 2004,
online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=133869&itemid=WE54&articleId=645320.
Accessed 21 Mar. 2023.
Lutz, Norman. "Austen, Jane." Bloom's Literature, 2002,
online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=133869&itemid=WE54&articleId=1542.
Accessed 7 Mar. 2023.
Nardin, Jane. "Propriety as a Test of Character: Pride and Prejudice." Bloom's
Literature, 1973,
online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=133869&itemid=WE54&articleId=584124.
Accessed 21 Mar. 2023.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Penguin Books, 2002.