An example of the British class system Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen - Essay Example

Introduction The Novel clearly demonstrates and depicts the social in the nineteenth century. It is true that the overarching and principle theme in the novel is the role of class in early nineteenth-century England. Austen is inspired by the need to showcase how social class shaped or molds an individual experience and the interactions within people of diverse social classes. Class is viewed as a concept that is alien to American and the term always used to describe distinction in social classes particularly, in social, education and economic status as well as opportunities and/ or lack of such opportunities arising from the status (Cartmell 2010). A distinction between America and other countries with respect to possession of a true class systems is the fluidity of American society relative to other nations. American have a longer history of enjoyment of significant magnitude of social mobility and followed by their European colleagues but this has been surpassed based on the fact that there is rigidity in distinguishing a particular class from the other (Cartmell 2010). To showcase how Austen has treated the theme of social class we focus on Elizabeth Bennet with respect to her affairs with the aristocrat Fitzwilliam Darcy. We further focus on the courtship rituals of the English gentry. The novel is basically structured to showcase the social fabric of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century England. England is portrayed as a patriarchal society where men sits on economic and social powers. Austen uses satirical and ironical sessions to poke holes on the systems based on the portrait of men and women struggling to acquire livelihood. Austen ironically questions the values of English society as well as power structures of the nation. A lot of social realism is captured in the novel by Austen which validates the fact that it is a clear portrait of class system. The novel uses ideological debate as its driving force to showcase the essence of the characters who are inspired by the need to establish a balance between pragmatism and the prerequisite to securing marriage as well as idealism. This has been brought up through Elizabeth’s romanticism as well as individualism as the authors focused at showing how Elizabeth struggled to fight her place within the conservative social institution of marriage (Cartmell 2010). The class system is further evident when despite Darcy and Elizabeth marrying each other, reconciling Elizabeth’s independence and naturalness with her husband’s conventionality and conservatism is impossible. Body To begin with, we amply the validity of this novel as a typical example of class systems, it focuses on marriage and love in a society described as an inquisitive. Bennets are members of a leisure class with family fortune being entailed in a male heir. This possess a daunting to Mr. Bennets in his hurdles to facilitate marriages for his daughters (Ram 1989). Bennets are not poor and at the same time not wealthy but because of the power arising from high elitist in the higher ranks, they lose their home to a relative, Mr. Collins. The novels depicts as a society structured according to an individual’s position in the social ladder. This can be supported by the meeting between Darcy and Elizabeth. He is so repulsive to her on the basis that he has a feeling that Elizabeth is a young woman from a common family besides being poor. This is also justified by the fact that their families lacks an impressive family connections. It is quite technical that Elizabeth looks downtrodden herself and feels Darcy cannot be her husband since he is in higher social ladder. Darcy is so troubled by the fact that he cannot shake his feelings towards Elizabeth. He is portrayed as trying as much as possible to weed out his feelings towards Elizabeth, to whom he rates very low in the social ladder. The author celebrates the fact that she is a victim of social class prejudice in her own love life. This is shown by the fact that love between Darcy and Elizabeth override the bondage of social class culminating into their marriages. The novel depicts faithfully the socio-economic status of Regency England. During this time, possession of land and not money was the benchmark for social class determination of an individual. Lady Catherin views Elizabeth as so poor as Darcy and she tried in futile to dissuade her from marring Darcy. Her actions are informed by class systems that alienated the poor from the rich. This makes Elizabeth angrily interjects her proposal, “in marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter: so fa we are equal.” Her mother is so happy upon Elizabeth’s declaration that he would marry Darcy and described his to be son in law as a ‘lord’. Here we also see how class system is a factor in marriage. Mrs. Bennets compares Darcy and his Cousin Col.Fitzwilliam based on wealth possession and praises her daughter for the decision since Darcy’s cousin is not like a lord and has no title. In the novel, reputation is highly valued, women have to be supported by men and as woman’s reputation is of the utmost significance. Women are solely expected to conduct themselves in certain restrictive ways. Breaking the bondage of social norms facilitates women vulnerability with respect to ostracism. This is alluded to Elizabeth as she moves to Netherfield and her skirt is muddy to Miss Bingley and her friends who are so conscious to reputation hence being shocked. In addition, Mrs. Bennet ill-mannered and ridiculous conducts at times fixed her at loggerheads with elites such as Darcys and Bingleys. To further showcase how the class system is shown, despite the fact that Mr. Bingley had inherited his father’s commercial wealth of 100,000 pounds, he feels he has no title since money is not considered a source of gaining social status. To justify his desire for a societal figure, he acquires an estate in an adjacent country to Derbyshire. He is seen to have achieved his father’s wish as the father wanted to buy an estate but he could not manage despite being inspired by need for social statues confer. With respective Mr. Collins, he is also used in the novel to drive this theme of class system. He is constantly fawning all over Lady Catherine DeBourgh. Mr. Collins is seen always bragging about the Rossings, Lady Catherine beautiful home. This shows how social class distance and isolates people in the novel. To Mr. Collins, Rossings is to be praised and worshipped since he sees himself as inferior and sees nothing beyond Catherine beautiful home. With respect to Bingley sisters, they are also stable financially. They do not want to be identified with trading class and hence will associate themselves with highly ranked people in the society. In addition, we realize from the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth how class system is portrayed. It is known that Elizabeth is presented as most intelligent young woman and on the other hand, Darcy is of higher ranks in the social class ladder who is a wealthy gentleman. We see how such a wealthy person is honored by the poor and foolish younger sisters to Elizabeth as well as her beautiful older sister, Jane. The two sisters are very happy besides their own loud and dim-witted mother just because of the movement of Mr. Bingley to their house of her sister to a highly respected gentle and wealthy man. As Mr. Bingley moves into their house, Jane is attracted to her and here we see how Elizabeth starts to relinquish her affairs with Darcy on his rejection by the villagers who judges him as tempered and elitist. From here, we see clearly the distinction with respect to association as villagers want to distance themselves from elites. Mr. Binge is also alienated from Jane and moved to London under the influence of his sisters and Darcy which further depicts the discrimination based on the social ranks. The poor and wretched should not be allowed to mingle with the elitist both from the village view and from the side of elitists. With respect to the poor and irritating clergyman, Mr. Collin, his lower social class makes him unable to marry Elizabeth and settles on his friend Charlotte. Elizabeth would soon meet Mr. Darcy again and proposes to her buy Elizabeth rejects him in parts, on one end her hatred based on the fact that Mr. Darcy had a hand in shuttering the relationships between Jane and Mr. Bingley. Conclusion In conclusion, the novels depicts class systems based on its themes of class and reputation. These two themes are intertwined and show a reciprocal relationships. They both try to depict the regimented nature of life with respect to middle and upper classes in Regency England. The themes are clearly showcased via the use of various characters in the novel. Despite the fact that Bennets (middle class cohort) at times mingle with the Bingleys and Darcys (the upper class group), the socialization is that which view the Bennets as inferior to the upper classes. The author satirically and ironical conveys the type of class-consciousness with particular focus on Mr. Collins that has spent most of his moments toadying Lady Catherine DeBourgh (his upper class patron). Besides Mr. Collins’ allusion being an outlier instance, he is not solely brought up as deeply-attached to such views. The same view is help by Mr. Darcy as he believed on the dignity of his lineage. In addition, Miss Bingley feels so high in the social ladder and stops not at nothing but to despise and downtrodden anyone in the lower social ladder as she did to Elizabeth. On the other hand, Wickham is disturbed by the need to raise his social status so as to be a societal figure. He vowed not to stop at nothing but to fight for his place and plight in the society (Austen & Patricia 2010). The author puts more satirical style with respect to Mr. Collins hence being marked as an extremist but in essence his actions are greatly subtly focused at the whole social hierarchy as well as the conception of those falling under its censorship in total regard to other valuables aspects. Further, the marriages between Elizabeth and Darcy, Bingley and Jane, the author demonstrates the power of love and happiness as stronger than the bondages of social class hence break away from the pride and prejudice. This means that prejudices are unfeeling, unproductive and hollow when it comes to love. Work Cited Austen, Jane, and Patricia M. Spacks. Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. Print. Cartmell, Deborah. Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice: The Relationship between Text and Film. London: Methuen Drama, 2010. Internet resource. Ram, Atma. Woman as a Novelist: A Study of Jane Austen. Delhi: Doaba House, 1989. Print. 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