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RSS订阅4.2 Class aspect
Jane Austen is a member of the professional class. The men in the professional class are expected to pursue a profession, either the army, navy, clergy, law, or medicine. The women are excluded from these professions and are expected to marry. Elinor and Marianne are representative examples of young ladies of the professional class. In “ Sense and sensibility”, they socialize with and marry into the landed gentry, the next higher social class. Women in the class to which Jane Austen and the Dashwood sisters belong are not allowed to work. They depend upon suitable marriages or the generosity of the their male relations for financial support and have no economic freedom.
At the beginning of sense and Sensibility, the narrator informs us how a rich old gentleman, Mr Dashwood, so ties up both his money and his estate that it must stay in the male line, and may not be alienated to the girls of the family, even though the son is already amply provided for ‘wife and daughters’ are deprived; and the estate and the money as well must descend to his son, and his son’s son.’ Hence there is a considerable difference in prestige and expectation between elder sons and younger sons, as between sons and daughters. The persistent plight of many female members of the genteel class is a principle subject. Women who are not wealthy in their own right ( and simultaneously unmarried or widowed) are utterly dependent on the fortunes and, indifferent degrees, related. In addition to the men’s economic situation, family obligation-whether it is that of the a father, husband, son, brother, or other relatives-is often the sole determination of the condition of their lives, In order to make the best situations in which they are utterly dependent on the relationships to men, these women needed certain attributes.
4.3 Money aspect
Money also plays an important part in the marriage. Money as a spendable income is the love-tipped arrow aimed at the hearts of Austen’s heroines and her r