Comparing Austen's Pride And Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice was set in the Regency Period of history roughly 1790 - 1820 and had a different standard for women compared to how they are expected to act in today 's standards. There was a huge difference in the social standing between women and men in this period of time, and women were expected to act a certain way as compared to men. Back in this time property was only transferable to the men of the estates. Women were expected to marry and were treated as commodities as compared to being able to live their own lives and earn for themselves. Jane Austen uses marriage almost as a way of entrapment for women during this period as they either marry or they live a life of poverty and disgrace their family name. "Jane Austen
She was the seventh of eight children and the youngest of the two girls that they had. She was closest to her brother Henry and sister Cassandra out of all of her siblings. At the age of eight in 1783, Jane and Cassandra were sent to boarding school for their formal educations which consisted of music, dancing, and foreign language which was usually French. Mr. Austen having quite the extensive collection of literature in his home library allowed Jane and Cassandra to access the library when they wanted to help with their reading and writing endeavors. In December of 1795, Jane was spending a lot of time with the nephew of a nearby neighbor named Tom Lefroy and the two fell in love. The family of Lefroy reviewed any forthcoming engagement as highly impractical as Tom was being supported externally by family members whilst he was in school and planning for
The offense of criminal conversation was a euphemism for adultery and since a wife was considered property of her husband it was tried as a form of trespass or property damage. The wife could neither attend nor testify as she was not considered a principal in these cases since a wife had no legal identity separate from her husband. After obtaining the CrimCon conviction the husband then charged his wife with adultery and requested a legal separation to sever all responsibility for his former wife. And unless Parliament passed a private act of divorcement granting permission, a divorced man could not remarry."