Simply Austen by Joan Klingel Ray

Author:Joan Klingel Ray [Ray, Joan Klingel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO000000, BIO007000
ISBN: 9781943657131
Publisher: Simply Charly
Published: 2017-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

Austen’s use of the word “property” serves a twofold purpose: it reduces the single man to an object to be purchased (remember the marriage settlements from the “Introduction”) by one of “the surrounding families” with marriageable daughters, and it reminds us that gentry families sought gentry husbands, men of property, for their daughters.

Appropriately, the first line of dialogue that follows is Mrs. Bennet’s asking her husband if he is aware of what has finally occurred at a neighboring property, “‘My dear Mr. Bennet . . . have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?’” Even better for Mrs. Bennet’s purposes, she continues, “‘Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England.’” She is determined that this young man will become the property of one of her daughters, especially the eldest and most beautiful Jane or the youngest and liveliest Lydia. Why is the first line of dialogue appropriate for Mrs. Bennet? She has five daughters of marriageable age living on an estate that is entailed on Mr. Collins.

Mr. Benet wryly offers his “hearty consent” to Bingley’s marrying any of his daughters, but adds, “‘I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy.’” Lizzy is his favorite because she “‘has something more of quickness than her sisters.’” She is her mother’s least favorite. The narrative voice ends the chapter:

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