The novel is set at the end of the 18th century of England. At the beginning of the novel, it goes” It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” It indicates that that marriage for the middle and up class lady is still the only way to secure their esteem and leisure life. Maybe some of us question why women are always so realistic? Don’t they want to pursue their marriage based on true love and? Absolutely not. But they had no access to it at the era. So here the definition of the restrictions includes the law of inheritance and the options of women’s job. In the following statement, we will cite more examples and sources to illustrate it.
In Chapter One, the novel points that The Benets’ wealth will be the inherited by Mr. Collonis, a distant male cousin, not his spouse and his five grown-up daughters. It sounds ridiculous, but it did exist.
At Victorian Age, the law of inheritance can be classified as two types: the common law and the entails. According to this, if a man died intestate, his property passed to his eldest son. If he had no son, the property was left to his daughters in equal portions. If his wife was still alive, under the law she could use to support herself for the rest of her life; upon her death that portion of the estate would revert to his heir or heirs. However, few families with substantial landed property let its distribution be determined by common law. Many made wills that determined the distribution of all that they owned after death; and an even larger number had to adhere to contracts known as “entails,” which gave them no say in how the family estate would be distributed after their death. So it goes with Mr. Benet. The entail places the Bennet daughters in such precarious financial circumstances; It has been too late for Mr. Bennet to break the entails when he realizes the potential risks to his daughters’ marriages. under its terms, Mr. Bennet’s estate will be inherited not by his daughters but by a distant male cousin, Mr. Collins. Mr. Bennet’s behavior has created a situation of potential poverty for his wife and five daughters after his death, thus putting their futures in danger and having to rely on others to provide for them.
Since they will not share the inheritance, what can they do to have an esteemed, respected life except marriage? Can they take up a decent job to earn their bread and then find a soul mate? They are absolutely longing for it, but they can’t. In that age, teaching, literature and journalism are the only two occupations for female. The former was arduous, penurious, and little respected, and the latter offer few opportunities and enormous risks. But neither of them afforded a stable livelihood. So called happy matrimony was the only way of life in which middle and upper-class women could normally hope to find themselves satisfied, esteemed, and secure. But limited mobility restricted choice; it did not do to be romantic or fastidious, as Charlottes Lucas, in Pride and Prejudice, realizes when she accepts an offer from Mr. Collins.
Here comes the reality Austin presents to us that the five grown-up daughters have to launch a campaign, hunting for the rich who can afford them a secure, stable life.
Now, you can fully understand why I mention about the inheritance and occupation. The restrictions from those in that era come to the obstacles on their way to a happy matrimony. Women are institutionalized. They just run their marriage as a business or regard it as a ladder to the up class. Even in the 21st century of China, confronted with high expenses of estate price, countless pairs of lovers’ dreams of marriage just burst into air like a bubble. They become house slaves or apart from each other because of the cruel reality. So no matter in the past or present, we are all the victims of the current institution. |
发表于 2011-12-3 00:52:22