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Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen Essay

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The 18th century novel, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, is a fascinating book about a young woman’s struggle with family and love. Pride and Prejudice was originally published in 1813, but, the most common version of the story, and the one used for this research, is from the version published in 1892, still by only Jane Austen, though many other authors have contributed to this book over time. Austen often references the class system at the time, often noting one of the multiple heroine’s struggle to marry outside of the class that they were born into, in other words, attempting to marry ‘up’ in the world. Austen also notes such struggles as women being unable to own property or being forced to marry somewhat ‘unsavory’ characters in order to ensure not only their health, but the health of their family. Pride and Prejudice highlighted the stigma of marrying outside one’s birth assigned class system through influence on character relationships from outside sources, such as the character of Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s influence on the relationship of the characters Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, or the influence of Miss Bingley on the relationship of Mr. Charles Bingley and Jane Bennet. (Austen, Pride and prejudice, 1892) In the 18th century, the class system, very obviously, differed quite substantially from the class system that we have today. For one, they had a much smaller population compared to today, having only “about 6 million people, and grew little

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