Abstract

Jane Austen is a well-known author, particularly within feminist literary

history as her texts often included the lives of young women. The protagonists of
Austen’s novels have often been the subject of analysis regarding how the author
argued about women’s position in society, how society affected the characters and
their actions in the terms of education, marriage, and social class. As women were
subordinated to men in the nineteenth century, they could only use marriage as their
means of social validation. Because the class division is based on money, the more
money one has, the higher their rank. Since women were not rightful owners of any
type of material property, the only way to acquire a respectable status in the society
was entering a marriage with a man of high social rank. Thus, women were often
forced to marry not the man they loved but rather a man whom they found to be more
“agreeable” in all other aspects. This paper relies on the examples from the novel to
show how nineteenth-century women imagined their marriage and the marriage of
their daughters, and what kind of a man was considered a good match. In this view,
Jane Austen successfully portrays the society of the then England and contemporary
anxieties connected with marriage.

Keywords: Love, Marriage, Social Class, Men, Women, Property and Society.