Women held an inferior position in a social system dominated by men, with limited rights to property. Inheritance laws commonly prevented women from inheriting land from their families. Though women were allowed an education, they could not take up professions that would provide financial independence. Marriage was the only way a woman could secure her future. For this reason, great importance was attached to money and marriage. This excerpt from chapter 1 of Pride and Prejudice reflects this idea:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
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 the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
The novel emphasizes the primary concern of mothers with unmarried daughters; they wanted to ensure that their daughters were married into a wealthy family so that they could have a secure future. The kind of match their daughters would attract depended on their social class, their etiquette, and their training in the fine arts.
Sometimes, marriage was more a matter of guaranteeing a secure future than about love. Charlotte Lucas expresses this idea to Elizabeth in chapter 6:
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.”
These lines depict the mindset of a single woman with no financial standing. Charlotte must rely on the possibility of a marriage to secure her future, regardless of her personal feelings about her future husband.
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