It is strange to be reminded that Jane Austen’s classic romance, Pride and Prejudice, was published (sans zombies) just five years before the first edition of Mary Shelley’s gothic horror tale, Frankenstein. The contemporary social upheaval caused by the competing ideologies of the Enlightenment, Industrialisation and the Romantic Movement is evident in Shelley’s text but can seem invisible in Austen’s more restrained social novel. Austen, however, was not unaware of social injustice and three key issues are relevant to an understanding of her novels.
1. Enclosure. By th19th Century, almost all arable lands in England had been enclosed,by hedges or fences, restricting their use as pasture to the owners. Prior to this, much land had been available for grazing to the landless poor. One of the consequences of enclosure was to increase the number of seasonal labourers requiring poor relief. In Pride and Prejudice, this allows Darcy to be held up as a more generous land owner than others (and his housekeeper to brag about him to Elizabeth). Although enclosures began as early as the 13th Century, it was really during the Industrial Revolution, when land was increasingly commodified, that the practice became dominant.
2. Entailment. The Bennet sisters’ desperate situation is due in part to entailment laws. The purpose of these laws was to ensure the line of succession for important houses. The reality of them was that the owner was unable to sell or bequeath their estate. It was, instead, entailed to the legal heir. The result of such laws was often families who were impoverished by debt in spite of being in possession of impressive estates or, as in the case of the Bennet sisters, women being left at the mercy of, often distant, male relatives. The abolishment of individual entails was made simpler in 1833 but it was only in 1996 that the law was abandoned altogether.
Military Meritocracy. Although during the Regency it was still common practice for a young man to purchase a commission (that is, an officer’s rank) in the Army or the Navy, it was during this period that the military in England (particularly the Navy) began to reward meritorious service with rank – both military and social. This allowed landless gentlemen to improve their social standing and aspire to more profitable matches. Perhaps the best example of this in Austen is Captain Wentworth in Persuasion, who becomes wealthy and a socially acceptable match for the daughter of a Baronet, through his service in the West Indies. The social signficance of the soldiers quartered at Meriton in Pride and Prejudice is another example.
