What were Elizabeth Bennett’s prospects in the real world?

[Anonymous]

If I have learnt anything from regency romances, it seems like all she would have to do is get in a room alone with mr Darcy and then they would have to get married?

Or they had to have a big confusion that could have been fixed with one straightforward conversation but instead they just hide their true feelings while making out a lot? Any historians here care to weigh in?

[Anonymous]

Once she truly exhausted the local options (village vicar, schoolteacher, the regiment, recent widowers, the boys at the Assembly Rooms), she would have gone visiting. Not just to Charlotte and the Gardiners, but to any friend or relative who happened to live within shouting distance of a group of eligible bachelors. Or Mrs. Bennett would have contrived a way to visit Bath for a period.

If none of that panned out and/or she reached her expiration date, she would have become a governess, a paid companion, or moved in with Bingley and Jane.

[Anonymous]

Governess would have been the answer for her -

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, this is fun! I just re-read Emma recently. Anyone want to do Emma next?!

Emma was independently wealthy and didn’t need to marry, as she says many times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Governess would have been the answer for her -

+1 Yup. Governess. Most likely to the kids of a sibling who had married well. She says as much in P&P. Her expectation was that she would live with Jane and Mr. Bingley and teach their "ten children." This would have been a very realistic outcome for a woman in Lizzy's position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Governess would have been the answer for her -

+1 Yup. Governess. Most likely to the kids of a sibling who had married well. She says as much in P&P. Her expectation was that she would live with Jane and Mr. Bingley and teach their "ten children." This would have been a very realistic outcome for a woman in Lizzy's position.

But for a pretty, young, vivacious woman there was huge societal pressure and expectation to marry. She more than likely not would’ve married anyone rather than be a spinster aunt/governess. A marriage to a tradesman or soldier (officer-rank soldiers were often younger sons of gentlemen or “gentry” as were clergymen, so those marriages wouldn’t have been crossing class lines as much as a gentleman’s daughter marrying a tradesman) would’ve been far preferable to being the spinster aunt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Governess would have been the answer for her -

+1 Yup. Governess. Most likely to the kids of a sibling who had married well. She says as much in P&P. Her expectation was that she would live with Jane and Mr. Bingley and teach their "ten children." This would have been a very realistic outcome for a woman in Lizzy's position.

But for a pretty, young, vivacious woman there was huge societal pressure and expectation to marry. She more than likely not would’ve married anyone rather than be a spinster aunt/governess. A marriage to a tradesman or soldier (officer-rank soldiers were often younger sons of gentlemen or “gentry” as were clergymen, so those marriages wouldn’t have been crossing class lines as much as a gentleman’s daughter marrying a tradesman) would’ve been far preferable to being the spinster aunt.

ha. you've obviously not bothered to read the book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I have learnt anything from regency romances, it seems like all she would have to do is get in a room alone with mr Darcy and then they would have to get married?

Or they had to have a big confusion that could have been fixed with one straightforward conversation but instead they just hide their true feelings while making out a lot? Any historians here care to weigh in?

Ha, no that Bridgerton thing is an exaggeration I think. Lizzie is alone plenty of times with Darcy - they run into each other on walks when she is visiting Charlotte.

[Anonymous]

^ And he visits her several times at Charlotte’s home when the rest of the family is out. There’s likely a servant or two, but not in the same room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Governess would have been the answer for her -

+1 Yup. Governess. Most likely to the kids of a sibling who had married well. She says as much in P&P. Her expectation was that she would live with Jane and Mr. Bingley and teach their "ten children." This would have been a very realistic outcome for a woman in Lizzy's position.

But for a pretty, young, vivacious woman there was huge societal pressure and expectation to marry. She more than likely not would’ve married anyone rather than be a spinster aunt/governess. A marriage to a tradesman or soldier (officer-rank soldiers were often younger sons of gentlemen or “gentry” as were clergymen, so those marriages wouldn’t have been crossing class lines as much as a gentleman’s daughter marrying a tradesman) would’ve been far preferable to being the spinster aunt.

ha. you've obviously not bothered to read the book.

PP here (of the "ten children" remark). Not only have you not read the book, you don't, apparently, know much about Austen herself. While not strictly autobiographical, the similarities between Austen and Lizzy Bennett suggest that Lizzy is a kind of representation of Austen herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Governess would have been the answer for her -

+1 Yup. Governess. Most likely to the kids of a sibling who had married well. She says as much in P&P. Her expectation was that she would live with Jane and Mr. Bingley and teach their "ten children." This would have been a very realistic outcome for a woman in Lizzy's position.

But for a pretty, young, vivacious woman there was huge societal pressure and expectation to marry. She more than likely not would’ve married anyone rather than be a spinster aunt/governess. A marriage to a tradesman or soldier (officer-rank soldiers were often younger sons of gentlemen or “gentry” as were clergymen, so those marriages wouldn’t have been crossing class lines as much as a gentleman’s daughter marrying a tradesman) would’ve been far preferable to being the spinster aunt.

ha. you've obviously not bothered to read the book.

I’ve read it many times. And I maintain what I said. Elizabeth Bennet is not Jane Austen. Jane Austen had an unusual family and definitely isn’t writing herself into the Bennet family. For the average young woman in regency England, any marriage would’ve been considered preferable to a single life. Jane Austen is the exception.

[Anonymous]

I re-read Pride and Prejudice last summer when my DD, a college student, read it for the first time-- at the suggestion of her boyfriend. Together with a few other family members and friends, we had a little
P and P book club, which is one of my few silver linings of the pandemic. Upon rereading the book, I was struck by Elizabeth's encounters and conversation with Mr. Darcy's cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam. It seemed to me that he and Lizzie were quite simpatico, but he mentions to her at some point that he's not wealthy enough to marry. So, that might cast some doubt on the speculation here that Lizzie would have found a husband among the officers of the regiment at Longbourne.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I re-read Pride and Prejudice last summer when my DD, a college student, read it for the first time-- at the suggestion of her boyfriend. Together with a few other family members and friends, we had a little
P and P book club, which is one of my few silver linings of the pandemic. Upon rereading the book, I was struck by Elizabeth's encounters and conversation with Mr. Darcy's cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam. It seemed to me that he and Lizzie were quite simpatico, but he mentions to her at some point that he's not wealthy enough to marry. So, that might cast some doubt on the speculation here that Lizzie would have found a husband among the officers of the regiment at Longbourne.

Col. Fitzwilliam was the son of an Earl and therefore felt he needed to marry an heiress (ideally with a title), but that doesn’t mean that many officers (someone along the lines of Col. Forster for example) wouldn’t be able to marry gentlewomen like the Bennet sisters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, this is fun! I just re-read Emma recently. Anyone want to do Emma next?!

I mean I think Emma is actually pretty realistic — she marries her much older neighbor who also happens to be her BIL. The part that’s fantasy is that she actually likes him/they’re well suited. The unrealistic fantasy of that book is Jane Fairfax, really. Emma is the annoying side character who never gets her proper comeuppance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Governess would have been the answer for her -

+1 Yup. Governess. Most likely to the kids of a sibling who had married well. She says as much in P&P. Her expectation was that she would live with Jane and Mr. Bingley and teach their "ten children." This would have been a very realistic outcome for a woman in Lizzy's position.

But for a pretty, young, vivacious woman there was huge societal pressure and expectation to marry. She more than likely not would’ve married anyone rather than be a spinster aunt/governess. A marriage to a tradesman or soldier (officer-rank soldiers were often younger sons of gentlemen or “gentry” as were clergymen, so those marriages wouldn’t have been crossing class lines as much as a gentleman’s daughter marrying a tradesman) would’ve been far preferable to being the spinster aunt.

ha. you've obviously not bothered to read the book.

I’ve read it many times. And I maintain what I said. Elizabeth Bennet is not Jane Austen. Jane Austen had an unusual family and definitely isn’t writing herself into the Bennet family. For the average young woman in regency England, any marriage would’ve been considered preferable to a single life. Jane Austen is the exception.

But there have always been lots of women of every class that didn’t marry for various reasons. Women live longer and don’t go to war so they generally outnumbers the men (even with so many dying in child birth). In Catholic families, you’d ship one daughter off to be a nun. It’s one reason why there is so much after the fact speculation about who was a lesbian—many single women moved in with another single woman or relative because they really couldn’t live alone. If you didn’t have sisters, it was likely to be a friend. I’m sure some of them were lesbian and some probably gay for the stay. But also probably as many lesbians in marriages to “appropriate” men.