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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Governess would have been the answer for her - [/quote]

+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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

ha. you've obviously not bothered to read the book.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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