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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Would a love match to a member of the landed gentry really be so far outside the realm of possibility? It was a fantasy but is there anything specific that would make it impossible? Or just a love match to somebody in the church? Or even a trade?

I think that if Elizabeth didn’t find a love match she would have remained single. [/quote]

One of her problems was her rural isolation and apparently small extended family. I think her best bet would have been meeting a man through the Gardiners, but he would have been a professional man in their circles, not a gentleman. Still could have been a man of sense and education and the son of a gentleman, but someone in line to inherit an estate.[/quote]

The Gardiners were affluent London merchants (not a barrister). Mr. Gardiner was Mrs. Bennett's brother, and he would have been the son of the country solicitor that was Mrs. Bennett's father, and who was also father to Aunt Phillips, whose husband was also an attorney.

This shows that the social boundaries between the minor gentry and affluent professionals and solicitors and merchants was always fluid. Mrs. Bennett did comment there had been a fellow merchant friend of Mr. Gardiner who showed interest in Jane and she'd have been satisfied with that match.

Darcy was a much higher rank. By the standards of the day, the provincial gentry and working merchants were far below him in social status. Although he had no title, he was the grandson of an earl and his family's fortune, estate, and history placed him very high up in the social ranks. It was a different world from the Bennetts. I daresay a decent comparison to today would be comfortably off UMC people with net worth of 5-10M to someone worth 100+M.[/quote]

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