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Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

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motion. Eileen Spring tells us that " . . . had it been<br />

a simple entail, Mr Bennet could have brought it to an<br />

end at any time. That he could not do so is the starting<br />

point for the story" (Law, Land and Family 33).<br />

Personal <strong>Prejudice</strong><br />

Austen's focus on the middle-class need for improved<br />

status, as Ian Watt so aptly observed, was in part a<br />

reflection of her own identification with the anomalies<br />

of inheritance and the rules of settlement (298). Her<br />

family situation gave her a heightened awareness of the<br />

differences between the lots of genteel women and those<br />

of genteel men. Newton reminds us that Austen had five<br />

brothers who had "access to work that paid, access to the<br />

status that belong[ed] to being prosperous and male"<br />

(60). Although Austen treated her situation and that of<br />

her brothers with "amused and uncomplaining comment,"<br />

Newton calls Austen's reaction a "telling emphasis" on<br />

the difference between the economic restrictions placed<br />

on women and economic privileges accorded to men, a<br />

reaction implied in her letters, but which she does not<br />

articulate (61). Austen, then, was acutely aware of the<br />

inequities of life for women; and, with five brothers,

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