Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

she was intimately aware of marriage practice and
settlement practice as they chose their wives. Austen
may not have articulated her awareness in her letters or
in her novels, but her reflections in her novels, like in
her letters, depict an attitude of "amused and
uncomplaining comment."
Austen brings an awareness of and experience with
inheritance practice and its language different from
Clarissa and Evelina. Vivien Jones points out Austen' s
alertness "to the complexities and insecurities of her
own social constituency" of rural England at a time when
estates were being bought, rented or created by the
rising merchant class (Introduction xxxiii).
Pride and Prejudice is an excellent representation
of inheritance practice and language because of the legal
aberrations that it presents. Ivor Morris observes that
the texture of the language within Austen's novels
reiterates "the values of commerce and property, the
counting houses and the inherited estate" (51) . However,
legal aberrations define the situations of Mr. Bennet,
Mr. Collins, and Mr. Wickham and show Austen' s awareness
that the power of inheritance and patronage stems from.
She places characters in predicaments of inheritance the
law could not foresee.