Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

Overtones of the pecuniary plight of women in
marriage are always present in the terms of marriage
settlements, giving the reader a "grim picture, but
perhaps statistically not a wildly inaccurate one . . . /I
(McMaster 291) . The central issue of a womanf s marriage
clearly is "[tlhe amount of ready capital that a woman
possesses as her marriage portion [and] is the motor that
runs the economic plot of [Pride and Prejudice]"
(Copeland 35) . Successful characters in Pride and
Prejudice do not become so through their own actions, but
through the language and power of strict settlement and
inheritance, and not only female characters are
successful. Male and female characters alike spiral
upward into the higher fringes of the landed gentry and
aristocracy, which is the eighteenth-century merchant-
class dream though quirky and often laughable, with
situations that strict settlement puts them into.
Austen' s men are often dismissed as shallow caricatures;
however, their personalities actions can be partly
attributed to the dispensation of estates, money and
women through strict settlement. Austen's subtle irony
regarding the effect of inheritance often is found in her
characters.