Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

procedure and could not foresee the birth of five
daughters and no sons. The settlement affects the entire
family. John Frow effectively summarizes results of
such forces stating:
[Slocial structure can be thought in terms of a
play of constraints, determinations, and
restrictions exercised upon each other by a
range of semiotic practices and institutions as
the complex convergence of forces at one time.
(60).
The convergence of strict settlement with primogeniture
during a century that saw merchant-class families able to
use it as a social and political tool helped to produce a
body of literature highlighting its "complex forces."
Clarissa, Evelina and Pride and Prejudice provide
different views of how inheritance disrupts families and
women and how it plays upon the characters within the
novels to displace or disturb the heroines. Language the
characters use often forces the heroine to misread others
or make dangerous decisions. Language sometimes forces
characters to reach outside cultural norms for solutions.
Richardsonf s Clarissa is a matchless example of
inheritance language. A novel of family deceit and
outrageous male behavior, the characters, action and plot