Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

daughter of both sides of very honourable families," who
brought a "very large portion" to her marriage, and who,
with the unexpected death of several of her relations,
brought her husband even more riches (L4 53). Her
marriage into the Harlowe family presents the "specific
social and economic calculations" that solidified an
alliance and enhanced the economic position of the
Harlowe family (Boxer and Quartaert 36). In other words,
Mrs. Harlowe was instrumental, if not fundamental, in the
first attempts of the Harlowe family to "raise" itself.
Lovelace tells Belford, "Everybody knows Harlowe
Place-for, like Versailles, it is sprung up from a
dunghill within every elderly personf s remembrance" (L34
161). The infancy of Harlowe Place, one can speculate,
is at least a partial result of the portion Charlotte
Harlowe brought to her marriage. Clarissa tells us her
mother brought more than just money to her marriage,
complaining that should her mother but "exert that
authority which the superiority of her fine talents gives
her," things might then be calmer at Harlowe Place (L5
54) . Nevertheless, Mrs. Harlowe' s talents are secondary
to family, as well as patriarchal, will.
Vivien Jones illuminates the precarious nature of
female authority in an eighteenth-century family by