Pride and Prejudice is set in England roughly around the year 1800, and this setting is significant, especially for the young women in the novel.

In this setting, women could not own property in their own right. Because Mr. Bennet produced all daughters, he cannot rely on a son to take control of his property upon his death and to take care of his daughters. Instead, Mr. Bennet has to bequeath all property to a male, and he has chosen Mr. Collins. This drives much of the action in the novel, as Mrs. Bennet is tasked with finding respectable places in society for each of her daughters in order to ensure they will be taken care of and not left penniless.

Social expectations are also evident in the various settings in the novel. Mrs. Bennet did not originate from a wealthy family, and she has nothing to offer her girls via family connections. Therefore, she must look outside her household for resources.

At Netherfield, the reader learns more about the social traditions and expectations of the upper classes. Consider the reaction when Elizabeth decides to walk to Netherfield to visit her sister:

Elizabeth continued her walk alone, crossing field after field at a quick pace, jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient activity, and finding herself at last within view of the house, with weary ankles, dirty stockings, and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise.

She was shown into the breakfast-parlour, where all but Jane were assembled, and where her appearance created a great deal of surprise. That she should have walked three miles so early in the day, in such dirty weather, and by herself, was almost incredible to Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley; and Elizabeth was convinced that they held her in contempt for it. She was received, however, very politely by them; and in their brother's manners there was something better than politeness; there was good humour and kindness.

While Elizabeth thinks nothing of enjoying a brisk walk in unfavorable conditions, the women of higher social standing judge her because of it. In this setting, women's roles within their social strata could impact their ability to make the "right" connections in order to marry well.

The implications of the setting are woven into the action of every chapter, dictating the relationships the Bennet girls form and nurture. Manners, duties, and obligations of this society in England often made social interactions an exceedingly complex to successfully navigate. Darcy proves himself an extremely gracious gentleman in the quiet way he rescues Lydia from her blind defiance of the social context she is part of in her relationship with George Wickham. While Elizabeth pushes the societal expectations but remains within socially accepted confines, Lydia's antics could prove disastrous to her reputation in this setting. Therefore, the setting is also important in recognizing how generous and kind Darcy really is, despite Elizabeth's initial impressions of (and prejudices against) him.

The setting of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, like that of all her novels, is a small town in the prosperous south of England. The significance is that it enables her to examine lives existing within a peaceful and traditional social order, against which are played out subtle human relationships. Because the setting is predictable and familiar to many of her readers, the focus of the novel can be on character. The limited social circle of Pride and Prejudice, and thus the lack of available bachelors of the right social class as potential husbands for the Bennett girls,  drives much of the plot.

How important is the setting in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen?

Setting in Austen's novel has two large components of time and place to it, though with variations to place. One wants to say the setting is critical to this novel, but is it? Setting certainly is vague in terms of descriptive qualifiers:

Mr. Bingley had not been of age two years, when he was tempted by an accidental recommendation to look at Netherfield House. He did look at it, and into it for half-an-hour—was pleased with the situation and the principal rooms, satisfied with what the owner said in its praise, and took it immediately.

Let's examine setting's importance to the central theme of pride and prejudice and to the secondary themes of marriage and socio-economic status.

The theme of pride and prejudice can be acted out in any time period and any locale. In fact it has been in the Indian Bollywood film Bride and Prejudice. As another example, we might even have a group of sisters living with family in New York City who have various jobs and who get an interesting collection of neighbors on their floor in their high-rise apartment building. Thus the major theme is not locked in importance into the time and place of Jane Austen's era. What about secondary themes?

These two are harder to see as successful outside of Austen's setting. Marriage then was essentially a requirement as Charlotte demonstrates through her explanations to Elizabeth and through her marriage to Collins.

"I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins's character, connection, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state."

Women were confined to a sparse range of roles unless they were heiresses (with property and wealth free of entailment) or widows, who had autonomy, authority, wealth and power, like Lady de Bourgh. So for Jane Austen's commentary on marriage, the setting is very important and this theme is locked into the setting: it can't be played out as well in any contemporary Westernized setting (although there may conceivably be some non-Westernized setting in this contemporary historic period where Austen's marriage theme might work out).

Socio-economic status is so different in today's world (thanks mainly to educational opportunities and women's rights)--even the caste system in India is being obliterated--that I can't see this theme being successful outside of Austen's setting. Perhaps a setting incorporating globalization (Elizabeth the King's daughter in an African tribe ...) might allow for the theme of wealth and power to be expressed in the same way. Yet generally, it seems this secondary theme is also locked in importance to Austen's setting.

In addition, it is conceivable that all three of these themes could successfully move back in time to the Western Renaissance or even the Middle Ages, as socio-economic models of these eras might be overlaid with Austen's model with some ease and success.