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Sense and Sensibility

by Jane Austen

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What roles do social class and money play in Sense and Sensibility?

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Social class and money are central themes in Sense and Sensibility. Georgian society's class distinctions and laws of wealth transfer shape characters' lives and marriages. Characters like Elinor and Marianne, from the second class, navigate social eligibility, while characters like Lucy Steele, from a lower class, face barriers. Marriage contracts and dowries underscore the financial motives behind unions, highlighting the societal importance of securing financial stability and social standing.

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In order to understand Sense and Sensibility (indeed, any of Austen's works), it is critical to understand Georgian society and culture (1714-1830, includes Georgian Regency 1811-1820), especially relationships within and between classes, and to understand the laws governing the transfer of wealth, especially through marriage.

The Austen Family

It is useful to look at Jane Austen's own family’s class. Jane Austen (1775-1817) and her family were in the second class (the middle of the three upper classes, according to the 1814 "Map of English society"). Reverend Austen was an Oxford proctor, an official responsible for discipline and examinations at the university.

Rev. Austen was a gentleman, part of the gentry class, even though he owned no property. After marriage he accepted the rectorship of a large parish and opened his home to tutoring private students, like Edwards Ferrars' tutor did. His rectorship bestowed lands upon him with a "life...

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interest" only, so he did not own the rectory land. Rev. Austen's cousin, a landed country gentleman, like Mr. Knightley or Mr. Darcy, bestowed the rectorship and rectory lands upon Rev. Austen in the same way that Colonel Brandon bestowed the clergy's "living" (income from clerical duties performed) upon Edward Ferrars.

Mrs. Austen met Rev. Austen, Proctor of Oxford's St. John's College, while visiting her uncle, Master of Oxford's Balliol College. She was related to a Duke and a Lord. Thus Jane grew up in social circles that exposed her, in the same way that Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice was exposed, to society and culture in the two highest classes while allowing her knowledge of the third and fourth classes.

First Class / Highest Orders

  • Royalty, hereditary lords, like archbishops or Dukes, highest officers of the Crown, titled nobility above the level of baronet.

Second Class / Upper Class

  • The class of landed country gentlemen, prominent clergymen (like Rev. Austen), any with great fortunes and annual incomes, and lesser title holders (i.e., baronet, knight), who represent the highest level of commoners.

Third Class / Upper Class

  • Clergymen, prominent doctors, judges, bankers of wealth, manufacturers and merchants with large enterprises.

Fourth Class / Lower Class

  • Lesser clergymen, professionals (i.e., lesser doctors, lawyers, teachers), lesser merchants and manufacturers, builders, shopkeepers, artists, mechanics, any with lesser incomes.

Class rankings are as described in the "Map of English Society in 1814" from Colquhoun's A Treatise on the Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire, 1814, available on JaneAustensWorld.com under "Social Classes in England."

Since Jane was in the second class, she, like Elizabeth Bennet, would have been eligible to marry someone like Mr. Darcy, Colonel Brandon or Willoughby. Lucy and Anne Steele are below the upper classes. They are in the fourth class, or lower class, as is made evident by their incorrect language and manners. Although we don't know about their home life, their uncle, Mr. Pratt, is a tutor who takes in private students, such as Edward Ferrars.

Jane Austen makes her most significant heroines part of the second class, although she has one heroine who is the daughter of a clergyman, and one who is the daughter of a Naval captain, both of whom were in the fourth class.

Class, Lucy, and Edward

In Sense and Sensibility, though Elinor is socially eligible to marry Edward Ferrars and Marianne to marry Willoughby, Lucy is not socially or culturally eligible to marry Edward, nor is she eligible to marry Robert Ferrars. The difference between the Steele's lower class and the Ferrars' second level upper class is too great; in strict Georgian society eligibility could not exist. This is one reason Elinor is so reluctant to believe the story when Lucy first forces her confidence upon her.

The youthful infatuation of nineteen would naturally blind [Edward] to everything but [Lucy's] beauty and good nature; but the four succeeding years—years, which if rationally spent, give such improvement to the understanding, must have opened his eyes to her defects of education, while the same period of time, spent on her side in inferior society and more frivolous pursuits, had perhaps robbed her of that simplicity which might once have given an interesting character to her beauty.

Money, Women, and Marriage

Wealth, be it property or money, is transferred in marriage in two ways: dowry and settlement. The settlement is really part of the dowry but is protected by law as set forth in the marriage contract. Marriage contracts specified the material particulars of the financial side of marriage.

Contracts included the amount the woman would bring to the husband's family's fortune and even included stipulations for such things as numbers of servants and locations of one or more houses. For example, a woman and her family might add to the marriage contract a stipulation for a house in London to accompany the man's country estate.

Dowry

The dowry is the amount of wealth in terms of cash and property that the woman brings to the man's family fortune by marriage. The financial goal of marriage in the upper classes was to expand or revitalize the man's family fortune, to provide adequately or amply for the woman's personal needs and to provide a larger inheritance for all the children of the marriage.

The husband's fortune would most often be passed on to the eldest son so the landed properties would stay intact and not be broken up to various small holdings, which would radically reduce the power of the family.

The wife's settlement could be divided amongst the several children so none found themselves dependent upon the eldest son's generosity to survive.

Settlement

The settlement was a portion of the overall dowry, not an additional amount. It was protected by law and set apart for the purpose of the woman's independent annual income from which to make personal purchases and for the purpose of keeping her from poverty after her husband's death when all his wealth would most likely be bequeathed to the eldest son. While the settlement interest was intended for living expenses, the capital was available to be given as an inheritance to the woman's children, especially to younger sons and any daughters.

A good example, and one often misunderstood, occurs in Sense and Sensibility. Mr. John Dashwood, Elinor and Marianne's half-brother through their father's first marriage, has a large fortune from his mother's marriage settlement bestowed upon him at the time of her death. Mrs. John Dashwood, Fanny, has a large settlement contractually set aside for her from her large dowry. While Fanny has independent access to the money settled on her in the marriage contract, it cannot be said that she is independently wealthy because all her wealth is owned by John Dashwood, and it is probable that her ample settlement still would not be enough to support her accustomed lifestyle.

Upon marriage, everything the woman brings to the marriage becomes part of the husband's family fortune: He gains full ownership over all the dowry including the part settled on the wife. Consequently, although Fanny has adequate means settled on her, she is not independently wealthy. Still, she is quite comfortable in meeting her personal needs and has a large capital to pass on to her son. This is the same way that John received his initial fortune: from the dowry amount settled on his mother by the terms of her marriage contract.

The son [John Dashwood], a steady respectable young man, was amply provided for by the fortune of his mother, which had been large, and half of which devolved on him on his coming of age. By his own marriage [to Fanny Ferrars], likewise, which happened soon afterwards, he added to his wealth.
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What role do money and property play in Sense and Sensibility?

 It comes to no surprise that the role of money and property would take a center stage in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. After all, in a society where money is equivalent to social respectability and opportunity, having the means (and the ways to show them off) are the Regency England's equivalent as what would be a modern form of our "American Dream."

In addition to money representing a form of "dream of social success" , in Austen's male-oriented society, money and property also represent a form of "passport" that greatly benefits females. With a good dowry in place, a woman would be able to secure a husband in good financial standing. As a result the two families involved gain much benefit from solidifying their financial future through the union of two good fortunes.

This is not the first time we see the motifs of marriage, money, and property in Austen's works. Even Pride and Prejudice clearly shows how marriage, money, and property are an expected social transaction.

IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

Hence, the desire to further solidify or create financial networks and securing the financial stability of a "blood line" are the underlying goals of a well-matched marriage. Therefore, the role of money is to procure a chance to anchor a family's financial future, and it also gives women, specifically, the chance to come to some property and social standing of their own.

The treatment of "property" is similar to that of money, except that "coming to property" entails that only males are allowed inherit property in Regency England. This means that, if the head of the household dies, like in the case of Mr. Dashwood senior, the women have no choice but to allow the next male kin within the bloodline to take over their property. As we see, the Dashwood women become practically disinfranchised within their own estate, and had to move out basically because of the fact that Dashwood's son from his first marriage is entailed to Norland.

Additionally, "coming to property" is considered a huge deal to those who wish to flaunt that they have options as to where to spend "the season". If you are fashionable, you would be able to spend the London season (when Parliament is in session) at a fancy city apartment. Once the season is over, those "who are who's" would continue their entertaining and merry-making away in their country estates. You can see why Mrs. Dashwood (Fanny) is so enchanted with the idea of acquiring Norland. She would be one of those lucky ladies that can boast to having a choice of residences.

Therefore, money and properties are staples of social distinction among the characters of Sense and Sensibility. Those who lack either, like the Dashwoods, or the Miss Steele's, would have a harder time climbing up the social ladder that begins with a good marriage. Hence, this shows that marriage is a tool of negotiation that helps to speed the process of acquiring money and property at the same time.

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