The role of human emotion in Jane Austen ́s "Pride and Prejudice"

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: A, , language: English, abstract: Taking into consideration the time during which Pride and Prejudice was written one could say that it was certainly not a time that emotions played a primary role in people’s lives and life decisions. The novel was first published in 1813, at a time when people were mostly concerned over property, money and their social status and how to rise in a better position, secure the family’s place in society and their wellbeing or maintain their current wealth and social standing. At the time of such concerns strict laws defined how money and land would be inherited and protected from a wider distribution than the relatively few wealthy that had it. Males were most secure since they were allowed to inherit; they obtained their wives’ inheritance if they came from wealthy families and had all legal rights both on the money but also on the wives themselves.