In nineteeth century was no real way for young women of the "genteel"

classes to strike out on their own or be independent. Professions, the

universities, politics, etc. were not open to women (thus Elizabeth's opinion
"that though this great lady [Lady Catherine] was not in the commission of
the peace for the county, she was a most active magistrate in her own
parish" is ironic, since of course no woman could be a justice of the peace or
magistrate). Few occupations were open to them -- and those few that were
(such as being a governess) not highly respected, and did not generally pay
well or have very good working conditions: the patronizing Mrs. Elton in
Emma is "astonished" that Emma's former governess is "so very lady-like ...
quite the gentlewoman" (as opposed to being like a servant).
Therefore most "genteel" women could not get money except by marrying for
it or inheriting it (and since the eldest son generally inherits the bulk of an
estate, as the "heir", a woman can only really be a "heiress" if she has no
brothers). Only a rather small number of women were what could be called
professionals, who though their own efforts earned an income sufficient to
make themselves independent, or had a recognized career (Jane Austen
herself was not really one of these few women professionals -- during the last
six years of her life she earned an average of a little more than 100 a year
by her novel-writing, but her family's expenses were four times this amount,
and she did not meet with other authors or move in literary circles).
And unmarried women also had to live with their families, or with familyapproved protectors -- it is almost unheard of for a genteel youngish and
never-married female to live by herself, even if she happened to be a heiress
(Lady Catherine: "Young women should always be properly guarded and
attended, according to their situation in life"). So Queen Victoria had to have
her mother living with her in the palace in the late 1830's, until she married
Albert (though she and her mother actually were not even on speaking terms
during that period). Only in the relatively uncommon case of an orphan
heiress who has already inherited (who has "come of age" and whose father
and mother are both dead), can a young never-married female set herself up
as the head of a household (and even here she must hire a respectable older
lady to be a "companion").
When a young woman leaves her family without their approval (or leaves the
relatives or family-approved friends or school where she has been staying),
this is always very serious -- a symptom of a radical break, such as running
away to marry a disapproved husband, or entering into an illicit relationship
as when Lydia leaves the Forsters to run away with Wickham.
Therefore, a woman who did not marry could generally only look forward to
living with her relatives as a `dependant' (more or less Jane Austen's
situation), so that marriage is pretty much the only way of ever getting out

from under the parental roof -- unless, of course, her family could not support
her, in which case she could face the unpleasant necessity of going to live
with employers as a `dependant' governess or teacher, or hired "lady's
companion". A woman with no relations or employer was in danger of slipping
off the scale of gentility altogether .And in general, becoming an "old maid"
was not considered a desirable fate (so when Charlotte Lucas, at age 27,
marries Mr. Collins, her brothers are "relieved from their apprehension of
Charlotte's dying an old maid", and Lydia says "Jane will be quite an old maid
soon, I declare. She is almost three and twenty!").
Given all this, some women were willing to marry just because marriage was
the only allowed route to financial security, or to escape an uncongenial
family situation. This is the dilemma discussed in following exchange
between the relatively impoverished sisters Emma and Elizabeth Watson in
Jane Austen's The Watsons:

Emma:
"To be so bent on marriage -- to pursue a man merely for the sake of a
situation -- is a sort of thing that shocks me; I cannot understand it. Poverty is
a great evil, but to a woman of education and feeling it ought not, it cannot
be the greatest. -- I would rather be a teacher in a school (and I can think of
nothing worse) than marry a man I did not like."
Elizabeth:
"I have been at school, Emma, and know what a life they lead; you never
have. -- I should not like marrying a disagreeable man any more than
yourself, -- but I do not think there are many disagreeable men; -- I think I
could like any good-humoured man with a comfortable income. -- [you are]
rather refined."
In Pride and Prejudice, the dilemma is expressed most clearly by the
character Charlotte Lucas, whose pragmatic views on marrying are voiced
several times in the novel: "Without thinking highly either of men or of
matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable
provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however
uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from
want." She is 27, not especially beautiful (according to both she herself and
Mrs. Bennet), and without an especially large "portion", and so decides to
marry Mr. Collins "from the pure and disinterested desire of an
establishment".
All this has more point because Jane Austen herself was relatively

"portionless" (which apparently prevented one early mutual attraction from

becoming anything serious), and once turned down a proposal of marriage
from a fairly prosperous man.

In addition to all these reasons why the woman herself might wish to be
married, there could also be family pressure on her to be married. In Pride
and Prejudice this issue is treated comically, since Mrs. Bennet is so silly, and
so conspicuously unsupported by her husband, but that such family pressure
could be a serious matter is seen from Sir Thomas's rantings to Fanny Price to
persuade her to marry Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park.

According to Mr. Collins: "This young gentleman [Darcy] is blessed with every
thing the heart of mortal can most desire, -- splendid property, noble kindred,
and extensive patronage". And when Lydia is to be married, Mrs. Bennet's
"thoughts and her words ran wholly on those attendants of elegant nuptials,
fine muslins, new carriages, and servants". And on Elizabeth's marriage she
exclaims: "What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! ... A
house in town! ... Ten thousand a year! ... I shall go distracted!"

Jane Austen expresses her opinion on all this clearly enough by the fact that
only her silliest characters have such sentiments (while Mr. Bennet says "He
is rich, to be sure, and you may have more fine clothes and fine carriages
than Jane. But will they make you happy?"). However, Jane Austen does not
intend to simply condemn Charlotte Lucas (who finds consolation in "her
home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their
dependent concerns") for marrying Mr. Collins -- Charlotte's dilemma is a real
one.
There are also reasons why marriage was not a state to be entered into
lightly. Marriage was almost always for life -- English divorce law during the
pre-1857 period was a truly bizarre medieval holdover (readers of Charlotte
Bront's Jane Eyre will remember that Mr. Rochester couldn't divorce his
insane wife). Simplifying a bit , almost the only grounds for divorce was the
sexual infidelity of the wife; a husband who wished to divorce his wife for this
reason had to get the permission of Parliament to sue for divorce; and the
divorce trial was between the husband and the wife's alleged lover, with the
wife herself more or less a bystander. All these finaglings cost quite a bit of
money, so that only the rich could afford divorces. There was also the
possibility of legal separations on grounds of cruelty, etc. (where neither
spouse had the right to remarry), but the husband generally had absolute

custody rights over any children, and could prevent the wife from seeing
them at his whim.
Of course, any property that a woman possessed before her marriage
automatically becomes her husband's, unless it is "settled" on her; this leads
to the "fortune-hunter" phenomenon: men who marry a woman only for the
sake of the woman's fortune -- after the marriage, the woman and her money
are legally in the husband's power (without any of the limitations of prenuptial legal "settlements", which the wife's family might have insisted upon
if she had married with their approval) . This is the reason why Wickham tries
to elope with Georgiana Darcy, who has 30,000. The other side of the same
thing was the forced marriage of an heiress, to ensure that her money passes
into family-approved hands.
So though Wickham is a rogue, even a sincere man with his limited income
might be deterred by financial reasons from marrying Elizabeth
The groom's income, and the money that the bride may have had "settled"
on her (such as Georgiana Darcy's 30,000), was frequently augmented by
contributions from one or both of their families (in line with the view of
marriage as an "alliance" between the two families).

Passages in Pride and Prejudice dealing with money and marriage:

Mr. Collins: Elizabeth's "portion is unhappily so small that it will in all

likelihood undo the effects of [her] loveliness and amiable qualifications", and
prevent her from ever receiving another offer of marriage.
Mrs. Bennet to Elizabeth: "If you go on refusing every offer of marriage, you
will never get a husband -- and I am sure I do not know who is to maintain
you when your father is dead."
Mrs. Gardiner to Elizabeth: "affection" for Wickham would be "so very
imprudent" because of his "want of fortune".
Elizabeth to Mrs. Gardiner: "we see every day that where there is affection,
young people are seldom withheld by immediate want of fortune from
entering into engagements with each other".
Elizabeth is willing to allow that Wickham's transferring his attentions from
her (to a recent heiress of 10,000) is "a wise and desirable measure for
both"; "handsome young men must have something to live on, as well as the
plain"

Elizabeth to Mrs. Gardiner: "what is the difference, in matrimonial affairs,

between the mercenary and the prudent motive?"
Colonel Fitzwilliam: "there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to
marry without some attention to money."
Jane, on hearing of Lydia's elopement with Wickham: "So imprudent a match
on both sides!...my father can give her nothing".

In the context of marriage, a "settlement" is a legal document that usually

ensures that some or all of the property that the wife brings to the marriage
ultimately belongs to her, and will revert to her or her children (though she
does not necessarily have personal control over it during her marriage);
otherwise it would basically belong entirely to her husband. And a settlement
can also specify a guaranteed minimum that the children of the marriage are
to inherit ("Five thousand pounds was settled by marriage articles on Mrs.
Bennet and the children.").
A settlement is generally part of an overall pre-marital financial agreement
between the wife or wife's family and the husband or husband's family (and
can guarantee the amounts to be contributed). So to ensure Lydia's marriage,
Mr. Bennet is required to guarantee to Lydia and Wickham "by settlement, her
equal share of the five thousand pounds secured among his children after the
decease of" Mr. Bennet and his wife, "and, moreover, to enter into an
engagement of allowing her, during his life, one hundred pounds per" year. In
addition, Darcy undertook to pay his debts and purchase an officer's
commission (as an ensign or sub-lieutenant) in the regular army.
An entail was a legal device used to prevent a landed property from being
broken up, and/or from descending in a female line. This is a logical extension
of the then-prevalent practice of leaving the bulk of one's wealth (particularly
real estate) to one's eldest son or "heir" (thus Darcy has an income of
10,000 a year, representing a wealth of about 200,000, while his sister has
30,000; similarly, Bingley has 100,000, and his two sisters 20,000
apiece).
If the family head dies without sons, then by operation of common law, the
estate would be inherited equally by all the man's daughters. If there were
several daughters, they each would inherit an equal share, and the
subdivision problem occurs. But even if the head of the family died leaving
only one daughter, the daughter almost surely will marry -- and at her death
her heirs would be, presumably, the children she had with her husband.
Which means that the "Bennet" patrimony ceases to exist, and becomes part
of the Darcy or Bingley estates (for example). Nobody in the Bennet line

would consider the prospect of this to be a good thing, and so the answer was
to make provision to extend primogeniture to the entire male line, not just to
the male sons of a given holder of a landed estate.
If Mr. Collins were to leave only daughters on his death, and there were no
further patrilineal heirs lurking in the wings behind Mr. Collins, I don't know
whether Longbourn would then actually revert to the Bennet daughters upon
the death of Mr. Bennet and Mr. Collins (as would be predicted by strict
application of the principle of seniority); it's certainly an intriguing possibility
(though if the entail were considered to have come to an end with the death
of the last male-line heir, then the estate would be divided among Mr.
Collins's daughters by the normal operation of common law).
The entail on the Longbourn estate (according to which Mr. Collins is the heir)
is treated somewhat lightly in the novel (or at least Mrs. Bennet's reaction to
it is), but Jane Austen expected her readers to understand that it is no joke
that if Mr. Bennet died, his wife and five daughters would have to leave
Longbourn and live on the interest of 5,000, or a little more than 200 a
year (because Mr. Bennet has been unable to save anything). Since Lydia
alone costs Mr. Bennet about 90 a year, it is obvious that their standard of
living would drop considerably (Mrs. Bennet: "else they [her daughters] will
be destitute enough"); probably they would be partly dependent on the
charity of the Gardiners, the Philipses, or even Mr. Collins.
Therefore Mrs. Bennet's threat to Elizabeth that "If you go on refusing every
offer of marriage, you will never get a husband -- and I am sure I do not know
who is to maintain you when your father is dead" has some realism. This is
the background against which Elizabeth and Jane are not desperate to be
married to anyone with a good income (unlike Charlotte Lucas)
Sister" is used frequently for "sister-in-law", and "brother" for "brother-in-law".
Similarly "son" for "son-in-law". Lady Catherine even extends "brother" to
cover the wife's sister's husband. Elizabeth imagines herself being presented
to Lady Catherine as "her future niece" (i.e. as the fianc of Lady Catherine's
nephew Darcy); Caroline Bingley taunts Darcy that Mr. and Mrs. Phillips will
be his "uncle and aunt" if he marries Elizabeth; and Wickham (when talking to
Elizabeth after his marriage to her sister Lydia) refers to "our uncle and aunt",
meaning her uncle and aunt, the Gardiners.

The use of the same terms for one's spouse's family as for one's own family
reflects the view of marriage as uniting or allying the two families of the
couple. (Thus later on in the 19th century, there was a long debate about
whether or not it is incest to marry one's dead wife's sister.) This is why Lady
Catherine conceives herself to have the right to prevent Elizabeth's possible

marriage to her nephew Darcy.

bibliografie
Queen Victorias Childhood

By M. Foster Farley
http://www.historynet.com/queen-victoria