Chapters 5-8

We get more background on the ways of the times regarding Mr. Bennet and where his inheritance cannot go (his daughters, only males). We learn that women's biggest pastime is gossip. We get a bigger understanding of what is part of the social ranking.

The "sting" begins when Jane gets an invitation to the Bingley's. The times tell me that the sister's get involved in a nosey way as well as the Bennett women to set up a match.

We also find out the opinions of a young adult crowd and what they think is an appropriate match. They are also, per Spark Notes, class-conscious.

I do like the name of the book and its significance in class-conscious snobs. We all make judgments on people and their class, even now adays. Everyone knows what white trash is and hoydee toydee.

Speaking of class, I read and so far have noticed, that Austen doesn't mention the lower classes. She makes a point of the assumptions and attitudes of middle class and upper class, and seems to portray the upper class as those most in the wrong. But I believe that Austen came from the middle class, so doesn't her complete exclusion of mentioning the lower classes also say something about this great divide, especially between the middle and lower classes of her time??

Wow, that's a good pickup. I do agree with the fact that she is excluding herself from the lower class. She seems to know enough about the upper class, maybe that's where she really longed to be. It sure seems to be on her mind a lot.

Ms austins father was a cleric so she did grow up middle class though she would have had interaction with the poor in her community and probably had domestic help. her biography stated that people of middle and upper class in her day, presumed that the servant class were happy with their lot. austin may have written soley about middle class/upper class division because it was something she personally experienced and felt slighted by.

I didn't pick that up. You are right. I did read it somewhere too that she was the daughter of a cleric. She didn't marry however, which makes the plot of this book real to her.

On a side note, Jane Austen died of an unusual death at the age of 41. From the symptoms that were reported she probably had Addison's Disease.

As we all know, being the top dog can be very lonely. There is less freedom in thought and action.

I think in our society and time that Pride and Prejudice takes place a lot less than it did. We still have in our hearts, to be better, to strive for more, and to have a stronger character. We do have the luxury to change status. If someone is worried where the money came from (earned or inherited) they are probably in the unhappy percentile. I wouldn't want to be there. I do say that I wish for more, but am happy by where I am. I would honestly say that the working middle class seems to be the most desired place for me.

Everyone in every class in every part of the world desires more/better than what we have. You are right, that in america and in this place and time we can move upward with hard work. where as back in Ms austins time if one was poor, one was really stuck there and it had been this was for hundreds of years. It may have been a case of the seemingly imposible for the upper classes to think of the poor and servant class as ever being anything than what it was.