Women in the 1800s were very limited in what they could do in life, especially middle and upper class women. They were expected to do nothing but marry and marry well. If they had not been able to do so, the life they would have faced would have been very difficult. It would be a life of being a spinster and entrusted to the care of other family members, or working as a housekeeper for some upper middle class family. Jane Austen's book, Pride and Prejudice, shows the reader the importance of marriage and hopefully marrying well, but also the importance of marrying for love. Jane Austen was born in 1775 and the world she grew up in was very limited for women. Jane was very lucky because her parents knew how important education was for all children. She was sent to school, but received most of her education at home from books in her father's library. David Nokes states in his book, Jane Austen, A Life, that "at an early age, Jane had decided that, whatever else her fate might be, she would not indulge herself in the role of charming imbecile woman" (103). In her book, Austen shows us many different characters and how they deal with the whole game of marriage. There are five relationships described in the book: Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, Lydia and Wickham, Jane and Bingley, and Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. Bennett is described in the book as “a woman of little understanding, little information, and an uncertain character” (Austen 269). She is a woman with five daughters and her goal in life is to see them all married and hopefully married well. In Understanding Pride and Prejudice, Debra Teachman suggests that “Mrs. Bennet lacks the discernment necessary to be of real help to h... middle of paper... rison of Two Novels by Jane Austen. Critical Insights, Jane Austen. Ed. Jack Lynch. Hackensack, NJ: Salem Press, 2010. PrintHalliday, E.M. “Narrative Perspective in Pride and Prejudice.” Twentieth-century interpretations of pride and prejudice. A collection of critical essays. Ed. E. Rubinstein. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1969. PrintMorgan, Susan. "Intelligence in Pride and Prejudice." Modern Critical Interpretations: Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House, 1987. PrintTeachmen, Debra. Understanding Pride and Prejudice: A Student Casebook on Historical Issues, Sources, and Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. PrintSternlicht, Sanford. "Chapter 4: Pride and Prejudice." Jane Austen. John Lauber. New York: Twayne, 1993. Twayne English Author Series 498. Literature Resource Center. Network. July 12 2011.