Social class in prevalent in every walks of life, from the ancient ages all the way up to the 21 century there has been different forms of social hierarchy. As with many cultures throughout the world, high social class can be achieved through the family and wealth. In some societies, brute strength can lead to high class. To summarize, your social distinction is everything to some people, it dictates the way many perceive you.
Jane Austen used this quite cleverly to develop her plot and characters in a book where reputation and class is everything, pride and prejudice. Jane used this belief right off the bat, stating at the start of the book “ It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” This creates the whole book in one quote, as you read through, the characters are developed from men with good fortune and high class in search of a wife. As the plot deepens you see many men using manipulation to create their reputation in many
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Elizabeth already had doubts about darcy, who at the start of the book was very egotistic in his way of thinking, his belief of a perfect wife baffled elizebeth into rage. Austen uses this in the start of the book, but then deviates into a darcy that starts to not care about the so called “social hierarchy” his family had instilled in him from a very young age. Instead he is intrigued by elizabeth who is from a low class, and poor family. Austen developes darcy using the combatment of his own thinking due to a manic pixie dream girl type of character, while she creates the villain in whickman. She dissuades from social class and uses more reputation to build whickman into what we have seen so far. As whickman is not at a high class, instead he uses charm and dialogue to create a persona of himself. These events create a ripple effect throughout the world of pride and prejudice, now there is a