Revisiting the economics of marriage and romance in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Jane Austen emerged as an important writer in Regency England at the time when Europe was deeply influenced by the French Revolution. Coming from a family ofhigh social status but littlefortune, Austen had a consciousness of human failings and through her novels depicted the society along with its shortcomings and flaws. She used her novels as her weapon ofchoice to protest, question and educate. Though her novels were based on the themes of marriage and love, they were also a critique of the social standards and norms that dominated the era, giving women less or no power over their lives and thus leaving them vulnerable and dependent on the patriarchy that had laws on legacy only for sons. Marriage was the only solution to the problem of fortune and livelihood. This paper aims at understanding the history and laws of late 18th and early 19th century England that played a crucial role in the structuring of Jane Austen's major works, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. The approach to this study is qualitative with evidence and instances from the primary and secondary data sources.