I've mentioned before that there's a tendency to exaggerate the differences in rank between Darcy and Elizabeth -- most obvious in the P&P3 adaptation and in fanfics inspired by that adaptation. But Darcy was also untitled gentry, not nobility, although in the higher gentry and Mr Bennet was middle gentry, with his daughters in danger of sinking down to lower gentry and becoming impoverished gentlewomen after his death, but still gentlewomen.
In Regency there was a kind of rough equality between gentry, regardless of money, e.g. Jane Fairfax in Emma was an impoverished gentlewoman. Elizabeth was quite proud of being a gentleman's daughter, she believed at Hunsford that Darcy could not urge anything against her father and could not disdain him, and in the later scene with Lady Cat, she claimed equality with Darcy on the basis that he was a gentleman, and she was a gentleman's daughter, not on the basis of their common humanity. It is Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, the poor governess who claimed equality with her employer Rochester on the basis of their common humanity, of being equal before God. Some comparisons have been made between JA and the Bronte sisters. I think Emily's Wuthering Heights is too completely different from any of JA to make any comparison, But I sometimes think that an Elizabeth whose circumstances are too reduced and who is portrayed as too egalitarian is more like Jane Eyre. MP can well be compared with Jane Eyre in its treatment of a poor relation -- the treatment of Jane Eyre more melodramatic and cruel, that of Fanny Price more petty and realistic. Anne Bronte's writings, (Agnes Grey and the Tenant of Wildfell Hall), more restrained and less melodramatic than her sisters', has been said by some critic as being closer to JA.
I believe that by the standards of her time, JA was a liberal but not a radical, she believed in a fairly wide spectrum of equality, but she did believe in some class distinctions. Her nephew in his Memoir of her said she did not write either of the very high or of the very low -- all her main characters were within her own class, the gentry. Darcy's fortune was probably equivalent to that of her brother, Edward Knight, and because he had a large family, although he had a large income, it had to cover heavy responsibilities. The Bronte sisters were more radical than JA. What do others think?
In Regency there was a kind of rough equality between gentry, regardless of money, e.g. Jane Fairfax in Emma was an impoverished gentlewoman. Elizabeth was quite proud of being a gentleman's daughter, she believed at Hunsford that Darcy could not urge anything against her father and could not disdain him, and in the later scene with Lady Cat, she claimed equality with Darcy on the basis that he was a gentleman, and she was a gentleman's daughter, not on the basis of their common humanity. It is Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, the poor governess who claimed equality with her employer Rochester on the basis of their common humanity, of being equal before God. Some comparisons have been made between JA and the Bronte sisters. I think Emily's Wuthering Heights is too completely different from any of JA to make any comparison, But I sometimes think that an Elizabeth whose circumstances are too reduced and who is portrayed as too egalitarian is more like Jane Eyre. MP can well be compared with Jane Eyre in its treatment of a poor relation -- the treatment of Jane Eyre more melodramatic and cruel, that of Fanny Price more petty and realistic. Anne Bronte's writings, (Agnes Grey and the Tenant of Wildfell Hall), more restrained and less melodramatic than her sisters', has been said by some critic as being closer to JA.
I believe that by the standards of her time, JA was a liberal but not a radical, she believed in a fairly wide spectrum of equality, but she did believe in some class distinctions. Her nephew in his Memoir of her said she did not write either of the very high or of the very low -- all her main characters were within her own class, the gentry. Darcy's fortune was probably equivalent to that of her brother, Edward Knight, and because he had a large family, although he had a large income, it had to cover heavy responsibilities. The Bronte sisters were more radical than JA. What do others think?