Financial insecurity can define a person’s life in any era. For some it may be overcome through good fortune or hard work, for others the struggle may follow them throughout their lifetime. As fate would have it, some fall into it through no fault of their own while others are born into it. Many of us straddle the middle, neither rich nor impoverished, making the most of what we have and grateful that we’re not worse off than others while hoping for better times.
Jane Austen experienced both sides of the financial security quandary. Her family wasn’t wealthy; her father provided a comfortable homelife through his “living” as a well-educated clergyman whose income at Steventon Rectory relied primarily on the collection of tithes, supplemented by income from crops raised on his land, and running a residential boarding school for young men. In this environment he raised his eight children, six boys and two girls, who benefited from access to an extensive library and whose creativity was encouraged. Such family amusements included organizing theatrical productions at home and sharing stories written during the day and read as family entertainment in the evenings. In this atmosphere Jane Austen’s creative pursuits were admired and encouraged from a young age until circumstances changed radically after her father decided to retire and moved with his wife and two daughters to Bath when Jane was 25.
The move was unexpected, an unwelcome surprise to Jane who found herself abruptly removed to Bath, a city for which she had no great fondness. She sorely missed her home in the country and her beloved books that were left behind. During the five-year period they resided in Bath, their family's fortunes diminished forcing them to move three times to less expensive lodgings until George Austen’s death in 1805. From there the widowed Mrs. Austen along with her daughters, Cassandra and Jane, moved with their brother Frank and his wife, Mary, to South Hampton where they lived something of a vagabond existence traveling for extended visits with friends and relatives including her wealthy brother, Edward Knight, who had been adopted by affluent relatives as a youth.
While the lively environs of Bath seemed a logical place for Mr. and Mrs. Austen to showcase their two unmarried daughters in hopes of finding suitable matches for them, Jane’s only opportunity to marry and provide her family with greater financial security occurred in 1802 when she received a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, a man she had known since she was fourteen, who had a large estate near Steventon and two sisters of whom she was very fond. After she accepted the proposal and, presumably, wrestled with her conscious all night, Jane declined the proposal the next morning. It may be assumed the decision caused much dismay for her mother if not her father since it would have ensured financial stability for them all.
It wasn’t until 1809 when Edward Knight, having inherited several great estates, finally offered them a cottage in Chawton. At last, they had comfortable, secure lodgings and Jane was able to revise novels she had written in her youth and embark on creating new ones. Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811 followed by Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park, in 1814, and Emma in 1815. Northanger Abbeyand Persuasion were published posthumously after her death in 1817 and she left behind two unfinished novels as well.
We can conjecture that the constant moving about after her father’s death wasn’t conducive to the artistic endeavors of a talented writer. Her early work sat fallow until housing stability provided an environment that allowed her to focus on her creative pursuits. Although Northanger Abbey had been in the hands of a publisher since 1803, he failed to produce it and she later bought back the rights with the help of her brother, Henry.
Her awareness of the effects of financial and housing instability on widows and single women are a focal point in her novels; primary and secondary female characters struggle under the pressure to marry for security if not love. The loss of a male provider could be calamitous.
The Haves
Wealth has its privileges and we can see how it shaped the characters of “handsome, clever, and rich” Emma Woodhouse in her namesake book, Emma, and arrogant, aloof Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, who were both born with the proverbial “silver spoon” in their mouths and made no secret of their elevated place in society.
Although his fortunes had waned due to his spending habits and he was in debt, Sir Walter Elliot’s refined tastes and overarching vanity never suffered even though he was forced to move to Bath so his estate could be rented out in Persuasion. Sir Thomas Bertram enjoyed a portion of his income from the slave trade for his largess, although his oldest son managed to squander some of that wealth from gambling and fast living in Mansfield Park. When we meet General Tilney in Northanger Abbey, he proudly displays all the amenities of his noble estate to the impressionable Catherine Moreland until he discovers she’s not an heiress and sends her packing.
Sense and Sensibility is populated with many “haves” including Sir John Middleton, who offers a country cottage on his estate to Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters, whose fortunes had fallen. His wealthy mother-in-law, Mrs. Jenkins, was a busybody but also had a generous heart and a firm conviction that she could play matchmaker for the older Dashwood sisters, Elenor and Marianne, based on her connections. Mrs. Ferrars kept tight control over her sons by using a large inheritance as leverage over them.
The Have Nots
Plentiful indeed are the “have nots” in Jane Austen’s universe of characters. They are the emotional center for circumstances beyond their control around which plots revolve. Witness the aforementioned widow, Mrs. Dashwood, in Sense and Sensibility, and her three daughters who, in a precipitous shift from “have” to “have not”, were forced from their beloved home after the death of Mr. Dashwood, whose property was inherited by the son of his first marriage. Greed and avarice were the guiding principles for John Dashwood and his wife, Fanny, who bequeathed a meager inheritance to the widow which forced her to move to the small cottage offered by her relative, Sir John. The prospects of marriage for her daughters to men of consequence were as diminished as their new living circumstances. Emotional, headstrong Marianne and restrained, steadfast Elenor did find love matches after struggling with disappointment but the specter of poverty was their constant companion despite having been raised on a wealthy estate. Young ladies without dowries were best served by beauty, intelligence, and well-to-do relatives to advance them in the right circles.
At the opening if Mansfield Park we find Sir Thomas Bertram and his wife exhibiting charity to their niece, Fanny Price, by lifting her out of the poverty into which her mother had sunk after marrying a sailor beneath her station and producing multiple children. Taking Fanny in and raising her with their own children, while kindly intended, did nothing to ameliorate the fact that she was on unequal footing with her cousins who looked down on her, all save for second son, Edmund, and she was disabused by her aunt, Mrs. Norris, who mistreated Fanny under the pretense of serving the interests of the Bertram family. When Fanny was sent home after several years for refusing an unwanted proposal from Henry Crawford, whom she neither respected or trusted, she confronted the true extent of the poverty from which she was extracted as well as a lack of affection on the part of her parents who were already burdened with other mouths to feed and wore the disappointment in their life choices rather openly. Her only solace there was the brief time spent with her brother, William, before he shipped out and her younger sister, Susan, who later made her escape to Mansfield Park and a better life.
Emma’s position in life afforded her the ability to demonstrate generosity and goodwill towards those less fortunate in her community including Mrs. and Miss Bates, the widow and daughter of a former vicar of Highbury, respectable women with no safety net, dependent of the kindness and charity of the community which, we are told, included a side of pork from Emma. Their place in society allowed them to mingle with Mr. Woodhouse and his daughter and other well-to-do families for they were well respected, but financial insecurity was part of their daily life. Jane created a rather comical character in Miss Bates, who was effusive, cheerful, and endlessly loquacious, both endearing and annoying, but it is certain that Jane identified with the struggles of the women who lacked the support and protection of a male relative in a patriarchal system.
Less charitable was Emma towards Mrs. Bates granddaughter, Jane Fairfield, with whom she felt competitive and jealous because of Jane’s accomplishments and beauty. Jane was also facing an uncertain future as a single woman having to contemplate taking a position as a governess to support herself. Regency times were not kind to single women. Harriet Smith, Emma’s chosen friend and social engineering project was of questionable parentage, but had the benefit of financial support that allowed her to live at Mrs. Goddard’s boarding school, until she could find a prosperous match which Emma actively tried to engineer for her with ill-chosen men. Fortunately for Harriet, she made her own happy match with Mr. Martin.
The Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice could hardly be considered impoverished but their financial security was entirely dependent on how long their father lived since his estate was entailed to Mr. Collins. Mrs. Bennet and her brood of five would have been dependent on the financial support of her brother, Mr. Gardner, unless her daughters were fortunate enough to marry well, which two of course did, but the prospect of financial insecurity was the bane of Mrs. Bennet’s existence and an irritant to her “poor nerves”. She could not forgive Lizzy for refusing Mr. Collin’s proposal and wished her daughter shared the attitude of Charlotte Lucas whose opinion was echoed by Tina Turner two centuries later, “What’s love got to do with it?” After announcing her engagement to pompous, obsequious Mr. Collins, Charlotte revealed to Lizzy that she wasn’t at all romantic followed by, “I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.” Until Lizzy became engaged to Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Bennet was inconsolable that her daughter defied her and considered Charlotte to be a usurper.
While Sir Walter Elliot and his family faced the mortification of managing his debts by moving to Bath and renting his estate, Kellynch Hall, to Admiral Croft, they still afforded to live quite well, unlike a former classmate of Anne, Mrs. Smith, whom we encounter in Persuasion. Her story is one or riches to rags. Upon leaving school, she married and lived the highlife in London with her husband, who made the mistake of trying to keep up with the extravagant habits of his friend, William Elliot, the heir to Kellynch Hall, who managed to marry a wealthy woman of low rank and spent her fortune freely. When Mrs. Smith’s husband died, Mr. Elliot refused to assist her in financial matters related to the estate of her late husband, and Mrs. Smith fell deeply into poverty and ill health which brought her to Bath in search of relief from the healing waters available there.
Northanger Abbey doesn’t present any serious “have nots” although the Thorpe family may have been skirting the edges. Mrs. Thorpe was a widow but we can assume her son had an inheritance from his father to ensure some level of financial security. Isabelle Thorpe was definitely on the hunt for a prosperous husband and sorely disappointed to find out that her engagement to James Moreland meant a marriage delayed for a few years because his family couldn’t provide the income required to support a new wife immediately. It appears she didn’t have a significant dowry on her side to supplement her fiancé’s income, leading her to begin a flirtation with Frederick Tilney, the oldest son of General Tilney, in hopes of finding greener pastures, and causing a break with James Moreland. When her plan for a fiancé upgrade fell through and Frederick dumped her, she desperately tried to renew her engagement to James. Dowries were an important ingredient in the marriage market, and a lack thereof, such as the Bennet sisters faced as well as the Dashwood sisters, and perhaps even Miss Thorpe, could significantly limit the prospects of single women no matter how “accomplished” they were.
The challenges for women in a patriarchal society are central to Jane Austen’s novels and clearly reflect many of the issues her own family faced. Were it not for successful brothers willing to provide financial support for their mother and sisters, Jane would never have been able to focus on creating the stories we all know and love. Henry Austen was also instrumental in helping to get the novels published for which we all owe him a debt of gratitude. We owe Jane a debt of gratitude for not accepting Harris Bigg-Wither’s proposal as well. He went on to marry and father 10 children. Lucky for us we have her brilliant novels which likely never would have been completed had she married Harris so she could be a “have” rather than a “have not” for the sake of her family. Jane referred to her books as her children and we celebrate their birth every time we read one.
WeL written Article. Thank you.