The Bingles are not landed gentry. They made their money from trade, hence the pride and prejudice. The Bingle sisters are so snobby against the Bennets relatives.

For some reason for Bennet income value it pops in my head not 2000/year, but 600/year. I think they mention it in some dialogs. That makes sense to me because the way the Bennet family lives contrasts a lot with the luxurious living of Mr.Bingly, when he is able to afford renting a huge house with a lot of land around and still keep his living standards with staff, expensive clothes, etc.

Very interesting! Thanks for uploading!

Bingley didnt own land!!!!!!! His fortune was from trade 😩

Your narrative style is top notch. The topic and the explanation is excellent no doubt, but the way you have narrated it is soothing to the ear.

Actually, Mr. Bingley didn't own a state. He rented Netherfield and it is told that his money's origin was trade, which makes him actually if a lower class than the Bennetts. Money was beginning to erase class borders. And the problem with the Bennetts was Mrs. Bennett. Her origin clearly is not the gentry, and her sisters were married to a lawyer and to a man of trade. Darcy is more concerned about her connections than about her own class.

I think it's important to point out that Mr. Bingley, although he is very wealthy and does not work for a living, is actually not a member of the landed gentry. He does not own an estate from which he derives his income, as both Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bennet do, but is only RENTING Netherfield Park temporarily, paying to occupy it only as a tenant. It is clear that the Bingleys' wealth comes from trade, probably gained from a father (or perhaps grandfather) who made the original fortune, then used the money to have his children brought up and educated to act properly as ladies and gentlemen in polite society. We are told, however, that it is Mr. Bingley's intention to PURCHASE some estate that has become available, and thereby become a member of the landed gentry through this means (which his sisters are most anxious he should do, as this would elevate their status as well). The Bingleys are therefore nouveau riche, and the sisters' insecurity is shown by how ready they are to tear down the Bennet girls who, though they have much less money, are nonetheless the daughters of a bona fide member of the landed gentry, perhaps of a family long-established on their estate. The interplay in the novel between wealth and class, which Austen depicts so brilliantly, is one of the most interesting (and entertaining) aspects of the novel.

Bingley didn't own his own Estate. His money was in trade and as such, the Bingleys were considered lower than the Bennets in class (esp as new money) as the Bennets were old money and landed Gentry. The Bingleys were "on their way" up as Bingley was set to buy an Estate and become a landed Gentleman.

It's a pleasure to listen! Thank you

Just fabulous!! Thank you for your detailed explanations! ))

Fur more background into Austen's influences and life, money, class and marriage in her time, watch the Jane Austen's Works Documentary on the channel Izzard Clips. It's really good!

5:40 The Bennet's housekeeper/cook is named Hill. Not Hilde

Good.! I enjoyed that.

No romance? I'd argue that the disagreements between Darcy & Elizabeth are fueled by passion. Like J.R. & Sue Ellen in Dallas .... their heat showed when they fought.

The Bingleys aren't landed gentry. They earned their wealth in trade and they don't own an estate. The Bennets are a higher social class than the Bingleys even though their wealth is less. This is the reason for Caroline Bingley's hatred of Elizabeth. All her wealth and education is all for nothing because she is not a gentleman's daughter whereas the poorer, less well educated, Elizabeth is. The Bennet's are fairly low in the class of landed gentry but they are of a higher status because their wealth didn't come from trade, but from land. Mr Bingley's wealth isn't earned from land. His (now presumably deceased?) father was in trade. Bingley doesn't own an estate at present. He has money that he earth's interest from. Bingley only rents Netherfield but it says in the novel that his father intended to buy an estate. Presumably Bingley will buy an estate at some point. The money that the Netherfield estate earns, including the rent paid by Bingley would go to the owner of the estate (who isn't talked about). Bingley earns his money presumably from the interest paid in the capital he owns, given to him by his father who made a fortune from trade. Probably at least in part even from slave labour depending on what he dealt in. Or he was a factory or mill owner perhaps. But again, if his trade was textiles, he may have used slaves to grow and harvest cotton? The nature of Mr and the Miss Bingley's trade is never mentioned. Austen's readers would have had more of an idea what the trade might have been and would have perhaps speculated about it.

Thank you for this analysis

Awesome

Great explanation. Thanks.

What the hell? Women maybe couldn't inhert the estate, but they could inherit the MONEY. Ms King didn't inherit any estate, her uncle left her 10000. Georgiana Darcy wasn't an heiress to any estate, she had 30000 pounds. The Bennets didn't have much money because their parents was reckless and weren't saving. Also, I think, that probably means "little savings divided by five". And also that didn't mean that they would be out on the street, without food, clothes ext. Or "surviving" of col. Fitzwilliam doesn't actually mean that. What they would lack would be servants (plural exactly), horses, luxury dresses - and that leads to reduced possibilities of going out into good society. And that is crutical. Of cause, it is harder to marry without money because marriage is uncontrolable amount of children - and that is complete another story. But you also should remember that family had a DUTY of providing for its family members. So mr. Collins would not be able to throw the ladies out to nowhere. To some small cottage - maybe. Of cause, that is when we are talking that the Bennet girls have no other option. And sure the pride suffers when being dependent on such a man

Lady Catherine was exceptional in those days.

The "landed gentry"? Hmm. No doubt some of these folks were owners of estates in the West Indies. So we are talking about enslavers. Nothing genteel about these folks.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hLmYZdmEvL2spmw.html Chaucer, Milton

Thank you for the explanation

Chaucer kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fKuUjbZmq9vJdKs.html

Thanks you very much... it will help mea alot

Rich people are perfectly matched to get married...💰💰💰💰💰💰💰

It was written in 1796/97. It was published in 1813.

Nice explanation tynx

thank you so much for this!!!

If anyone finds out I love Jane Austen, I can tell them it’s about economics not romance. Thank you!!!

It was written 1796-97 but not published until 1813

Thank you - I have a Technical writing double degree from 2003/4 2005 yet they never covered writing for the internet of things ... at all. So we learned everything that a traditional tech writer would learn pre-internet. I’m trying to figure out how to update/upgrade my technical writing skills for web content. Perhaps you can help ? Do you cover this ? Thank you from Canada 🇨🇦

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nbB-opZ7nZispGg.html

My grandmother emigrated to the US from England in the early 1900s. She worked in a factory and never spoke to the woman working next to her because they had not been properly introduced. One day the lady was crying, and my grandmother overcame her reticence and asked her what was wrong. Apartment buildings in the area were at the time being electrified. People were afraid of electricity leaking out of the outlets...like gas would. The lady was crying because her husband had gone into the bathroom and removed the lightbulb. She thought she would go home and find him dead from suicide because the electricity would leak out of the empty socket and electrocute him.

THIS IS THE SAME IN THE USA, AND LATIN AMERICA TODAY, A FEW HAVE ALL THE MONEY AND THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE ARE POOR.

"Idle persons supported by criminal activity?" Sounds like a perfect description of Royalty and the Aristocracy to me!

Brilliantly described. Thankyou 😊

I’m confused because army officers are of a class even lower than thieves? Does anyone have insight into that? I thought they were generally of a middle/upper class. Maybe infantrymen would be lower, but I thought higher officers were pretty well respected.

Important to remember, the families of the Landed Gentry were often older than the families of the aristocracy. Another point, families descended fro the Norman families were very aware of it. Catherine Fitz William De Bourgh and the Bennett's would both have been of Norman descent and I'm sure Jane Austen was aware of it.

YOUR VOICE IS BEAUTIFUL! could you make a quote for me?I want to make a fan made trailer where the story it's about social prejudice.

I really enjoyed that. Thank you.

I came across this wanting to know more about Henry IV, and necessarily Shakespeare's play. Good info here, but I'm a little miffed that the two, by which I mean the man and the play, are practically glued together.

This insight was really good, thank you 🙂🙂🙂!

Communism: Allow me to introduce myself

I do wonder if Misses Bennet's position would have been better with a brother to inherit the state. The premise had been that once Mr Bennet died, their brother wouldn't have thrown them out of the house, but that's what happens in Sense and Sensibility when the father dies and the brother takes over the house. Sure, he is just their half-brother but still, they're out of the house with virtually no money.

Thank you! I actually purchased the combination book of all her novels in one book. (recently ) ....so I could read them for leisure.

Thinking about this I didn’t realize that if she Elizabeth excepted Mr. Collins hand she would marrying her cousin!

This was a very good breakdown of the social structure and financial backgrounds of Pride and Prejudice. Thank you! However, may I point out, that Mr Bingley is not part of the gentry and does not derive his money from any land but from an inheritance left to him by his father and which was earned in trade. In effect, he's living off the interest of this inheritance. In short, the Bingleys are nouveau rich, and while Caroline Bingley would surely like to be seen as a high society lady, the irony is, that with all her pretentions, she is below the Bennetts when it comes to social rank, even though she's better off financially. So, the Bingleys' background is a commercial one and actually Netherfield Park is not owned by Mr Bingley, he has merely leased it until he finds an estate he can purchase (which still won't make him a member of the gentry). However, interestingly and very importantly, this background of the Bingleys is exactly what proves Wickham's claims about Darcy of being overly class conscious, which he frequently does between the lines, too be a lie right from the start. - And yet we don't pick up on it, even though it is right there staring us in our faces. There is little doubt that even two hundred years ago, people didn't pick up on it and were as surprised, reading the novel for the first time, that Wickham was lying all along, as we are now. Especially with Caroline's and Mrs Hurst's haughty behaviour, we quickly forget their true background and buy right into Wickham's charmingly told tales. As to Lady Catherine, her husband was, according to the book, Sir Lewis Dr Bourgh, which indicates that as either a knight, or more likely a baron or baronet, he probably belonged to the second tier and not the first. That said, she is the daughter and sister of an Earl, namely the fictional Earls of Matlock, who clearly belong to the highest echelons of society. So, she, as well as her sister Anne (Darcy's mother), have, by the looks of it, married below their rank.

Social class has always been more important in England that America............erm I think you are too close to the mirror mate

The analysis itself has inaccuracies and is misleading, but the comments (below) are very interesting. Lots of good knowledge there, being used to correct WS's mistakes.