Commercial metaphors in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen, 5). This is the one of the most famous lines from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It is opening sentence and sets the tone of intelligent, cheeky critique that pervades the novel. The reader now knows that the book will discuss marriage, and it will discuss what marriage means to specific class of people, with a loving but critical eye. Pride and Prejudice is a deeply funny novel, but reading it carefully one is able to know that there is more to the book than just an amusing story of husband hunting among the upper classes of England. Austen uses language commandingly, and there is seemingly no nuance that escapes her. She uses that skill both to dissect the culture and to convey it, ensuring that the reader understands the society and culture of the people who occupy its pages. The writer uses metaphors, idioms, and the careful portrayal of the spoken word to draw the writer into the society and culture of early 19th century Britain, with particular regard to marriage.
Mathews describes how at the time Pride and Prejudice was written, there was a strong desire among the aristocratic people to resist capitalism. They disliked that it gave people born into lower classes access to the same things that they had. In some regard, classism functioned somewhat like racism or sexism, in that differences were presumed to inborn, and aristocrats were considered naturally superior to those from “lower” classes, even when those people had more money than aristocrats did. This must have amused Austen, who clearly saw that the aristocratic set was very interested in business, particular the marriage business.
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson claim, in their book Metaphors We Live By (1980) that metaphors are used in everyday language and that they have the ability to represent both our actions and our thoughts. Pride and Prejudice contains many metaphorical concepts that deal with marriage. This paper will address the following metaphors, marriage as a market, marriage as business deal, and single people as merchandise.
There are many occasions in the book using the metaphor of marriage as a market. The market aspect can be taken literally, the value of the participants is considered in monetary terms and attempts are made to strike deals that are good and fair considering the value of the person each family is exchanging. The parties and social events are something like a weekend farm market where one goes to compare, select, and perhaps purchase. That iconic first sentence is the first use Austen makes of the metaphor, and it is no accident she begins the novel this way, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen, 15). This tells us that it is not quite universal, and that the rest of the novel will explore both the power of axiom and the need to resist it to some degree. This statement also tells why people would go to this market, there is overwhelming social pressure in the form of an uncontested public agreement, and so wealthy men need a wife to be considered acceptable, and to avoid their being too much of a threat to existing marriages.
Just as in a market where merchants will display their best merchandise at its best, so too the women and girls of these families are expected to invest large amounts of time and effort into their appearances, particularly for larger parties and gatherings. In this case, the single people are the merchandise, but especially the women, as the wealthy young men maintain a larger degree of financial and personal freedom.
The metaphor mainly expresses itself through the words like ‘performs’ ‘presents’ ‘displays’ and ‘exhibit’. These words are used by the society to describe women. Thus from these words it can be deduced that the society viewed women as objects which need to be shown to prospective buyers. The Bennet sisters prepare for the various dances with considerable attention to their looks, and in return the men judge them and consider them based on their success in preparing themselves, as we see when Mr. Darcy makes it clear that the women at the party, except Jane, are too homely to “tempt” him. This shows that to agree to a dance with a woman, is to agree to consider her purchase, as a shopkeeper might expect a serious buyer to peruse more carefully merchandise.
The words display can be found in the in a number of occasions in describing the single women. But it is interesting to note that to a large degree, display is a term of some derision. There is an expectation of reserve, and feigning not knowing that one is on display. For example, when describing Mary, Elizabeth’s younger sister, she was described as ‘always impatient for display’ and we are to understand that this is a flaw in her character (Austen, 25). While it is important to display, impatience or being over eager to be seen is a fault in a young woman. We see this again in Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth, cautioning her about Jane’s conduct during the meeting with Mr. Bingley. She agrees with Mr. Darcy, thinking, “Jane’s feelings, though fervent were little displayed,” (Austen, 202). Part of what women must display is appreciation of men, in gratitude for being notices. We see that display is potentially dangerous to one’s value and Jane, being reserved, prefers the error of too little rather than risking Mary’s error of too much. Such a mistake that is easy to make in a social milieu where display it is absolutely required on the one hand, but considered “low” class if done incorrectly.
Exhibition is another term that marks a fine line between appropriate and inappropriate female behavior in the marketplace. When Elizabeth goes to see Jane at Netherfield, she arrives covered in mud from her journey. In truth, this is simple reality, devoid of much meaning, but Elizabeth is both aware that she is on display and that Darcy is critical and particular, “I am inclined to think that you would not wish to see your sister make such an exhibition” (Austen, 36). She is commenting both on her disheveled state, and Darcy’s prejudice for even the most justified but perhaps excessive exhibitions. When Mary takes begins performing at a Netherfield ball, “such an opportunity of exhibiting was delightful to her”, Elizabeth is embarrassed by the performance (98). Mary is not very talented and Elizabeth tells her dad to stop her, “That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough. Let the other young ladies have time to exhibit” (Austen, 98). Again, we see there is an expectation of exhibition, but that the exhibit must be careful and appropriate.
The words present and presentation again show the need to make oneself seen in the markets of marriage. When Mr. Lucas wants Elizabeth and Darcy to dance, he interferes by saying “my dear Eliza, why are you not dancing? Mr. Darcy you must allow me to present this young lady to you as a very desirable partner” (Austen, 27). It is Elizabeth who is presented to Mr. Darcy, not the reverse. Further, Mr. Lucas, not her parents, who do so, and so we see that the understanding of Elizabeth as merchandise to be presented is universally understood in the social group, and that various people have the power to negotiate to some small degree on behalf of the sellers.
Like exhibited, displayed, and presented, the word out refers to something being made more visible. However, out has the added meaning of suggesting that the thing was previously hidden, rather than simply unobserved. In the novel, this usually indicates that a woman is now available for marriage, whereas before she was considered not available or still a child. Charlotte’s younger sisters are happy that she is getting married as this gives them the opportunity to be out in society earlier, “The younger girls formed hopes of coming ‘out’ a year or two sooner than they might have done” (Austen, 120). This reflects an eagerness to be on the marketplace, and a knowledge that youth is, to some degree, a benefit in the competition.
Performance is another key term, and it is an element of exhibit and display, for example. It is performance that can lead one to go too far, be too much on display. Likewise, it is a lack of performance that threatens to make someone too hidden, as in Jane’s case. When Elizabeth is playing the pianoforte her “performance was pleasing, though by no means capital” (Austen, 25). Interestingly, because Elizabeth’s performance is only middling it can pleasant, but not “capital” a term that used to describe economic value and in this case would have been the greater praise of her skill. Her musicianship is agreeable, but it adds no value to her worth on the market. By contrast, Mr. Darcy does better with his dancing in the marketplace, and Mr. Lucas comments he “performs beautifully” (Austen, 26). It is rare for the men in the novel to be on display in this way because their market value is determined by fewer and more stable metrics, wealth, family, and position, thus the men do not sing or play piano for a public audience because it is not necessary for them.
We have seen how the sellers behave, but what about the buyers? Admiration and comparison of the displays is necessary, but like display itself, one can easily do it too much or too little. “Jane was so admired, nothing could be like it,” (14). Jane is considered the most beautiful, the best display, and is therefore the most admired. This admiration is the measure of her worth in this marketplace, and her worth is unsurpassed. Exhibit and display would be pointless if no notice was made.
To determine value accurately, comparisons must be made. Comparisons to peers are the most accurate assessment, and so many young women are usually presented to a given man. Further, there is often an admission of defeat from the women themselves if a certain woman has already met a man. The merchandise is not purchased on first sight, rather impressions are collected and compared, and then further exhibitions and displays are arranged in order to reevaluate original assessments. For men though this is, as stated, established more through their position, than their behavior. Darcy is admired right because he is tall and handsome, but as knowledge of his wealth is understood, he becomes still more fetching. The value of the men is primary financial and therefore stable, whereas a woman’s value is partially her position, but is ever changing based on her behaviors and those of her family and associates.
Display continues throughout the various levels of courtship and early marriage, when one’s success is best suited to display. This is the case with Lydia after she marries Wickham, “he was her dear Wickham on every occasion; no one else was to be put in competition with him” (Austen, 301). Objects are also valued by the comparative value of associated objects, and so Miss Bingley says of Jane, “I have an excessive regard for Jane Bennet, she is really a very sweet girl, and I wish with all my heart that she is well settled. But such a father and mother, and such low connections, I am afraid there is no chance of it” (Austen, 36). This is somewhat the case for men, but only if their wealth in damaged by a poor association. No one, for example, thinks less of Darcy because of his association with Wickham. Yet, the same man who chooses to associate with Wickham says to Elizabeth, “Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?” (Austen, 188). Darcy believes that his own social position in relation to Elizabeth allows him to insult her in this manner, while still expecting that she will agree to marry him. Her value on the market is so low, he unable to imagine that she even can be insulted.
With the idea that courtship functions like a market established, it is easy to lead into the arrangement of marriage being a business deal. While modern, Western markets have established prices, in the marriage world of the novel, the value of the object is always shifting at least slightly. For early 19th century Britain, the cultural value of marriage in the upper classes went a long way toward making marriage a business deal (Wiesenfarth, 261-273). Just like established businesses in the corporate world seek mergers or contracts with similar, well-positioned companies so marriage was a business deal with prices to be paid for certain goods and services. Both types of arrangement use similar terminology, proposals, offers, settlements, terms, advantages, and simple money. There are many time when intimate matters of marriage are referred to explicitly as “business”. When Mrs. Bennet is introduced, it is said “the business of her life was to get her daughters married” (Austen, 7). The elopement and marriage of Lydia to Wickham is referred to as “business” repeatedly, like when Elizabeth reflects on the consequences of the elopement, she “found additional anguish as she reflected on that wretched business” (Austen, 266). The brother in law of Mr. Bennet writes a letter saying that he should send him “full powers to act in his name, throughout the whole business” (Austen, 286). Mrs. Bennet asks Elizabeth, “what is your opinion now of this sad business of Jane’s” (Austen, 219). While business is a euphemism that allows them to avoid describing a painful event, there are countless possible euphemisms (affair, event, etc.), but business is selected repeatedly as are associated terms like manager. When Charlotte is getting married to Collins, she knows her friend Elizabeth will disprove of this choice and describes that disapproval as the “least agreeable circumstance in the business” (Austen, 120-121), whereas Mrs. Bennet describes Charlotte as “an excellent manager” (Austen, 220) which is good as her new home will “take a great deal of good management” (Austen, 220).
Another choice of word that implies the business deal on marriage is proposal or offer. On about a dozen occasions, a proposal for marriage is referred to as “the offer” and “proposal” is used at least twenty times. When Elizabeth turns down Mr. Collins, he explains why he thinks that she should accept him by saying, “It does not appear to me …. that the establishment I can offer would be any other than highly desirable,” and he further says, “it is by no means certain that an offer of marriage may ever be made to you,” (Austen, 106). Mr. Collins is offering Elizabeth a position, and in attempting to force her into agreement, he does what someone negotiating business might do, he tells her that he is offering more than anyone else would, but not because there is not more to give, but because what is being bought is not worth more.
The final metaphor is that of single people as merchandise, which we can see bits and pieces of in the previous examples, particularly around issues of presentation and display. In a marketplace there must be goods and services, in this case women are the goods who provide services including household management, sex, and heirs. Returning to the first sentence, we see that men are purchasers and women are the merchandise. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 5). However, while between the individual woman and man, the woman is merchandise, for the community and social group at large, both the men and women are marketable objects. Both women and men are referred to as things or objects in the book. In the ordinary sense, objects are things without will. The objects do not have control over who owns them. This reveals still more about what marriage means to the social group, not just the familial group. Objects can lose value and even be discarded, without fear of meaningful repercussions. One example of treating young people as objects is the response from Mrs. Bennet when she learns that Mr. Bingley, with his five or six thousand pounds, was going to move into the neighbourhood. The first thing she says is, “What a fine thing out for our girls!” (Austen, 6). Mr. Collins says to his patroness, regarding the daughters of Bennet family, “that they were not the only objects of Mr. Collins admiration” (Austen, 64). Colonel Fitzwilliam was thought to be a very good match and Elizabeth is interested in him but after Darcy proposed, “Colonel Fitzwilliam was no longer an object” (Austen, 203). Fitzwilliam did not become a human being at that point; rather he was downgraded from object to nothing at all. Thus again we can see that Austen’s choice of words are meant to bring to the attention of the reader the societal view of single people as more merchandise than human beings.
In Pride and Prejudice, these are three commercial metaphors are used to refer to marriage. Taken together, they reveal a careful, logical understanding of the coarser aspects of upper class England in the time of the novel. With words like ‘offer’ and ‘business’, Austen reveals a kind of intimate brutality amid the cool propriety. She reveals this cultural flaw unremittingly, while at the same time revealing that even within those rigid, dehumanizing structures individuals manage to be themselves, and to find ways to succeed and fail according to their own shortcomings. The interrelationships between culture, society, language, and individual, have been clearly expressed. In this society, affection however does not stop parents from treating their children like things they need to get rid off in a manner that brings the greatest advantage (Weinsheimer, 404-19).

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: Penguin Classics, 1996.
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1980
Mathews, Peter. “An Open Invitation.” Persuasion: The Jane Austen Journal, 29: (2007).
Weinsheimer, Joel. Chance and the Hierarchy of Marriages in Pride and Prejudice.
English Literary History. London: Penguin, 1972.
Wiesenfarth, Joseph. “The Case of Pride and Prejudice.” Studies in the Novel. London:
Penguin Classics, 1984