The famous opening line is about the best thing going in English literature. If you "get" that, you "get" Pride and Prejudice, and you "get" Jane Austen.
When she says "in want of a wife", the word "want" had the meaning of "stands in need of" rather than the sense of "desiring to have a wife".
I don't agree, Ethel, that the Bennetts were clinging to the lowest rung of the landed gentry. They evidently had a pretty good income. I recall Mrs. Bennett pointing out to someone or other that she had a man cook, and she had a housekeeper, as well as the requisite maids and men. There is no sense of "scrimping and saving", the girls all seem to have plenty of clothes and toys, and were provided with whatever masters they wished to learn music or drawing, etc. There is never any sense, either, that there were any "grander" families in the neighbourhood, never any idea that anyone living near them looked down on them. They were "society" in their little village and surrounding countryside. They were not aristocracy, of course, nor were they great untitled grandees. But gentry, just the same.
It was the tragedy of their lives that Mrs. Bennett had not produced a son. A son would could inherit the estate, but without the son, after Mr. Bennetts's death the estate will go to the next heir "in tail". The word "entail" means simply that primogeniture rules here, the estate, which was probably entirely in land and the rents it produced, had to go to the next male heir in the family line. Mr. Bennett may have inherited it from his father, we are never told that I recall. The issues surrounding primogeniture and entails are absolutey fascinating and worthy of study all on their own!!!
Mr. Bennett mightily blamed himself for not saving enough of his income to provide for his daughters, but of course as time went on and they kept expecting that boy, they didn't form habits of thrift.
I confess I'm going on memory here! I haven't yet scooted through the beloved pages again. I'm going to do that right away. I feel terrible, everyone else has been a good student and done the required reading. I always COULD B.S. my way through these things.............
There WAS no other 'career' for a gentlewoman than marriage. The only alternative, if you had no money, was to hang on the sleeve of a better off relative or to go out as a governess. Either option meant little more than low-paid servitude, in most cases.
People were much more open and frank about marriage than we are. Many, many people were married after only days of aquaintance, and of course, many marriages were more or less arranged.
Elizabeth was a marvellous girl, an amazing character. She had sense enough to see that her mother was a fool and sensibility enough to feel rotten about her father's casual contempt for her mother. He was a classic case of "marry in haste and repent at leisure" and I think he should have done a better job of hiding his disappointment and disillusionment, but then, he would not have been such an interesting character.
Enough for now. Hope I haven't given away any spoilers.
Dig deeper.