I understand that meaning vison, but what I was asking is if it's intentionally ambiguous. Are we meant to consider the three different ways of reading that sentence, or has modern english simply become so vague as to allow three interpretations of that line.vison wrote: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".
Here's what I said...
Your comment would suggest that only the "in need of a wife" interpretation is correct, which would be disappointing, as the cleverness of the line for me lies in it's ambiguity.I wonder a little at the first line. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." I'm not sure if this is meant to be ambiguous or if that's merely a modern reading. I mean by this that it could mean he needs a wife, that he wants a wife or simply that he does not have a wife. Is this a clever play on words or simply a result of less precise modern language? I have no idea. I like the idea that it's intended to be ambiguous. That any man who does not have a wife, must therefore want and need one.
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