In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennet's estate "was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation." What does this social fact explain about his five daughters?

Austen writes of Mrs. Bennet: "The business of her life was to get her daughters married: its solace was visiting and news." Which social fact makes marrying them off a business rather than a wish?

Austen writes of Charlotte Lucas that "marriage had always been her object: it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune." What does the word "provision" show marriage to be for her?

Charlotte tells Elizabeth: "I am not romantic, you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home." What does accepting Mr. Collins cost her, and what social expectation is she meeting?

Mrs. Bennet urges her husband about the new tenant of Netherfield: "Indeed you must go, for it will be impossible for us to visit him, if you do not." What rule of visiting does this show?

Elizabeth warns Mr. Collins that "it must belong to Mr. Darcy, the superior in consequence, to begin the acquaintance." What does her warning show about introductions in this society?

At the Meryton assembly Darcy draws the room's attention through "the report, which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year." What does that speed show?

Austen says the Bingley sisters' respectable northern family was "more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother's fortune and their own had been acquired by trade." What does the preference show?

Told that the Bennets have an uncle near Cheapside, Darcy says such connections "must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world." What social fact explains his judgment?

A militia regiment arrives near Longbourn, and Austen notes "it was to remain the whole winter, and Meryton was the head-quarters." What does this explain about Kitty and Lydia's constant walks into Meryton?

Mr. Bennet tells Elizabeth: "Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." What makes her mother's threat serious in this society?

Mr. Collins gives as a reason for marrying "that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness." What does this reveal about his position?

Mr. Collins says he resolved "to choose a wife from among his daughters, that the loss to them might be as little as possible" at Mr. Bennet's death. What does his reasoning assume?

Of Wickham's new interest Austen writes: "The sudden acquisition of ten thousand pounds was the most remarkable charm of the young lady to whom he was now rendering himself agreeable." What does "charm" point to?

Elizabeth asks her aunt: "what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where does discretion end, and avarice begin?" What makes that line hard to draw?

Elizabeth tells Lady Catherine: "He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal." Lady Catherine replies by asking who Elizabeth's mother, uncles and aunts are. What is she appealing to?

Lady Catherine warns Elizabeth: "You will be censured, slighted, and despised, by everyone connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us." What power does she rely on?

Mary says of Lydia "that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable, that one false step involves her in endless ruin, that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful." What does "in a female" show?

Sir William Lucas made his fortune in trade and was then knighted, and the distinction "had given him a disgust to his business and to his residence in a small market town." What does his reaction show about rank?

Lady Catherine says of Longbourn: "I see no occasion for entailing estates from the female line. It was not thought necessary in Sir Lewis de Bourgh's family." Entails away from daughters were a family's own settlement, not a rule every estate followed.