Propriety-+Pride+&+Prejudice

Remember the behavior of the Bennet family while they are in public. The three youngest girls participate to all the family activities together with the two older. That is considered very strange and is talked over by several people and is considered a great impropriety since girls are not supposed to participate in these kinds of activities until they reach a certain age. Their behavior is also improper since they show their strong preference in young officers and are very lively instead of composed and reserved as well bred ladies ought to be. Their mother on the other hand is constantly speaking and boasting of a supposed expected marriage between her eldest daughter and the rich gentleman and in fact there exists no engagement at all. The right course of things is firstly the said gentleman to talk the matter over with the father and then to start talking publically of it. Remember that early in the book we get hints that Darcy is in love with Lizzy .He keeps looking at her and asks her to dance having previously slighted all the other young ladies in the room. But still he refrains from declaring openly his love to her until he is ready to burst with love and literally rushes into the room. The reason for that is that it is considered great impropriety for a person of his position, his birth and his wealth to be united with a much inferior lady in all aspects (like Lizzy). Nobility marries into nobility and families of great fortune make this kind of allies. So Lizzy is an unsuitable match for Darcy. There is no way that his family will accept her and he is well aware of that. Besides he is engaged from birth to his cousin, Lady Catherine's daughter. Another thing that sounds strange to the contemporary reader is the demeanor of everyone to Lady Catherine. Lady Catherine is reverenced by everyone and is thought good at everything (when it is obvious that she is not). The Lucases are ecstatic having met her and received to her palace. You must understand that in Jane Austen's age every individual understood perfect his position in the social pyramid. Therefore everyone submits to the presence of Lady Catherine and consequently to their fate knowing their position in the world (Lizzy excepted). Of course, etiquette and propriety dictates all the above. And lastly young Miss Bennet's elopement is the gravest impropriety in the book. She runs away with a young officer unmarried and she disgraces not only herself but everyone related to her. Thus their sisters consider themselves destroyed. No young and respectable gentleman would wish to be united with a woman whose family bears such a shame. Therefore Darcy in order to save the woman he loves (in fact to "clean" her family name) seeks the young couple gives the bridegroom a large sum of money and is even present to their wedding. Lizzy shows lack of propriety only in one point. When she confronts Lady Catherine and instead of submitting to her majestic presence (and consequently her fate), holds her head high and finally marries Darcy. I believe this is one of the points that Austen wanted to make in her book. That, our life is what we make of it and we should fight society constraints if they are unfair.
 * Propriety- Pride & Prejudice **