The Cambridge Companion Chapter 8

This chapter elaborated a lot about the aspect of power in Jane Austen's books.  For example, somebody's money and social status in society is a key factor in determining how much power somebody has.  This chapter showed that just because you have a certain last name and a certain amount of money, you are better than the rest.  The chapter also touched on the fact that power can be split up amongst the family. Typically if there is a boy in the family then he will have the most power, but if not then the power would go to the oldest child.  That kind of shocks me because if you are from the same family, then I feel like you should all be under the same social status as one unit. But this chapter helped me realize a lot about what power means to the characters in Pride and Prejudice and that money has a big impact on how much power you have in society.