Power 1/31/12

In Chapter 8 of The Cambridge Companion I learned how Jane Austen creates characters that think class and power are very important. Even one of her main characters from her story Emma is blinded by the prejudices power and class can create. In Pride and Prejudice Austen has Lady Catherine de Bourgh who believes that each class should be separated from each other in most aspects. That everyone has a place and needs to stay in their place. While some characters learn to overcome a prejudice of class like Emma and Mr Darcy, there are others like Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mr Collins who are to blind to see how wrong they are. Austen shows many different levels of society in all of her novels, but never does she depict royalty. She shows how even though someone may have be rich and have a good education does not mean that they fully understand life itself and are foolish. In some of her stories she has her heroine marry someone of a higher status than them, which in turn shows that money and class are not always important.