- So, are you ever watching
Pride and Prejudice and you just wonder,
are the Bennet's poor? Sometimes it just feels
like they're poor, right? I'm getting a poor vibe off of them and I'm not really sure why. Were they actually poor? And really this can seem like
a quite confusing question because we're getting all
different indicating factors within the book itself and
also the different adaptations. Well, in today's video, we're going to be talking
about the financial status and somewhat the social status and future of the Bennet family and breaking that down for you. So if you wanna learn if the Bennet's were actually poor or not, then definitely stay
tuned for today's video. (upbeat music) My name is Ellie Dashwood, and this is my channel where we talk about
history and literature. If you like, either of those
things, please subscribe. So first up, let's just
answer this basic question of, were the Bennet's poor? The answer is no, the family
was definitely not poor. Their family estate Longbourn was bringing in an income of
about 2,000 pounds a year, which is a very, very, very
good income for the time. In fact, they are part
of that top social 1% I talk about in my video on
Is Mr. Darcy Actually Rich? And they were, they were part
of this landed gentry class, which was also very high
on the social scale. And they weren't at the
bottom of that class either, rather they were more in the middle of it. And so they did have
this really good income. And of course, when the question comes up of being poor in the Regency era, I feel like there's two
different types of being poor. There is being actually
living below the poverty line and being in the lower classes of society, such as coal miners or basic farm laborers as where we're actually seeing
a lot of poverty being poor. However, if you remember my video on the different social spheres about how there were these
big spheres of society, you could be like
upper-class, middle-class or the poor lower class, and
when I call them the poor, I really mean the lower class. And within those spheres, there was the wealthy side of that sphere and the poor side of that sphere. And so I feel like the
second type of poorness that can happen in the era is somebody could be poor
for their own sphere. They could be a poor rich person. And of course that has the classic joke that Jane Austen's books are
often about poor rich people, which is a very true, a lot of her heroines
have financial problems, but they are very first-class
financial problems. And we're gonna be delving
into the financial problems that the Bennet family
has in a little bit. But first off the Bennet family, as it is throughout the
main course of the book that income they're
bringing in is not poor, they are still definitely
in the upper class, you remember of the landed gentry, they are not poor by any means. Of course, do they have less
money comparative to Darcy? Well, yeah, they totally have less money compared to the Darcy, and we're gonna go into
that in a little bit too. But overall they are not
even poor rich people at this point in time. And I think that's an
important thing to remember. At this point in time while
Mr. Bennet is still alive, they aren't poor rich people,
they're just rich people. So now the question might come
up of, okay, if they're rich, then why do people in the
book look down on them? Why is it hard financially for
Elizabeth to find a husband? Basically, why are there indicators that there's something financially
wrong with this family? And the answer is on a
few different points. The first one, let's talk
about social currency. So of course we have financial
currency, like actual money, and then there's something that was a very important back in the day, sort of social currency, and like I talk about in my video on five Pride and prejudice words to know, basically connections or who you know, and are related to were a
major form of social currency. And you might be wondering like, how is that a form of currency? Like being related to people? And the answer is, is
because during this era relationships determined everything such as what jobs you could get, what jobs your friends could get, what parties you were invited to, whether you could climb that
social hierarchy even higher. Like I talk about my video on
why Mr. Darcy isn't a Lord, if he had wanted to optimize
his chances of being a Lord, he would have needed to
marry a peer's daughter, because again, that social connection would have helped him out. And that's something important to remember is those social connections
often had monetary as well as social
hierarchy benefits to them. And the problem with the Bennet family is they have very low social connections, meaning they're social
connection currency poor. And we see this talked about several times within the book itself. First of all, let's
listen to that discussion, those at Netherfield
have about the Bennet's and their low connections. So first off, Ms. Bingley and Mrs. Hurst are talking about them. "I have an excessive
regard for Ms. Jane Bennet, "she is really a very sweet girl, "and I wish with all my
heart she were well settled. "But it with such a father and mother "and such low connections, "I'm afraid there is no chance of it." "I think I have heard
you say that their uncle "is an attorney in Meryton." "Yes, and they have another "who lives somewhere near Cheapside." "That is capital," added her sister. And they both laughed heartedly. "If they had uncles enough
to fill all Cheapside," cried Bingley,"It would not make them "one jot less agreeable." "But it must very materially
lessen their chance "of marrying men of any consideration "in the world," replied Darcy. So here we see the Bingley sisters saying that essentially one of
their uncles is an attorney, the other one is in trade and Cheapside, basically, these are low connections. And while good connections
can bring you up, low connections can
actually bringing you down. It's almost like a social currency debt that's drawing you down. And as Mr. Darcy pointed out these low connections could very well turn suitors off of marrying them. Like I talk about my video on marrying for money or for love, they definitely wanted to
marry someone they liked, but they needed the person
to be both financially rich, and they'd also prefer
them to be socially rich, you know, coming from a
good family background. Now the question might come up of like, okay, well, if the Bennet's are
of this landed gentry class, how did they end up with such
a low social connections? And the answer to that is their mother is from the middle-class
and she married up. In fact, Lady Catherine de
Bourgh herself points this out again, when Lady Catherine comes to tell Elizabeth that she's not
good enough to marry Darcy. Here's what she says, "True,
you are a gentleman's daughter, "but who was your mother? "Who are your uncles and aunts? "Do not imagine me ignorant
of their condition." "Whatever my connections
may be," said Elizabeth, "If your nephew does not object to them, "they can be nothing to you." Okay, so here we see Lady Catherine specifically pointing
out Elizabeth's mother, and that is where these low
connections are coming from. As the daughter of an attorney, she was coming from the middle-class when she married up
into the landed gentry, but all of her relations
are still very much stuck in that middle-class. So really in this conversation, what's happening is that Lady Catherine is like, you're too low
class for my nephew. And then Elizabeth points out like, no, by birth, we're of the same class. And while Lady Catherine
doesn't argue with that, that is technically true, maybe Catherine's like, yeah, he might be, but I know where your family
comes from on your mom's side and they're not high class. And basically, the only thing
Elizabeth can retort with is, well, why do you care if Darcy doesn't? Because, you know, it is true, and I think that's interesting
that she doesn't argue with Lady Catherine on the
actual validity of the claim, she just argues on whether
it should matter or not. So that is one of the reasons that the Bennet's might come off as poor in the book or in the movies, because even though they are
financially rich at this time, socially, they have some
very low connections, which makes them socially poor per se. And so at the second reason up the Bennet's can sometimes
come off as being poor in the book is the fact
that soon they will be, whenever Mr. Bennet dies that nice income of 2,000 pounds a year that
they're getting off the estate is going to end. Because the estate is entailed, that income is going to go to Mr. Collins. And again, we always
see this as Mrs. Bennet being very upset that
they're all gonna starve in the hedgerows whenever
Mr. Bennet dies, that is why. Now of course, all of the
technical and legal aspects of Mr. Collins inheriting
and why he's inheriting is actually very interesting, I'm doing a whole more
in depth video on that, I don't know if it's coming out before or after this one, but whatever the case there is going to be a video on Mr. Collins inheriting
through the entails and the legality of that. Basically, their nice
cush income is gonna end and what will be left after that? Well, that brings us to the third reason, sometimes the Bennet's seem
poor in Pride and Prejudice, and that's because their
daughter's dowries are very small. Okay, so if you've never
heard of a dowry before, it's also sometimes called
a portion or a fortune, you'll see those words
used pretty interchangeably throughout to Jane Austen's novels. Basically what it was, it was a portion of the family's money that was given to the
daughter as her fortune. So this is her own little portion of the fortune pretty much. And the reason it's called a dowry is that's traditionally meaning that, that's the money given
from the bride's family to the groom's family upon marriage. So basically the whole point
of this portion or a fortune was to get random guys
to marry the daughters. And like we talked about in my video on money and marriage during this time, a lot of families required two incomes to support themselves. What the wife brought in through her dowry and also whatever income
the husband was bringing in. And so basically, a
woman with a larger dowry who contribute more to
that future marriage. And that allowed her to be able to marry a wider range of men. Like I remember in that video, the gold standard was
to be able to maintain the lifestyle you were
born to upon marriage. And so a girl with a bigger dowry could marry a man with a smaller income because combined they could
maintain that lifestyle. But a girl with a really small dowry pretty much needed the husband to carry the bulk of the
financial load there, and it would be harder to
find a guy who could do that. And of course also the daughter's fortune was helpful if she became an old maid, since what was usually done with a fortune is it was invested at an annual return of either four or 5% interest. What they would do is they would invest it and then they would
live off that interest. So the ideal situation
would be if the girl became an old maid, she could live off the interest of her fortune, and that would be her
annual income pretty much. And that's kind of how
dowries work in general. And of course, I've spoken
about dowries before, like in my video on why are
the Bennet sisters so poor? Which since we're talking about dowries, I wanna have just quick
note on how to spell dowry. There's actually two correct ways. These are listed in multiple dictionaries, the spelling both without
an e and also with an e such as you can see an example here from Princeton University's Wordnet, where we have both spellings. I just wanted to point that out because the way I spelled
it with an e in my video, caught so many comments where people were concerned
about the spelling, but for some reason I grew
up learning it with an e and that's how it ended up in the video, but both forms are correct. And of course the title of that
video leads to this question of well, were the Bennet
sisters really poor? And when it comes to their dowries, the answer is yes for their class. Because of course, we
have to think of money within this sphere in which they lived. And for the upper class to
have a 1,000 pound dowry each, which is what the Bennet
girls have, is quite small. And this is why we see it continually held in contempt
throughout the book. In fact, let's listen to
what Mr. Collins has to say about Elizabeth Bennet's 1,000 pounds when he proposes to her. He says, "To fortune I'm
perfectly indifferent, "and shall make no demand of
that nature on your father. "Since I am well aware that
it could not be complied with, "and that 1,000 pounds and the 4%, "which will not be yours till
after your mother's decease, "is all that you may ever be entitled to. "On that head therefore, I
shall be uniformly silent. "And you may assure yourself
that no ungenerous reproach "shall ever pass my lips
when we are married." So Mr. Collins is basically saying, you have a really tiny fortune, and I know your dad can't do any better and it's invested at 4%, so that's only gonna give
us about 40 pounds a year to add to our income,
which is really tiny, but don't worry, I'm
not gonna be mean to you about that after we're married. Yeah, that's pretty much what
Mr. Collins is saying here. So we do see this fortune
is held in contempt and it's so funny because then
after Elizabeth rejects him, he brings up her lack of fortune again. He says, "And you should take
it into further consideration "that in spite of manifold attractions, "it is by no means certain "that another offer of marriage
may ever be made to you. "Your portion is unhappily so small "that it will in all likelihood "undo the effects of your loveliness "and amiable qualifications." That's right, he's like
your portion is so small that even if a guy liked you, he's still not gonna marry you 'cause you're not rich enough. Which is exactly what we
see happen to Elizabeth when she is at Rosings and essentially Colonel Fitzwilliam lets her know in that roundabout way that, you know, I have to
think of money with marriage. I know I've been flirting with you, but I need to marry rich
and you're not rich. And so here we do see Elizabeth could have possibly become the daughter-in-law of an earl if she had a bigger fortune. Middly, the earl would
also have to get over the low social connection thing. But she didn't even get that far because again, she
didn't have enough money. And again, Lady Catherine
de Bourgh herself points out that Elizabeth doesn't have a fortune, and one part of the book, when talking about the daughter's fortune, it uses the word deficiency. So basically there was a lack
of fortune for these girls. Then the question may come up of, well, how much should the
Bennet girls have had? And the answer is interesting. So first of all, they
have 1,000 pounds each. And so really where the Bennet daughters dowries come from is this 5,000 pounds, 4,000 of which seemed to be coming from their mother's own dowry, it's being divided up among her daughters and an extra 1,000 pounds
must be being chipped in by Mr. Bennet himself so that we have this 1,000 pound a piece situation happening
among the five daughters. But according to tradition of the time, they should have had more. In fact, in the early 1700s, the basic dowry for a daughter
was one years rent income off of the estate the father owned. So their father has a 2,000 pound estate, they should each have 2,000 pounds, if this was like 100 years before Pride and Prejudice was set. By the Regency era that had inflated up to three years of rent, which meant that 2,000
times three is 6,000 pounds. So each of the Bennet girls should have had a 6,000
pound dowry at least. Of course, if they had a bigger dowry, that would have been great. I mean, this is something we
see Mr. Bennet concerned over several times in the book, where he thinks about how, like he wished he had saved more money, he wished he had a son
that would have been able to help them break the entail to get the daughters more money. He recognizes that his daughters
have a deficient dowry, and they really do. Now of course, sometimes people are like, oh, but like 1,000 pounds
back then was a lot of money, and that is true, 1,000 pounds back then was a lot of money. But again, we have to look
at this in the context of the class they were in and also within the context
of it being a dowry. Because really the value of money is relative when talking
about what it's used for. And so for example, if my friend told me like, hey, I just bought this car for 1,000 dollars, I'd be like, wow, that's
a really cheap car. But if someone came up to me and was like $1,000 is a lot of money, I'd be like, yes, it is a lot of money, but it's not a lot of money for a car. Cars are more usually expensive. And it's the same thing with dowries. Yes, 1,000 pounds is a lot of money, is not a lot of money when
it comes to a dowry though. And I feel like a great
way to demonstrate this, is to look at that scenario of if the Bennet girls became old maids, so for example, if Elizabeth
never married Darcy, she just gets older, her dad dies, maybe some of her other
sisters get married, whatever the case, for some reason, Elizabeth Bennet is
left alone with no help, which would not have happened, her sisters and her relatives would definitely have chipped in to help her in the situation. But let's just imagine
for some reason it's not. And all Elizabeth Bennet
has is this 1,000 pounds. Again, it is invested at 4%, so her annual income would be 40 pounds. Just for reference, 40 pounds a year was the annual income of laborers and coal miners and migrant peddlers. That was how much did
they averaged per year. That's how much Elizabeth
Bennet would have to live on. Her income level would
literally be the same as the poor in the
lowest sphere of society. And so when I say that the Bennet girls themselves are poor, it's true. Their dowries are not sufficient to keep them living at a genteel level, and not only that, but they would literally
be making the same income as some of the poorest levels of society if they had to live off of that dowry. Meanwhile, contrast
that with Emma Woodhouse or Georgiana Darcy who
both have 30,000 pounds. Invested at four or 5%, that would give them between
1,200 pounds and 1,500 pounds a year to live off of, that was the annual income
as most knights at the time. So really they would still be living a very comfortable genteel lifestyle just based off of their dowries, even if they became old maids. Which going back to this
poor Elizabeth Bennet and her old maid hood idea, like I talk about in the video on social class with Elizabeth and Darcy being of the same social class, even if she did end up that poor, she would've still been
treated like a member of the gentility, because
she was born into that class. And again, that's what we see happening with Ms. Bates and Emma, she would just be experiencing extreme and downward mobility within
her same social sphere, but she would still be within that sphere. So now let's like step back and look at all of these
factors as a whole. Currently, as the story takes
place in Pride and Prejudice, the Bennet's are quite wealthy, 2,000 pounds was a good income. However, that's going to end, and everybody knows it's going to end. They're going to lose that
income when Mr. Bennet dies and they're going to be left very poor. On rich people terms, and honestly, if we look at Elizabeth Bennet
and her 40 pounds a year, even on poor people's terms, she's poor. And so in some ways the
Bennet's are this weird mixture of wealth and poverty at the same time. And of course their low social connections are not helping them out either. And then of course, all
of this is compounded by the fact that we might
compare them to Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy, who is
significantly more wealthy, and he would also have a great
deal, more disposable income. Because here's the thing, there was a minimum amount of money required to live a genteel lifestyle. And so that minimum requirement would take up a great deal more of Mr. Bennet's 2,000 pounds a year than Mr. Darcy's 10,000 pounds a year. Like proportionately,
Mr. Darcy would end up having more disposable income on top of whatever his
living expenses are, to be able to do whatever he wants with and pretty much be rich and fancy. Meanwhile, the Bennet's
income would be more taken up with the actual essentials of
just living a genteel life. So overall, Mr. Darcy was
significantly more wealthy than the Bennet's, and that again can make the
Bennet's look kind of poor, but again, they technically weren't, during the outworking
of Pride and Prejudice's main story itself. Anyway, hope this has cleared up any confusion over the income level of the Bennet's in Pride and Prejudice. And so let me know in
the comments down below, if you live during this time period, would you rather be a member
of the Bingley family, the Darcy family, or the Bennet family? I think I would want
to be a member of hmm, that's so hard, that's such a hard question. I think I would choose the Darcy family because I mean, Elizabeth
is gonna marry Darcy, so it's not like I can marry Darcy, but then I'd end up being
rich and have a good dowry. And even if I ended up an
old maid, I'll be fine. So there we have that. Anyway, I hope you have an
incredible and awesome day and keep being awesome, bye. (upbeat music)
