Pride and Prejudice?

Question

I'm reading Pride and Prejudice right now, and I don't understand some parts of the book. When they are mentioning the soldiers, why do they say '------shire'? what is that?

also, when Lydia elopes with Wickham, why did they want to them to marry? nowadays, people usually try to convince people who elope not to marry. What would happen if Lydia and Wickham didn't marry? is n't that the point of eloping?

that's as far as i'm up to right now, so if someone could help me, thanks.

Answer 1

The reason to have Lydia and Wickham marry is that in that period there was a very strong taboo against sex without marriage. If Lydia ran off with a man she didn't marry, not only would it be impossible for her to get married later on, but it would shame her whole family, and the other sisters would have found it much harder to make good marriages.

The references to ---shire often occurred in nonfiction books when the author wanted to talk about incidents without identifying the real people or places involved. By putting it in a novel, Austen adds to the feeling of authenticity, and also possibly avoids offending real officers who might be considered similar to the character.

Answer 2

Shire I think means a town or something like I'm not sure. But I do know it has to with location.
As for the elopement the reason they wanted them to get married is because in Victorian England being chaste was something that was expected in society. So when Lydia ran off with Wickham she seriously crippled her prospects, so that the only thing she could ever hope to amount to is marrying Mr. Wickham or struggle for the rest of her life to make ends meet.

Answer 3

I love that book. I hope you do too. Remember, it is a great study of the manners and culture in Britain at that time. I'll have to look up the -----shire reference, I don't remember it. But, I will and will add to this answer. When Lydia elopes with Wickham, they have crossed a dreadful social line. They have travelled together, without a chaperone. That WASN'T done, and whether they had sex or not, it is assumed that Lydia is now a "tainted woman". After you have thrown your reputation to the dogs, the next best thing is to marry and try to redeem what little of your dignity you have left for both you and your family. To have gone off to marry, then to not marry, would have left Lydia in one of the lowest orders of social strata. An unmarried woman who has thrown away her virginity (or even the appearance of it...same thing to them) is in trouble for life. She will not be considered marrying material by anyone in her social class. She will be branded an outcast by "polite" society. She erred horribly by going away with Wickham, but any man, in their world, is far better than no man. We've come a long way baby.
Yes, the -------shire thing is just to kind of say, "somewhere", it's not important specifically where it is.

Answer 4

... shire is used to hide the real location, like Hampshire, for example, the author uses only the last part of the name, shire = county. She hides it so as not to allude to anything real - suppose she names the place, and there was the people, similar to those mentioned in the story. Or the place was different from what described. So, instead of saying that they came from this or that county (shire - Berkshire, Hampshire and so on), she simply said "...shire", does not matter from where.
Sex outside the marriage was forbidden for decent girls from well-to do and noble families. If they had it, their reputations were "ruined". They could not marry, no one visited them, they became outcasts. Their families had to support them till they die, because no one would marry them, and educated women could not really work but governesses - and what mother would have hired a governess with a bad reputation to look after her children?
If there was a child, such a child was illegitimate, was an outcast too and, if a male, could not be employed in many professions, and if a female - could not marry a decent man of any prominent position.
Even if Lydia did not have sex with Wickham, she lived with him, and it was the same. She was "spoiled goods", and if he refused to marry her, she would have been a social outcast.
Many men felt that it was derogatory to marry even a woman who they, themselves, seduced: in "Tom Jones" a man says: "I can't marry a w..e (they use this word to designate any female, who had sex outside the marriage), though of my own making." (That is, he seduced a virgin, but it would have been derogatory to him to marry her afterwards.)

Answer 5

back in jane austen's day it was a great scandal to sleep with someone you werent married to. if lydia didnt marry wickham she'd be a social outcast. and it would be a blight on the other sisters too.

also the shire thing is pretty common in books from that period. i think its supposed to maintain the anonimity of a place. it's supposed to make it seem like the book actually happened and this is a real place.

Answer 6

In England a "-shire" is what is called a county in the US.
They want the couple to marry because they eloped, which means they got intimate. In those days it was considered immoral to have sex without marriage. It ruined a girl's reputation and she could never get married to anyone else. If her family wasn't rich and she was single, she'd have very few ways of earning a living. She needed a husband to provide for her.

Answer 7

becouse in the begging of the book Mr. Darcy is prejudice( unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason) of Elizabeth family. Afterward and becouse of it Elizabeth is too Pride(full) to confess her felling to Mr.Darcy. P.S. I was going back over the other question, I think, it's kinda cool that were one who has read or seen the many movies(mini series) has there own personal idea who is Pride and who is Prejudice. This has actually given me an idea for a question, I how you don't mind.

Answer 8

well for one thing it is NOT right to live with someone of the other gender and not be married, and it shames the family. or back then it did. because it was a big deal, and it should still be.
what do you mean by----shire?

Answer 9

they wanted them to get married because if they didnt scince they ran away together people would asume they had sex.and back then it gave people a bad name to have sex before they were maried...or something like that.