Social class and marriage in romantic period of British society as reflected in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park

ABSTRACT

The social class and marriage of British society that is described in the novel become dominant cases that show by Austen in the novel. She pictured social class and marriage of Romantic Period when the work is written. In British Society of Romantic Period, the social class is divided into three group, namely Aristocratic, Middle class and lower class. This study only focuses on analyzing the social class and marriage and the values of it in Romantic period of British society.

This study is conducted to reach an understanding and detailed information about social class and marriage in Romantic period which is reflected in the novel. It is important to be investigated because by knowing and understanding the reflection of social class and marriage between the creation in the novel and the real condition of Romantic period at that time. So, this investigation will make the reader comprehend well to interpret the novel.

This study is conducted by applying the literary criticism which analyze and interpret the reflection of social class and marriage in Romantic period of British society in the novel. The data is in the form of the text of novel, Mansfield Park itself that authored by Jane Austen. The data are analyzed firstly by analyzing the social class and marriage of British society from characters occurred in the novel based on the Marx’s social class theory. Next, analyzing the values of social class and marriage of British society that is described in the novel.

Data analysis revealed some findings covering the formulated research problems. This study found that the description of the characters in the novel reflects the social class and marriage as well as the values of it of the real condition. The description mostly happened in Sir Thomas Bertram family in Mansfield Park. He is a picture of Aristocratic people with all his lifestyle in Mansfield Park. He has an important position to the other characters of the novel. Fanny Price is from middle class, especially middle-middle class which her family still has income but is not sufficient to their need. The lower class refers to workers of Sir Thomas’ business Antigua in Indian. It related to the sugar plantation of French when Industrial Revolution entered to England. We can catch the point that money and welfare is very important. It become prior factors in British society because they can have, good education, occupation, and power.