Beneath the surface of the romantic comedy Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen presents an underlying theme of the economic situation faced by women in the early nineteenth century. The best representations of this in the story is how two of the women in the novel approach marriage, and what they hope to achieve or gain through it. The two girls mentioned above are Elizabeth and Charlotte. Elizabeth is one five sisters in a family with no male heir. Their father's estate is entailed in such a way that no one in their immediate family will receive it, so when their father dies all that they will have is the small amount of money that belongs to their mother. One of the problems that