Young women in the late eighteenth century were considered well educated if they had plenty of accomplishment, these were things like sewing, singing, reading and entertaining their guests at a dinner party. In ‘Lesley Castle’, Margaret Lesley was writing to Charlotte Lutterell tell her what they did to pass the time in Scotland and what they do is “we read, we work, we walk and when fatigued with these employments we relieve our spirits, either by a lively song, a graceful dance or by some smart bon-mot and witty repartee.” This shows us that they did not do any challenging or intelligent type of work. The women in the late 18th century were also polite this shows us that this mattered in this time; we can see they are polite because they write long pleasant letters to each other. ‘Lesley Castle’ demonstrates that it is important to have accomplishments in this time and it allowed them to get into a good marriage which was the most important thing in a young lady’s’ life in the late eighteenth century. Not many girls of the time attended school but the few that did attended boarding school, would not learn to be clever they would only learn things like sewing and singing. Margaret Lesley and Charlotte Lutterell both went to boarding school together, “it is four years since my removal from school.” School was mostly for boys, some girls went to boarding school but the education was not very good because they did not need lessons and the teachers did not know what to teach them.
Women in the late eighteenth century did not own anything or have any property for themselves. A woman’s inheritance would be given to a distant male relative the woman would never be given the whole of the money. The only way women could get money was through marriage, Mary only wants to marry Mr Watts because “he has a large fortune and will make great settlements on me.” She also expects the pinmoney; two hundred a year.” Which Mr Watts only want to be “a hundred and seventy-five.” When Mary agrees to marry Mr Watts she expects him to build her “an elegant greenhouse and stock it with plants… a room on purpose and a theatre to act plays in.” she also expects to be allow out of the house all the time she insists on spending “every Winter in Bath, every Spring in town, every summer in taking some Tour, and every Autumn at a watering place.” Mary’s mother is set on not letting “such an opportunity escape of settling one of my daughters so advantageously.” This shows us that money was not only important to the woman but also important to the rest of their family, to ensure that the family would stay with money. It would also be in a mans interest to marry someone with lots of money because some of the family money would be given to him for marring into the family. Marriage was based on material goods not on a relationship. If you did not marry you would have no money and possessions you could have from your father. In Lesley castle Charlotte Lutterell is worried what will happen if “by this second marriage sir George should have a second family, our fortunes must be considerably diminished … those jewels which once adorned our mother … Matilda would no longer sit at the head of her father’s table.” This shows us how easy it is to loose money and financial security.
Female friendship in the late 18th century come over as shallow, because they are always judging each other Margaret Lesley calls her mother-in-law “an insignificant dwarf.” Where their mother-in-law Susan Lesley calls Margaret and Matilda “scotch giants” and continues “I am sure they would frighten you out of your wits.” This show us that women in the 18th century judge each other and think they look better than each other. There is also a lot of rivalry between friends Mary in “The Three Sisters”, says “how I will triumph over the Duttons” and the two families were friends; this shows us that was even rivalry between friends and even though they were nice to them to their faces they were horrible behind people’s backs. Manners and etiquette were more important than actual friendship; Susan Lesley and Charlotte Lutterell are only friends even though they are feed up with each other because “she is too polite and I am too civil to say” they still write letters which “are still as frequent and as affectionate.” This show us that women in the late eighteenth century are very selfish, and their lives were very shallow.
We have learnt from reading Jane Austen’s short stories that women in the late eighteenth century had very little choice to what they could do because they had to marry to ensure that they would still have enough money to live. Life in the late eighteenth century for women was very much ‘everyone out for themselves’ and they all had to fight over having a rich man and material goods better than everyone else’s. Jane Austen did not like living in this time we can tell this because of the humour she uses with the women to show how important money was to them in “The Three Sister” Mary is very indecisive whether she should marry Mr Watts or not. Today we find it hard to compare with how they lived in the late eighteenth century because it is so different to how we live now. I am glad that we live in a society today which is more accepting to women and how both male and female should be treated the same. I also believe that Jane Austen would prefer to live in the society that we live in today because Jane Austen always humours the women in her collection of short stories.
