Jane Austen's letters to her sister Cassandra, written between 1796 and 1801, shed much light on the social events that Austen includes in Pride and prejudice. Often, the entire substance of Jane's letter was a description of a dance she had just attended, a dance she would attend, a dance her sister might go to, and references to dances at which her sister's name was mentioned. sister. During the time these letters were written, Austen was composing Pride and Prejudice. A modern reader of Pride and Prejudice might conclude that Elizabeth is a reflection of Jane's personal nature, and that Jane was therefore primarily the gossip that transpired at these balls. However, when viewed in the context provided by these letters, these conclusions may not be entirely accurate, as the girlish playfulness and delightfully mischievous descriptions that appear in Austen's letters are almost identical to her descriptions of the assembly at Meryton and the I dance at Netherfield. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Although not immediately obvious to the reader of Pride and Prejudice, the "ball society" during the 18th century provided a safe way for young people to come to meet, court, and compare experiences. The number of guests at a ball becomes an important factor because a large, mixed event better offers young people a safe opportunity to socialize and meet potential mates. In describing the Meryton Assembly, Austen hints at this, telling the reader that "a report soon followed that Mr. Bingley had brought with him 12 ladies and seven gentlemen to the assembly. The girls grieved at such a number of women" (Austen 7). While the social importance of this could easily be ignored by the reader or dismissed as a comment on the superficiality of the girls, Austen's letters leave no ambiguity as they repeatedly catalog the number of participants, their sex, their age and their relative desirability. For example, in her letter to Cassandra dated November 25, 1798, Austen writes "the ball on Thursday was really small, barely the size of an Oxford slap. There were only seven couples and only 27 people in the room" (LeFaye 22). In a letter the following month, Austen describes another event saying, "our dance was very scanty, but not at all unpleasant. There were 31 people and only 11 women out of the Number and five single women in the room" (LeFaye 29) . The repeated emphasis on the number of gentlemen and ladies present continues throughout the letters written in the late 1790s and leaves no doubt as to what constituted a desirable event. Viewed in the context of the letters, what appeared to be Austen's cutting social commentary becomes a genuine concern about the nature of the event. The social "safe haven" provided by the "ball society" was all the more important when we remember that the late 1700s were a socially destabilizing time. The American Revolution, the French Revolution, and George III's declining mental health created much uncertainty and changed social roles. Although politics did not intrude on Pride and Prejudice, the number of military officers testifies to the relative social instability of the era. These men are generically referred to as officers or more indirectly (to the modern reader) as "redcoats" (Austen 61). The presence of these men at the Meryton Assembly and the Netherfield ball is included in Austen's account of the guests at the ball. His letters are often more explicit with references to therank. Austen's letters to Cassandra also provide insight into the importance of gossip in Austen's life. While it is easy for the reader to assume that Jane Austen (speaking through Elizabeth) was above the petty concerns highlighted by Elizabeth's sisters and mother, the letters to Cassandra suggest otherwise. For example, the anticipation with which Kitty and Lydia look forward to the Netherfield ball seems to be calculated to cause the reader to doubt the girls' judgment. Austen notes that “nothing but a dance on Tuesday, could have made such a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday bearable for Kitty and Lydia” (Austen 61). However, this enthusiasm was partly shared by Austen. While the first sentence of her letter dated January 10, 1796 deals with superficial matters, in the second sentence Austen dives in to say "After that necessary preamble, I will proceed to inform you that we had an extremely beautiful ball last night" (LeFaye 1) - and the rest of the letter describes the event in detail. Clearly, Austen shared every bit of Lydia and Kitty's enthusiasm for these social events. Likewise, remarks made by those who attended the Meryton Assembly, and the "post-mortem" gossip of the event afterwards, lead the reader to surmise that Austen is perhaps offering it as social commentary. However, when viewed from the context of the letters, it becomes apparent that Austen is an inveterate gossip herself. For example, Mrs. Bennet's rapturous comments ("He is so extraordinarily beautiful! And his sisters are charming women. I have never in my life seen anything more elegant than their dresses. I dare say the lace on Mrs. Hurt's dress" (Austen 10)) leads the reader to conclude that Austen has established a higher moral position than her characters. However, the letters clearly establish that Austen is equally gossipy. In her letter to Cassandra dated 12 May 1801, Austen reveals: I am proud to say that I have a very good eye for an adulteress, for although I have repeatedly assured that another in the same group was her, I have fixed the right one from the first. - The resemblance to Mrs. Leigh was my guide. She's not as pretty as I expected; his face has the same bald spot as his sister's, and his features are not so beautiful; - she was heavily rouged, and looked rather quietly and contentedly silly more than anything else. Mrs. Badcock and two young women were in the same group, except when Mrs. Badcock felt obliged to leave them, to run around the room after her drunken husband. His escape, and his pursuit with the probable intoxication of both, was an amusing scene (LeFaye 85). Austen clearly enjoys being mischievous - and is as inveterate a gossip as all her characters. Austen's letters to Cassandra also provide greater insight into why Darcy's snub of Elizabeth was so devastating to her and why Elizabeth initially regarded him with such low esteem. Pride and Prejudice provides a true accounting of who is an upholsterer and who is engaged in the social world. Darcy's snub of Elizabeth ("she is tolerable; but not beautiful enough to tempt me" (Austen, 9)) was preceded by Elizabeth's removal from the action for want of a partner. Austen tells the reader, “Elizabeth Bennet had been obliged by the scarcity of gentlemen to sit for two balls” (Austen 8), leaving the reader to conclude that this somehow affected Darcy's rejection of her. This refusal (and the underlying reason) was reciprocated by Elizabeth who observed that "At Meryton, Mr. Darcy danced but once with Miss Hurst, and once, 1995.