“I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public! A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.”
– Jane Austen
Emma, Chapter 10. After Emma declares that she will never marry and a horrified Harriet asks if that means she will be an old maid, Emma makes this reply. It seems rather a harsh and disrespectful judgment on single women from the lower classes. But it echoes societal views at the time, that a wealthy single woman was seen as respectable, while a poor single woman was viewed as ridiculous. The quote reflects how a woman’s socioeconomic class and marital status greatly affected her likability and acceptability by society in England’s regency era. Austen uses hyperbole here in Emma’s observation of a poor single woman being a “ridiculous, disagreeable old maid.” Emma cannot help but display her pride and vanity over being a desirable member of the monied class who can afford not to marry.