With the fortitude of a devoted novitiate, she had resolved at one-and-twenty to complete the sacrifice, and retire from all the pleasures of life, of rational intercourse, equal society, peace and hope, to penance and mortification for ever.
– Jane Austen
Emma, Chapter 20. Austen describes Jane Fairfax’s decision to become a governess. The orphaned Jane has been treated like a daughter by the Campbells since they took her into their family. But when their own daughter marries, Jane resolves that it is time to move on from her guardians’ charity. Since she has no fortune of her own she prepares to look for a position as governess, so that she may have food and place to live in. The quote highlights the harsh realities faced by women without wealth in English society in Austen’s time.