If we have no example of poor unmarried women in P&P, we can take some from Emma, with miss Bates and of course Jane Fairfax, who could avoid becoming a governess by a hair's breadth.

That is why I cannot see Charlotte's situation as you do Kathleen. Of course you espouse Elizabeth's point of view, which is , IMO a very modern one.

Which leads me to a point I had not clearly thought of before.

Is not P&P a novel showing the conflict between 2 generations and 2 conceptions of life. Charlotte being a representative of the past (ie. classical period), while Lizzie could be seen as the herald of the romantic age, where women wanted to marry for love and not only for a position in life; a period too, where the person as such gained importance, while in former times, the individual had to give pride of place to society (and in a way this is also the overall movement of the novel... but more of that in later weeks. So far Mr Darcy is also a representative of that past where someone's place in society is determined at birth).