What does the quote mean it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife?

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

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The news that a wealthy young gentleman named Charles Bingley has rented the manor known as Netherfield Park causes a great stir in the neighboring village of Longbourn, especially in the Bennet household. The Bennets have five unmarried daughters, and Mrs. Bennet, a foolish and fussy gossip, is the sort who agrees with the novel’s opening words: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” She sees Bingley’s arrival as an opportunity for one of the girls to obtain a wealthy spouse, and she, therefore, insists that her husband call on the new arrival immediately. Mr. Bennet torments his family by pretending to have no interest in doing so, but he eventually meets with Mr. Bingley without their knowing. When he reveals to Mrs. Bennet and his daughters that he has made their new neighbor’s acquaintance, they are overjoyed and excited.

Summary: Chapters 3–4
  

She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.

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Eager to learn more, Mrs. Bennet and the girls question Mr. Bennet incessantly. A few days later, Mr. Bingley returns the visit, though he does not meet Mr. Bennet’s daughters. The Bennets invite him to dinner shortly afterward, but he is called away to London. Soon, however, he returns to Netherfield Park with his two sisters, his brother-in-law, and a friend named Darcy.

Mr. Bingley and his guests go to a ball in the nearby town of Meryton. The Bennet sisters attend the ball with their mother. The eldest daughter, Jane, dances twice with Bingley. Within her sister Elizabeth’s hearing, Bingley exclaims to Darcy that Jane is “the most beautiful creature” he has ever beheld. Bingley suggests that Darcy dance with Elizabeth, but Darcy refuses, saying, “she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” He proceeds to declare that he has no interest in women who are “slighted by other men.” Elizabeth takes an immediate and understandable disliking to Darcy. Because of Darcy’s comments and refusal to dance with anyone not rich and well-bred, the neighborhood takes a similar dislike; it declares Bingley, on the other hand, to be quite “amiable.”

At the end of the evening, the Bennet women return to their house, where Mrs. Bennet regales her husband with stories from the evening until he insists that she be silent. Upstairs, Jane relates to Elizabeth her surprise that Bingley danced with her twice, and Elizabeth replies that Jane is unaware of her own beauty. Both girls agree that Bingley’s sisters are not well-mannered, but whereas Jane insists that they are charming in close conversation, Elizabeth continues to harbor a dislike for them.

The narrator then provides the reader with Bingley’s background: he inherited a hundred thousand pounds from his father, but for now, in spite of his sisters’ complaints, he lives as a tenant. His friendship with Darcy is “steady,” despite the contrast in their characters, illustrated in their respective reactions to the Meryton ball. Bingley, cheerful and sociable, has an excellent time and is taken with Jane; Darcy, more clever but less tactful, finds the people dull and even criticizes Jane for smiling too often (Bingley’s sisters, on the other hand, find Jane to be “a sweet girl,” and Bingley therefore feels secure in his good opinion of her).

Analysis: Chapters 1–4

The opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice—“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”—establishes the centrality of an advantageous marriage, a fundamental social value of Regency England. The arrival of Mr. Bingley (and news of his fortune) is the event that sets the novel in motion. He delivers the prospect of a marriage of wealth and good connections for the eager Bennet girls. The opening sentence has a subtle, unstated significance. In its declarative and hopeful claim that a wealthy man must be looking for a wife, it hides beneath its surface the truth of such matters: a single woman must be in want of a husband, especially a wealthy one.

Read more about the significance of the first line of the novel.

The first chapter consists almost entirely of dialogue, a typical instance of Austen’s technique of using the manner in which characters express themselves to reveal their traits and attitudes. Its last paragraph, in which the narrator describes Mr. Bennet as a “mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice,” and his wife as “a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper,” simply confirms the character assessments that the reader has already made based on their conversation: Mrs. Bennett embodies ill-breeding and is prone to monotone hysteria; Mr. Bennet is a wit who retreats from his wife’s overly serious demeanor. There is little physical description of the characters in Pride and Prejudice, so the reader’s perception of them is shaped largely by their words. Darcy makes the importance of the verbal explicit at the end of the novel when he tells Elizabeth that he was first attracted to her by “the liveliness of [her] mind.”

Read more about Jane Austen's writing style. 

The ball at Meryton is important to the structure of the novel since it brings the two couples—Darcy and Elizabeth, Bingley and Jane—together for the first time. Austen’s original title for the novel was First Impressions, and these individuals’ first impressions at the ball initiate the contrasting patterns of the two principal male-female relationships. The relative effortlessness with which Bingley and Jane interact is indicative of their easygoing natures; the obstacles that the novel places in the way of their happiness are in no way caused by Jane or Bingley themselves. Indeed, their feelings for one another seem to change little after the initial attraction—there is no development of their love, only the delay of its consummation. Darcy’s bad behavior, on the other hand, immediately betrays the pride and sense of social superiority that will most hinder him from finding his way to Elizabeth. His snub of her creates a mutual dislike, in contrast to the mutual attraction between Jane and Bingley. Further, while Darcy’s opinion of Elizabeth changes within a few chapters, her (and the reader’s) sense of him as self-important and arrogant remains unaltered until midway through the novel.

Read important quotes about first impressions.

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We all know it. The Pride and Prejudice first line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

It’s a quote so famous that it’s used as a basis for commentary on nearly everything, with the nouns being swapped in to fit the topic. The line has been used in everything from the parody novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (“it is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains”) to articles that pick apart the use of famous quotes themselves (such as this article by The Telegraph, with the rather meta title ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that great words will be misquoted’).

Austen acknowledges these high stakes, while quietly mocking the fact that this scramble to marry has to exist at all. After all, despite living in the same social circle as the Bennett family, Austen never married, built a solid (if necessarily secret) writing career, and used her work to critique the conservatism and hypocrisy of her time, something explored in Helena Kelly’s recent book Jane Austen, The Secret Radical.

Perhaps one of the reasons that Pride and Prejudice‘s first line has endured in the public consciousness is that this pressure to marry still exists for women today, albeit slightly changed.

Think of the number of Hallmark movies out there where a high-powered career woman learns that the thing she’s really missing in her life is the love of a good man – while her financial future is secure, her projected emotional future, we’re supposed to believe, is as bereft of that as one of Austen’s lonely maiden aunts. The possibility that a career itself can be fulfilling isn’t considered in the kind of stories that draw on the surface of Pride and Prejudice without looking at the social critique that lies beneath. And as many women know, the real world has internalised this narrative (days after I’d finished my PhD, I was chatting to an acquaintance in my university cafe, who made the comment “so I suppose you’ll be getting married now?” I wasn’t even dating at the time). The first line of Pride and Prejudice has kept its place as a popular quote not only because it’s a great satirical comment on social expectations of women, but also because, as in Austen’s time, there’s a fair chunk of people who still don’t get the irony.

It’s a playful line that, in turn, is easy for writers to play around with. Modern-day Bennett Girl Bridget Jones comments “It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces”, something any twenty- to thirtysomething can relate to. Terry Pratchett, who was sometimes “accused of literature” and sometimes sneered at by critics who claimed that his works were no such thing, used the line to flip a jovial bird at both camps in his book Snuff: “Vimes thought for a moment and said, ‘Well, dear, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a man with a lot of wood must be in want of a wife who can handle a great big—’” No matter what the medium, there’s a writer out there who’s used the line, whether it’s being adapted for a tweet or used as a light-hearted introduction to a web page.

Having a stonking good first line is one of those pieces of writing advice that everyone can agree on, and with Pride and Prejudice, Austen proved that it’s possible to write a first line that people will remember for hundreds of years. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of truths will be universally acknowledged in the years to come.

For a more melancholy famous line, read Book Riot’s exploration of The Last Line of The Great Gatsby. If you want more pithy Austen goodness, look at our Best Pride and Prejudice Quotes.