Jane Austen wrote Pride & Prejudice during a time period known as the Regency period, when George III went insane and his son George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Regent, hence the name. This was also the beginning of industrialization in England, and about one third of the population lived in extreme poverty.
The military was also an ever-present concept, with England at war with France for several years. This appears in the novel when the sisters go to the village to talk to and see the soldiers.
Society was centered around what was known as the landed gentry. This was a relatively small group of people (mostly upper middle-class) who owned English land, and who enforced strict inheritance laws to keep their land and status. Wealthier people could often buy estates rather than inherit them from a male family member.
Since land ownership was passed through male heirs, female descendants were thrown under the bus (or buggy, as it were), and families depended on their daughters’ marriages to wealthier men to maintain the family’s status. This caused courtship to become a central focus of women’s lives, which is seen in Austen’s and other novelist’s works.