What is the significance of the phrase: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"?

A. ironically shows a rich man needing a wife, when women in those days needed one more significantly for financial stability.

B. humans tend to acknowledge a man's needs more than a woman's

C. there is no real significance to the quote

D. plays on the idea of universal truth, when it's a lie

A.

Explanation:

This is the first sentence of Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen, and stands as one of the most famous first lines in literature. Even as it briskly introduces the arrival of Mr. Bingley at Netherfield-the event that sets the novel in motion-this sentence also offers a miniature sketch of the entire plot, which concerns itself with the pursuit of "single men in possession of a good fortune" by various female characters. The preoccupation with socially advantageous marriage in nineteenth-century English society manifests itself here, for in claiming that a single man "must be in want of a wife," the narrator reveals that the reverse is also true: a single woman, whose socially prescribed options are quite limited, is in (perhaps desperate) want of a husband.