How is social status represented in Jane Austen's Emma and Pride and Prejudice?

Austen presents many layers of social status in each of
her novels, and Emma and Pride and Prejudice
are no exceptions. One of the most memorable representations of social status in
Emma is where the newly wed Mrs. Elton declares that she will have
precedence over Emma at dinner parties because she is a married woman and married women
always take precedence. Precedence is the concept of giving social privilege to persons
of higher social status. It literally refers to who precedes (goes in front of) whom at
social functions or social ceremonies.

When Mrs. Elton
refers to the fact that she, as a married woman, now has precedence, she is indicating
that she has more privilege--and goes in to dinner first or opens the dancing at a
ball--than Emma has and that Emma has to walk behind her at social events.  This
signifies that social status has such importance and runs so deeply that it even governs
who gets to be seated or dance first ahead of whom:

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A bride, you know, my dear, is always the first
in company, let the others be who they may (Mr. Woodhouse).
Mrs. Elton,
before she could be spoken to, was ready; and before Mr. Woodhouse had reached her with
his request to be allowed to hand her into the dining-parlour, was
saying—
"Must I go first? I really am ashamed of always leading the way."
(Mrs. Elton)

Some other
characters who show representations of social status are the Churchills at the highest
end and the gypsies at the lowest end. Also represented is the social status of working
people from Miss Taylor (Mrs. Weston) to Harriet and the Mrs. Goddard and farmer Robert
Martin, with Jane Fairfax on the cusp between the world of privilege and
work.

In Pride and Prejudice, one of
the most distinct representations of social status is through the minor character
Colonel Fitzwilliam. His remarks to Elizabeth about his social status are very telling
(informative) of the the realities of the power and constraints of social status. Though
the son of an earl, Fitzwilliam is forced by the realities of social status to look for
a woman of high social class and wealth to marry.

Since, as
a second son, he has no independent wealth of his own, he will fall from social status
if he marries a woman who is similarly without wealth and independence. He is unwilling
to even think of giving up his social status and therefore declines to even contemplate
falling in love with the basically penniless Elizabeth, how ever great her charms may
be.

"A younger
son, you know, must ... in matters of greater weight ... suffer from want of money.
Younger sons cannot marry where they like. ... Our habits of expense make us too
dependent ... to marry without some attention to money." (Colonel
Fitzwilliam)

Some other
characters who show social status are Catherine de Bourgh and Darcy at the highest level
and Collins, Charlotte Lucas, and Wickham at the lowest levels. The Bennets represent
how social status can be lost by expending one's capital (the money in one's fortune
that earns interest to be used for annual expenditures). The Bingleys represent how
social status can climb to the heights through extremely successful working class
successes, while the Gardiners represent how social status can be transcended through
success combined with reasonableness and a rational turn of
mind.