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Yes, that trip to Sotherton was quite an eye-opener, remembering the rules of the time. Maria and Henry went off together without other company, and that would have been very improper at the time for a young lady to do.
That behaviour, and then the whole matter of putting on the play, seems to lead pretty inevitably to Maria's recklessness in running away with Henry.
I can sympathise with those girls being required to go to church - and the teachers! How much worse for the servants being discussed by Maria, who would still be expected to get all their usual work done as well as go to church.
Yes, it is hard to find Maria as unsympathetic a person as she is supposed to be, though Henry is certainly pretty unpleasant and a recognisable type who thinks he is perfectly entitled to flirt with young women and make them fall in love with him. The sort who think he is "God's gift to women".
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