Attitudes to Marriage in Pride and Prejudice
What attitudes to love and marriage does Jane Austen explore in Pride and Prejudice? Can you identify Jane Austen’s own view?
Jane Austen’s novel of Pride and Prejudice is set in the early 19th century and the central theme of the novel is love and marriage.
Marriage was viewed very differently in those days and each character in her novel has different views of marriage. Marriage to women gave status and independence as women could not acquire money on their own without inheriting or marrying into good fortune, so many girls at that time did not marry for affection or love. Jane Austen uses the
Bennet family to illustrate different types of marriage and thus reveals her own view.
An example of marriage can be found between Charlotte Lucas and Mr
Collins. Charlotte married for economic reasons and Mr Collin on the other hand married to “set a good example”.
Mr Collins is the Bennets’ cousin who’s “neither sensible nor agreeable”. The letter he wrote to the Bennet family “is a mixture of servility and self-importance”. He married mainly because Lady
Catherine de Bourgh advised him to do so. This shows the importance of class as Mr Collins spends most of his time being obsequious to his upper-class patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. His choice of wife changed early from Jane to Elizabeth and then to Charlotte after
Elizabeth’s rejection in just a few days. When he found out that Jane might be engaged to Bingley soon, he hardly needed time to consider at all “to change from Jane to Elizabeth while Mrs Bennet was stirring the fire”; this shows clearly that he did not choose his partner for love. The five reasons Mr Collins gave for proposing to Elizabeth was firstly, he thinks it’s the right thing to do as a clergyman to “set the example of matrimony”, secondly he thinks that it will provide happiness for him, thirdly it was advised by Lady Catherine De Bourgh, fourthly because he is inheriting the Bennets’
Jane Austen’s novel of Pride and Prejudice is set in the early 19th century and the central theme of the novel is love and marriage.
Marriage was viewed very differently in those days and each character in her novel has different views of marriage. Marriage to women gave status and independence as women could not acquire money on their own without inheriting or marrying into good fortune, so many girls at that time did not marry for affection or love. Jane Austen uses the
Bennet family to illustrate different types of marriage and thus reveals her own view.
An example of marriage can be found between Charlotte Lucas and Mr
Collins. Charlotte married for economic reasons and Mr Collin on the other hand married to “set a good example”.
Mr Collins is the Bennets’ cousin who’s “neither sensible nor agreeable”. The letter he wrote to the Bennet family “is a mixture of servility and self-importance”. He married mainly because Lady
Catherine de Bourgh advised him to do so. This shows the importance of class as Mr Collins spends most of his time being obsequious to his upper-class patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. His choice of wife changed early from Jane to Elizabeth and then to Charlotte after
Elizabeth’s rejection in just a few days. When he found out that Jane might be engaged to Bingley soon, he hardly needed time to consider at all “to change from Jane to Elizabeth while Mrs Bennet was stirring the fire”; this shows clearly that he did not choose his partner for love. The five reasons Mr Collins gave for proposing to Elizabeth was firstly, he thinks it’s the right thing to do as a clergyman to “set the example of matrimony”, secondly he thinks that it will provide happiness for him, thirdly it was advised by Lady Catherine De Bourgh, fourthly because he is inheriting the Bennets’