A well-known aphorism states, “Money makes a marriage.” In Victorian society, women had only one of two options in regards to their financial future. They either married well or had to rely on their male relatives for support. This social structuring caused people to marry for money to secure their future rather than marrying for love and felicity. In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, several relationships start due to a suitor of superior social class but the social class is not what led to the eventual marriage. Jane Austen shows that people have the choice in love and their decision should not be based on income alone. This choice between love and wealth causes the conflicts of the novel. Although money might complete the marriage, it does not make it. That is why Austen condemns relationships based solely on wealth and encourages relationships based on character and love.…
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.…
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a nineteenth century novel revolving around the life and romantic affairs of the Bennett sisters and their family in the English countryside. Seen as a lady-like romance novel, Pride and Prejudice seems like a light read, but in reality Jane Austen uses her novel to make scathing commentary about nineteenth century society in England. Pride and Prejudice contrast the marriages of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas to show how nineteenth century English society’s view of a perfect marriage was often based solely on class, and often disregarded any connection a pair may have on an emotional level. This disregard shows the rigidness of class structure in that time period, and the importance of keeping the upper class exclusive.…
One of the central themes in Jane Austen’s nineteenth-century novel Pride and Prejudice is the roles of passion and reasoning in justifying a successful marriage. The characters’ differing viewpoints on passion and reason in marriage reflect the contrasts between society’s views on marriage and Austen’s. Society in general sees marriage as an act that should be justified by logic rather than affection. Austen, however, sees passion as integral to the health of a relationship as well. The five marriages in the novel-Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Lydia Bennet and George Wickham, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, and Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley-. These differences and similarities between the characters’ relationships serve to indicate Austen’s own opinions on what should justify a marriage. In Pride and Prejudice, the Bennets’ and Collinses’ marriages reflect Austen’s belief that marriage is a union that should be justified by both passion and logic.…
This Article talks about morality and marriage in Pride and Prejudice money was one of the most connected themes and so was marriage. When this novel was written women did not work and so it was not unusual for a woman to be married to a man of fortune. However, this article talks about the moral values that the character Elizabeth had and her love for the other character Mr. Darcy was not solely based on his richness but on love.…
In Jane Austen’s novels, innocent courting and proper marriages constitute the central strands of the story, but behind these we can see that there lurks the ulterior motive of loving an marrying for money and social position. Her heroines without any money or social rank are always placed in a desperate situation of having to lure some young and rich landlords or clergymen with comfortable livings into marrying them, either with their looks or with their wiles, or with both. This is a truthful reflection of the specific historical period of the author’s time during which people seemed to take money much more seriously than other times, especially the women awaiting their marriage.…
Although Pride and Prejudice begins with the anonymous figure of a rich, single man, the novel is actually concerned with the plight of the poor, single woman. So far as the novel makes a conscious statement about womanhood, it argues that poor, single women have an extremely limited range of…
A conventionally romantic novel usually focuses on the relationship between a physically attractive man and woman. The hero and heroine usually meet early in the story and fall in love at first sight. The two lovers may, more often than not, have to overcome obstacles in order to be together, but in the end, it seems that love conquers all. Pride and Prejudice does fall into this 'romance' category; it's often considered the most romantic novel of all time. But there are certainly elements of this novel that drive completely against the cliches of a conventional romance novel, and this essay will attempt to pinpoint those 'elements', and argue whether or not Pride and Prejudice follows the conventions of a romantic novel.…
In this novel Jane Austen explains that during early 1800’s marriage is considered to be the only way, for women in particular, to live a comfortable life and free from financial worries. However, if women fail to marry, one of their only other options would be to become a governess, completely under control of their employer for the rest of their lives. This is why marriage is so significant for people of a lower social or economic status. Despite whether they love their marriage partner, if they possess enough fortune to secure their future happiness, then it would be in their best interest to accept the proposal. But Austen believed that marriage should be only for love and affection, not for wealth and greed. Austen uses the characters to show the positioning between relationships of those who have married for love, like Elizabeth and Darcy, and relationships of those who have married for fortune, such as Charlotte.…
The first line of Pride and Prejudice reveals that a man who has money desires a wife. In the novel, Jane Austen criticizes British society and social expectations of the 19th century. Austen does this by her use of satire in her portrayal of her characters and in multiple situations. Her use of satire is to challenge the way things were in that time. Specific characters are the opposite of what they should be. However, some are just as they should be, and Austen pokes fun at them. The use of this sarcasm and irony is present throughout the novel.…
While reading Pride and Prejudice, most readers experience a nostalgic feeling throughout the novel. Yet, somehow, reader’s today still enjoy it just as much as the readers did back during it’s actual publication date in 1813 (Pride and Prejudice, By Jane Austen). The main reason it has retained it’s value through time is that it has so many similarities to times today. Take Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham, for example. Although Mr. Darcy is the obvious victor of Elizabeth, there is a love triangle. Love triangles are one of the more conflict-causing aspects in the novel that are similar to today. Marriage is one thing that is, in a way, the same as it was back then. Conceptually, marriage has not changed since the 1800s. Somewhere deep down, regardless of how much it may be denied, every person longs to be able to find the love of their life--that person they wind up marrying and living happily ever after with. It is easy to see how important marriage was in Austen’s time. In fact, the first line of “Pride and Prejudice” states that “It is a universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife (Austen).” Unfortunately, even though the fact that everyone wants to be married is the same, it can not truly be said that people married for similar reasons. Marrying for love is nowadays the only known…
The intricate nexus of marriage, money and love in Jane Austen's society is unfolded through the development of plots and characters of her novel Pride and Prejudice. In the nineteenth century's rural England, marriage was a woman's chief aim, both financially and socially. Financially because of women's dependent position marriage was the "only honourable position", infinitely preferable to the dependence of precarious shabby-genteel spinsterhood. Money was, therefore, a very significant aspect of Austen's society, especially when marriage was concerned. "A single man of large fortune" was naturally considered as "a nice thing" for the unmarried girls. Partners were chosen for what might now seem unemotional reasons: fortune and connections, similar to, but preferably better than one's own. By representing a series of marriages, Austen in this novel unearths and elucidates different aspects of the role of marriage, money and love in her society.…
Love and romance are leading factors to marriage. The novel by Jane Austen allows the reader to see how she sees marriage and society. She even puts it in the start of her book. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a considerable fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen, 10). It is clear that she is questioning whether an unmarried rich man is the ultimate desire of other unmarried women. The words open up the novel to the genre of romance. The statements beg the reader to ask if Jane Austen thinks it is moral for women to marry for money. The plot of the novel is a complex love story that engages romantics from the beginning. Darcy and Elizabeth courtship is full of stumbling blocks…
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"(Austen 1). Jane Austen started her book Pride and Prejudice in this way clearly stating that one of her major themes would be marriage. The line implies that men who are financially stable must want to get married. In some cases this is true, but in others it is the exact opposite. It is the female who does not have any money who is in want of a husband. In fact in Jane Austen 's Pride and Prejudice, it is mostly the female characters that not only are in want of husbands but also are doing most of the pursuing. This shows that no matter whether you are speaking of marriage back in those times, or speaking of marriage in more current times it still has not changed much.…
Jane Austen outlines her idea of the ideal marriage though Elizabeth and Darcy's union in Pride and Prejudice. Their marriage is based on love and intellectual stimulation rather than lust or push of social pressure that is displayed in Lydia and Charlotte's. Marriage is highly regarded in Austen's world in reference to permanence. Many marriages are described in Pride and Prejudice, but three unions that are born within the story line of the novel strongly express Austen's ideas and beliefs of marriage through Elizabeth's thoughts and actions. The three unions this essay will focus on are Charlotte and Collins, Wickham and Lydia, and Elizabeth and Darcy. Charlotte and Collins represent a socially-ideal marriage; they have married for money (at least on Charlotte's part), they have a nice estate, and Charlotte was able to escape being a burden on her family and the low-status position of an old maid. Since Collins is the beneficiary of the Bennet estate, it would seem as though a Bennet (specifically Elizabeth, Collins' first interest) would be the best choice. Despite the fact that Collins and Elizabeth would have been a better match, at least socially and financially, it is Charlotte who is tied to Collins in the end.…