Pride and Prejudice

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                English Coursework

English Literature Coursework: Pre- 1914 Prose – “Pride and Prejudice”


“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

In the 19th century women had many more restrictions than they do today. They had little choice but to obey men, and they had little money or property that could be kept in their name. Women generally had to marry, or be looked after by a male relative, otherwise they would have no money or house. Because of this, marriages often occurred for security and material goods instead of for love.

Women, during Jane Austin’s life, were expected to get married – this was the main goal in their lives. Once they were married their main goal was to produce a male heir, or to get secure a ‘good’ marriage for any daughters. They had very mundane lives, which were alleviated by social activities. The social activates themselves were centred on finding a partner or falling in love; depending on which came first. The majority of women were very frivolous and trivial; clothes and looking good was the main object of everyday life, as this would help them to find the best partner possible. They had a very passive role and formal restrictions on what they could do; they had to be formally introduced by a male, normally a father or brother before they could converse with anybody they didn’t already know.

Love and marriage is the main theme throughout Pride and Prejudice, as well as Jane Austen’s other books. The other major occurring themes in the book are; pride and prejudice, class, reputation, family and individual and society. Satire and irony is used to put across the different themes to the reader, and to show different characters views on the themes, and the way they react to them throughout the book.

Pride and Prejudice contains many good and bad examples of marriages, with all sorts of characters that represented Jane Austen’s era and the different views of society during this time.

Mr and Mrs Bennet’s marriage is the first thing that is read about in Pride and Prejudice, and it is obvious that it isn’t necessarily a good one. Mr Bennet doesn’t care or love Mrs Bennet at all, but is content in the marriage and doesn’t wish for anything better, “Mr Bennet… You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion on my poor nerves”. He spends a lot of his time using Mrs Bennet as the butt of his jokes, as she is not the most intelligent women, or he sits by himself. Jane Austen uses sarcasm to highlight that the marriage is not a happy content one, and that even though she doesn’t realise it, Mrs Bennet is not happy and is not loved by her husband.

Mr Bennet is clever, humorous and observant, “So odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve and caprice”; he is in control in the marriage which is shown at the beginning by how little he speaks compared to Mrs Bennet, who can be mocked by the smallest of sentences without her realising. He entertains himself with the folly of the women around him; his wife and his daughters, apart from Lizzy who he is very protective over as he realises that she would only marry for love, and doesn’t want her ended up like his wife. He believes in marriage for love, and realises that he made the mistake of marrying for beauty, and regrets it sincerely, as shown by the mocking of his wife.

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Mrs Bennet, on the other hand, has a very different view of marriage.  She is an extremely stereotypical, mercenary, superficial caricature, and is meant to be annoying and silly. She is completely devoted and obsessed with getting her daughters married, “She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper… The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace visiting and news…” it didn’t matter to her whether her daughters were happy in their marriage; material possessions were the only thing that she had any interest in. Jane Austen called it “her business” ...

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