'Austen presents us with several different examples of marriage in 'Pride and Prejudice
'Austen presents us with several different examples of marriage in 'Pride and Prejudice.' Focusing on at least three couples, explore how each relationship is presented and what you think are Austen's intentions.
Throughout 'Pride and Prejudice', Austen often refers back to the era in which it was written and the kind of culture and society that she grew up in herself. It is also apparent that she sees the character Elizabeth as an alter-ego for herself, as she is rebellious to the things expected from her by her family and society in general - in reality, it would be preposterous to turn down a marriage proposal! It is evident that Austen did not like the general role that women took on in the early nineteenth century, with no financial independence and an expectation to serve the rest of their lives being a good wife and mother with only the accomplishments such as music and art, to excite them.
I have first decided to comment on the relationship between Mr and Mrs Bennet. Mr Bennet clearly regrets his marriage to Mrs Bennet and realises that he was really only attracted to her beauty and wealth, rather than her personality. This runs parallel to the relationship between Lydia and Mr Wickham. Wickham eloped with Lydia only for her money because he was desperate to leave his debts behind and wanted a companion to join him in his escape, which resulted in an unhappy marriage, an arrangement made only to protect the family's honour and respect among other acquaintances who would very much have frowned upon the elopement if it had not resulted in a marriage.
Marriages of that time were rarely for love; they were usually to ensure financial security, to carry on the family name, connections and a comfortable home. An example of this is the marriage between Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins. She tells Lizzie after her engagement, "I am not romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr Collins's character, connections, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair, as most people can boast on entering the marriage state."
Mr and Mrs Bennet's marriage is presented to us through satire and condescendence. Mr Bennet, though unhappy with his marriage, has the upper hand where he can mock his dizzy wife while Mrs Bennet sits blissfully unaware. Mrs Bennet's days are solely confined to ensuring that her daughters are married off to wealthy young gentlemen with good status and connections, to make sure that when her husband dies she is not left with nothing, as their house has been left in the hands of Mr Collins in the event of Mr Bennet's death. As a result of the ...
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Mr and Mrs Bennet's marriage is presented to us through satire and condescendence. Mr Bennet, though unhappy with his marriage, has the upper hand where he can mock his dizzy wife while Mrs Bennet sits blissfully unaware. Mrs Bennet's days are solely confined to ensuring that her daughters are married off to wealthy young gentlemen with good status and connections, to make sure that when her husband dies she is not left with nothing, as their house has been left in the hands of Mr Collins in the event of Mr Bennet's death. As a result of the odd mixture of personalities within the Bennet household, Mr Bennet had decided long ago to leave Mrs Bennet to herself to worry about the marital state of her despairing daughters.
"Her father, captured by youth and beauty and that appearance of good humour, which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and liberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her." Austen's intention for these bad examples of marriage was to show readers that most marriages of that time were unsuccessful and unhappy with maybe a few exceptions. This was usually due to couples marrying hastily and being in lust rather than love, also not really knowing each others personalities until it was too late.
The most important couple in the book is obviously Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, and it is evident that Austen's intention for this relationship or at least for the character of Elizabeth is and to show that there were a few women who would not conform to the expectations set by society. Jane Austen was clearly one of these women. This relationship set the path for the whole novel, it clearly relates to the title and gives the whole story a sense of warmth because of its predictable happily-ever-after ending. Pride and prejudice are the two main themes in the novel and are shown mainly through the two principle characters. Both are too proud to admit their faults as well as their affection for each other and due to Mr Wickham's evil scheming, Lizzie is automatically prejudiced against Darcy without knowing the full truth.
At the first ball at Netherfield, Lizzie is at first rejected by Darcy, he tells Bingley "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me." This gives the reader an automatic indication of his arrogance and initial perception of Lizzie. It then becomes evident that he does indeed have feelings for her, 'She attracted him more than he liked,' but his pride and prejudice take over. By the time he does pluck up the courage to confess his true feelings to her, he proposes to her with a speech declaring his love for her. Lizzie is taken aback by this but is aware that she does not love him and that it will have been the second proposal that she had refused. She did feel penitent for rejecting him, 'She was at first sorry for the pain he was about to receive.' Another reason for her rejection was that it was rumoured that he was the cause of Mr Bingley not proposing to her sister, Jane, and when asked if this was true, he affirmed it with not a hint of remorse, giving Lizzie even more reason to believe she had done the right thing in denying him her hand. Wickham forced Elizabeth to believe that Darcy betrayed him with regard to the clerical living that Darcy apparently was supposed to hand over to Wickham from his father but didn't. This added with the prejudice that Lizzie already had for Darcy, causes her to have an inaccurate judgement of his character and disregard his affection for her leading to the rejection of his marriage proposal to her. This is because of the dissembled remarks made by Wickham in an effort to shame Darcy. It is after the refusal of the engagement that Darcy writes her a letter stating that Lizzie had been deceived by Wickham and that in fact Wickham had endeavoured to elope with Darcy's sister, Georgiana.
It later became apparent, in the letter written by Darcy to Lizzie that all the allegations made by Wickham were indeed fictitious and that his intentions behind preventing the marriage between Jane and Bingley was because he interpreted Jane's manor towards Bingley less affectionate than his and did not want to see his best friend feel unrequited love for her. Blinded by what Wickham had told her until the letter, Lizzie then had to decide whether her morals were in the right place and whether she had let her pride and prejudice get in the way of a perfectly appropriate marriage..
There is further prejudice felt by Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, to Lizzie which is another obstacle in the way of their love. Lady Catherine could only see Lizzie as a young girl who was not worthy of her nephew's affection with little to offer a man of Darcy's stance, especially as Darcy was to be betrothed to his cousin, Anne de Bourgh. Austen's intention for this principle relationship is to promote the fact that not all marriages were unhappy and only arrangements made to increase status and security, but that some were based purely on one person's love for another.
Another relationship which is an example of this, is that of Jane and Mr Bingley. With Bingley's scheming sister, Caroline, their relationship is rather rocky and unsure with both not knowing how the other feels until Bingley's proposal towards the end of the novel. This was one relationship that everyone (except Bingley's sisters, of course) was hoping for, but Darcy put that in jeopardy when he discouraged a proposal from Bingley because he was not sure if his strong affection for Jane was given in return. Bingley had longed for Jane from their initial meeting. He told Darcy, "Oh! She is the most beautiful creature I ever once beheld!" Jane was just as besotted, "He is just what a young man ought to be." And so, against the odds, they finally proclaimed their love for each other and a marriage was soon in order, to everyone's delight. It is the examples of Jane and Bingley, and Lizzie and Darcy, of marriages that tend to 'go the distance' as they have the strong foundations that a good and healthy marriage requires. Austen shows us the 'Love at first sight' type of relationship but due to external intervention its course doesn't run smooth.
Lydia and Wickham's marriage was one of disaster from the beginning. After a sneaky elopement the only option, so as to save the Bennet family from utter disgrace, was for a marriage to go ahead. A silly act of lust resulted in both parties experiencing debt and being in an unhappy marriage. Mr Wickham had already tried to elope with Darcy's sister, Georgiana, and had set his sights upon a young lady who had just came upon a good fortune, Mary King though she refused him. He then settled for Lydia and then found that the only way to escape his debts was to force the Bennet family to pay him to marry Lydia. "Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson; that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable - that one false step involves her endless ruin." The Bennets assume that the Gardiners, Mrs Bennet's brother and his wife, had paid off Wickham but it was in fact Mr Darcy as he wanted to do a good deed for the woman whom he loved - Elizabeth. The reader and Lizzie herself became aware of this knowledge towards the end of the novel.
So, in conclusion, it is clear that the principle theme of the novel was marriage and this relates to the importance of it throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Jane Austen clearly intended to base Elizabeth's character upon herself as she was a non-conformist with regard to most of the things that were supposed to have made up the "accomplished young lady". Jane Austen herself was indeed very much similar to the character of Lizzie in which she embedded knowledge and experiences from her past, these included rejecting a marriage proposal herself because she was not in love with him and the only man in which she did love was sent away from her because his aunt considered her connections too low. All this in her life explains a lot about the novel and the ideal relationship that Mr Darcy and Lizzie share.
Emma Merritt 11.1