“Mr. Collins you must marry. A clergyman like you must marry.”
Her influence guides him; he is not a forceful man, determined character and relies heavily on his patroness for guidance.
Other reasons for Mr. Collins marrying are that Mr. Collins thinks it sets an example of matrimony in his parish and also Mr. Collins thinks it will add very greatly to his happiness. Lady de Bourgh views towards their marriage have a great impact on the marriage as Mr. Collins completely does what Lady de Bourgh says. Charlotte Lucas fits the criteria which Lady Catherine de Bourgh describes to Mr. Collins as being the perfect wife as she says
“choose properly , choose a gentlewoman for my sake; and for your own, let her be an active, useful sort of person, not brought up high , but able to make a small income go a good way.”
Jane Austen disapproves of this marriage as neither of them marries for love. Jane Austen dramatises Charlotte as the type of woman who does not marry for love but for security and shows that a woman who summits herself to this type of marriage has to suffer slight unhappiness;
"When Mr. Collins said any thing of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed, which certainly was not unseldom, she would involuntarily turned her eye on Charlotte. Once or twice she could discern a faint blush; but in general Charlotte wisely did not hear."
Charlotte gains security and a stable home. That’s all she wanted out of life; she also gains the inheritance of the Bennets estate.
The marriage of Lydia Bennet and Mr. Wickham is based on lust and passion. There was no original intention of marriage on Wickham’s part he was effectively bribed to marry Lydia. Lydia’s lack of common sense and responsibility is revealed when she takes pride in being the first Bennet girl to be married. Lydia does not take into consideration the circumstance of her marriage. Both have different motives for marrying each other. Lydia marries to be higher than her sisters as she is competitive towards her sisters. Lydia also wants to get away from her family as they only way from getting out from under the parental roof was marriage. Wickham on the other hand marries for money. Both are selfish and irresponsible characters with little sense of humour. Lydia is also still young and not matured yet to realize the commitments and responsibility that she has installed for her in the coming years. Lydia and Wickham’s marriage gradually disintegrates; Lydia becomes a regular visitor at her two elder sister’s homes when her husband was gone to enjoy himself in London or Bath. Through their relationship, Jane Austen shows that hasty marriage based on superficial qualities leads to unhappiness.
The marriage of Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley is a perfect marriage. This marriage is based on love and complete compatibility. Jane Austen approves of this marriage as they are married for love. This marriage is slightly criticised as Mr .Bingley is not a very strong man and in the days of the eighteenth Century husbands needed to be strong and lead the patriarch. Caroline Bingley is critical of marriage and she attempts to separate them. Caroline tries to keep Mr.Bingley out of touch with Jane. Jane gets the impression that he does not want to know her now he is engaged with more important things and will not have the time for her. Austen describes this marriage as being very successful as they marry for all the right reasons. Jane Austen expresses this through Elizabeth as Elizabeth says
"Really believed all his expectations of felicity, to be rationally founded, because they had for basis the excellent understanding, and super-excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself."
There is a problem in their relationship. The problem is that both characters are too gullible and too good-hearted to ever act strongly against others that may attempt to separate them. Jane is also very much pressurised into this relationship by her mother .It is an obvious marriage from the start but each of them are too scared to share their true feelings with one another till they are certain one another likes them.
The marriage of Elizabeth and Mr.Darcy is the example of the ultimately successful marriage in the novel. In the beginning Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy were distant from one another because of their pride and prejudice. Many people such as Lady Catherine De Bourgh disproved of the marriage as Elizabeth is of a lower class of Mr.Darcy. This is shown as Lady Catherine De Bourgh does not hesitate to show her true feelings to Elizabeth that she does not want her to marry Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy has a high standard of what he would like as a wife as he thinks an accomplished woman should have the knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and modern languages. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy marriage is based on love. They are both as witty as each other and both share knowledge as they are intelligent.
The marriage of Mr and Mrs. Bennet is a long-term marriage. It has lasted a long time and is going to continue for a long time. Mr. Bennet when he first meets Mr.Bennet was attracted to her by her looks as Mrs. Bennet lacks in intelligence. Mr. Bennet also likes to wind Mrs.Bennet as at the beginning he makes out he has no intention to going to meet the new neighbour Mr. Bingley, when he knows full well he will visit him.
He is Jane Austen’s example of a weak father, and husband as he gives into a lot of things very easily and he also blames himself for the state of the family being. Mr. Bennet is a non controlling man who tries to escape reality as he always spends most of his time at home or in his study.
The Bennets marriage is very much like the marriage of her daughter Lydia and Mr.Wickham. Mrs.Bennet is very much like Lydia as they both have looks but they lack intelligence .Mrs.Bennet favours Lydia as she can recognize the same person in Lydia as she can in what she use to be like. This marriage was fun, loving one though flaws have developed over the years. In this last relationship, Austen shows that it is necessary to use good judgement to select a wife, otherwise the two people will lose respect for each other.
In the eighteenth century marriage was never perfect nor is it today, but in this novel Jane Austen describes many different types of marriage. The marriages such as Mr. Bingley and Jane are described as the perfect marriage out of the whole novel , as they married for the right reasons this marriage has a happy ending and marriages such as Lydia and Mr. Wickham, who do not have a happy ending as they have marriages each other for all the wrong reasons. Jane Austen is trying to send out the message to marry for the right reason like for love. I think Jane Austen is right sending out his message as I agree with Jane Austen. As both partners must be compatible in intelligence, love and character in order to succeed. In the novel, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth meet the criteria to this compatibility as they share the same intelligence, character and love.
