Many characters at different points in the novel remark on Jane and Bingley, and how well suited they are. Elizabeth comments that Bingley is a, ‘sweet-tempered, amiable, charming man.’ She realises that Jane and Bingley are becoming infatuated with one another. ‘The train of agreeable reflections, which her observations gave birth to, made her perhaps almost as happy as Jane.’ This reflects on their compatibility.
The other ‘ideal state’ of marriage, which is maybe more so than Jane and Bingley, is seen in Darcy and Elizabeth. Their compatibility is blinded to each of them because of Darcy’s pride and Elizabeth’s prejudice. As the book progresses, both characters manage to overcome these character flaws and various other obstacles and eventually realise their love for one another as their compatibility and understanding is increasingly revealed to the reader, ‘It was a union that must have been to the advantage of both.’ Darcy and Elizabeth’s similarities lie in their levels of intelligence, dedication to friends and their stance on expressing their opinions openly. Regardless of what anybody said about their relationship, including Mrs. Bennet and the superior Lady Catherine, they ignored these various warnings. Lady Catherine mainly commented on Elizabeth’s social inferiority to hers and her nephews. Also that Darcy should in fact be marrying her daughter, his cousin. This is seen where Lady Catherine states to Elizabeth, ‘you have no regard, then, for, the honour and credit of my nephew! Unfeeling, selfish girl! Do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody?’ Of course neither Darcy nor Elizabeth take any notice of this as their affections for one another are true.
Therefore their marriage is not only based on passion and physical attraction, but has been built upon to create affection, understanding and love.
These compatibilities, their love, similarities and the asset that Elizabeth’s social status has been improved upon greatly, creates Austen’s ‘ideal state’. She shows it to be the most prosperous type of marriage, it almost certainly can assure the couple’s happiness, while maintaining social stability. This is seen in the long marriage between Mr. And Mrs. Gardiner, who are always portrayed as a happily married couple, still in love as ever.
The second type of marriage presented by Austen is a mercenary marriage. It is not one in which compatibility, let alone love, play a part. It is shown through the marriage of Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins. This marriage seems to summarize some of the main points raised by Austen in this novel, and shows how things worked at the time. Both Charlotte and Mr. Collins were in the marriage for mercenary reasons. Mr. Collins had firstly decided on the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, to be his wife, but after discovering her nearing engagement with Bingley, he then attended to the next daughter, Elizabeth. He was unsuccessful in establishing a relationship, i.e. marriage, as she did not agree in this type of marriage and as most of Austen’s views are seen through Elizabeth, the reader is told that she too does not agree in a mercenary marriage.
Charlotte was nearing the age where she could be named an ‘old maid’ and has become desperate in the attempt to find security. She is very cynical about finding happiness in marriage, and she finds herself with an opportunity for security through Mr. Collins. He is marrying for the wrong reasons, one being because his patroness recommended the idea of a wife. Whereas Charlotte’s conception on marriage shows the reasons to why someone in that day would marry. She only asks for a, ‘comfortable home; and considering Mr. Colin’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.’ This shows that there is no romance playing a part in some people’s lives, and that their only aim in life is to find a suitable partner with an acceptable wealth and status. Although some hope or ask for more than this, Charlotte accepts Collins for his wealth and position, and sees a successful marriage in this.
The last type of marriage shown in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a marriage based purely on passion and physical attraction, where a couple are drawn into a marriage based on first appearances. In the two relationships seen in this type of marriage, between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and Lydia and Wickham, Austen shows her views through their actions. Both couples end up in a marriage based on their physical attraction to one another, not on their compatibility. Jane Austen sees this marriage to be fruitless as there has been no thought or consideration towards the fact that, once married, they will have nothing in common. Lydia and Wickham are presented to be the younger versions of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mr. Bennet has found that he is unable to connect with his wife on any level of intelligence or that he shares any interests with her. He is often found keeping himself away from his wife in his study, as he feels that any communication with her is pointless.
‘Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour, which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her. Respect, esteem and confidence had vanished for ever; and all his views of domestic happiness were overthrown.’
Along with the ideas of why Mr. and Mrs. Bennet do not get along that are stated in the quotation, there is another idea to why Mr. Bennet has no drive to speak with his wife. This is that Mrs. Bennet has a pre-occupation with matchmaking and has many social indiscretions. Despite this, she still manages to realise that a marriage into wealth is crucial for the economic survival of her family, whose prosperity depends on the inheritance of the family’s affluence by Mr. Collins on the death of Mr. Bennet. Austen’s dislike, even disapproval of this marriage, can yet again be seen through the thoughts of Elizabeth, when she states, ‘But how little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because of their passions were stronger than their virtue, she could easily conjecture.’ This shows how unsuccessful this type of marriage could be, also how lonely a life both people will lead. We can see that Austen disapproves of a mercenary marriage, but of this type of marriage she almost objects to it. As she believes that marriages such as Lydia and Wickham’s, should not be embarked upon if entirely based on a fierce physical attraction.
In Jane Austen’s novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, marriage was not like a ‘boy meets girl romance’, which is maybe what most would expect from a romance novel. In her time and when the book was set, marriage was an intricate procedure, which was based on: money, family connections, tradition and society. Unfortunately, love and compatibility and the feelings of the two people involved, were not high on the priority list for a good, successful marriage. However Austen thought this should be the other way around, as she believed that love and compatibility are one of the most important aspects of a good marriage and that money and social status should only play a part in marriage, not decide it. This can be seen where she shows her personal feelings towards each different type of marriage shown. In the marriages she sees as being ‘good’ marriages, we can assume that they will be happy when the marriage has been based on a balance of their personalities and their love. Throughout each she continually stresses the importance of love, equality and compatibility in a marriage. The reader is shown the alternatives to this, in both the positive and negative consequences of marriage.