Unlike the 18th century society, people in the 20th century sometimes use strong language to communicate their true feelings. Sex seems quite open at that time. Curley’s wife is quite sexually provocative. She adopts provocative poses at the bunkhouse. She approaches Lennie at the barn -- encourages him to stroke her hair, moves closer to him and to sit beside him.
The purpose of marriage in the 18th century society as depicted is often political or economical. For example, Darcy is keen to make a wise marriage, while Lady Catherine wants her daughter to marry Darcy so that her “estate” will unite or ally with Darcy’s “estate”. On the other hand, the five Bennet girls, as portrayed by Austen, have to marry for money because they will inherit none of their own. There is no real way for them to be independent. That is why Mrs. Bennet warns Elizabeth, “If you go on refusing every offer of marriage, I do not know who is to maintain you when your father is dead.”
The book also shows that not only woman is after money but man also after it. This we can see when Colonel Fitzwilliam says, “Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money.” Elizabeth almost says more or less the same thing. She says, “Handsome young man must have something to live on, as well as the plain,” when she sees Wickham engaging to Mary King, a wealthy heiress of ten thousand pounds.
In “Of Mice and Man”, Curley’s wife tells Lennie how she meets Curley. “So married Curley. Met him out to the Riverside Dance Palace that same night,” says she. It sounds like a romantic story of falling in love at first sight. However, we can see that Curley’s wife marries Curley only for getting away from her mother and for Curley’s position as the son of the ranch owner. Basically, the purpose of marriage of Curley’s wife is marrying for a home, a financial security and a secure social standing. While Curley’s purpose of marriage as portrayed seems to be merely for showing off his position, because it “seems like Curley is cockier’n ever since he got married”, says Candy. It seems that Curley treats his wife as a ‘possession’ rather than a wife or human.
The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet as portrayed by Austen is an example of an unsuccessful marriage. They have married for passion, which passes and they find themselves are locked into a life with someone they do not like and share little in common with. One of the few times they do not agree with each other is when Mrs. Bennet tries to force Elizabeth to go back and accept Mr. Collins’ proposal but Mr. Bennet backs Elizabeth up. Another time is when they know Elizabeth is going to marry Darcy. Both Mrs. Bennet’s thought and words run wholly on “ how rich, what pin-money and jewels” and “what carriages you will have” on the marriage of Elizabeth, while Mr. Bennet tells Elizabeth that he knows “he is rich, to be sure”, but “will they make you happy?” Mr. Bennet reckons that true love, which is lack in his own marriage, is more important than wealth for a good marriage. He finds difficult to share his point of view with his wife.
As I have mentioned in the beginning that Lady Catherine has tried to force a ‘sensible’ marriage of Darcy to her daughter. We understand that she can’t succeed. Even if she has succeeded, there is evidence that the marriage will not be a successful one because it ignores individual feelings and there is no true love between them.
The marriage between Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas is also considered to be a ‘sensible’ match. The marriage satisfies both sides because what Mr. Collins needs is someone to marry him so that he can have a wife to present to Lady Catherine while Charlotte is in danger of becoming an old maid. She needs someone to marry her so that she can have a home and a secure social standing. In fact, Charlotte’s pragmatic views on marriage are voiced out several times in the novel --“ Without thinking highly either of Man or matrimony, marriage had always been her subject; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.” Jane Austen leaves us in no doubt that Charlotte/ Collins marriage is an unhappy marriage because this marriage is based on absolutely no true love.
Unlike the marriage of Mr. Collins and Charlotte, the marriage of Lydia and Wickham is based solely on physical attraction. As a matter of fact, it is almost a ‘forced’ marriage. No matter how much the marriage does not make sense, it has to take place in order to save the reputation of all parties involved because as I have mentioned before, that “elopement” is not tolerated in the society as portrayed. As we understand Wickham himself has “ Neither integrity or honour” and that “he will not marry a woman without some money”, and as “Lydia does not have much to offer anyone but health and youth”, the marriage cannot be a happy one. In fact, Wickham has no intention in marrying Lydia. It is true to say unless Darcy has intervened, they may not have married.
Lydia’s behaviour is more of a flighty romantic. She follows Wickham partly because of her immature attitude that she intends to make her elder sisters jealous by showing them, being the youngest, she can still get married before any of them. Notice what she says, “ Ah! Jane, I take your place now, and you must go lower, because I am a married woman.” And partly, which I believe to be the main reason, is that she is carried away by Wickham’s uniform and dashing good looks. Throughout the book, there are many references to how good looking one is, but Austen does not seem to think that it is an important criterion for a successful marriage.
When comparing Curley’s marriage with those depicted in “Pride and Prejudice”, it seems that Curley’s match is more or less the same as that of Mr. Collins in some ways. For example, in the way that Mr. Collins needs a wife to show to Lady Catherine, while Curley wants to show off before the workers in the ranch. However, it is different in other ways. Curley goes to the brothel in town whereas Mr. Collins is faithful to his wife; Mr. Collins trusts his wife while Curley always tries to check his wife. Although their purposes of marriage seem more or less the same, their attitudes to sex are totally different.
To Curley’s wife, it seems that the marriage is a ‘sensible’ one because, as I have mentioned before, she gets a shelter -- a secure social standing and a financial security. However, she does not find happiness. She confides to Lennie that she does not like Curley. She says, “ I don’t like Curley…he ain’t a nice fella.” There are neither mutual trust nor true love between them. It is definitely an unhappy marriage for both of them.
However there are examples of successful marriages. In “Pride and Prejudice”, the marriage between Jane and Bingley is a successful one. Jane married for both love and wealth and she gets both of them. Jane and Bingley get married because there is a mutual attraction between them. Jane is polite, rational, conservative and social, always conforming to the rules of the society. She is the perfect example of what a woman in the 18th century society should be, as depicted by Austen. Whilst Bingley is “quite young, wonderfully handsome, extremely agreeable” and “a single man of large fortune, four or five thousand a year.” They have equally happy manners and charming countenances and both share an optimistic view of the world, enjoying a great deal in common. Bingley has a woman he really loves, while Jane finds both true love and financial security in Bingley. It is an ideal match.
The marriage between Elizabeth and Darcy also shows us how a marriage can work. Austen shows us marriage can work if the two genuinely love each other. As I have mentioned before, Darcy is keen to make a wise marriage. He admires Elizabeth being smart, witty and realistic. It seems that the difference in family class between them does not bother Darcy when he finds that he truly loves Elizabeth and realizes the important of individual worth. Elizabeth also admires Darcy for being who he is -- a man of manners, decorum and integrity. They have a great deal in common, especially in those basic virtues of the age being depicted by Austen, such as intellect, reason, sociability, moderation and stability. They also have a great deal to share with, because as depicted in the book -- “by her ease and liveliness, his mind might have been softened, his manners improved, and from his judgment, information, and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of great importance.”
We can see there is a difference of view between the attitude to sex in the 18th century society as portrayed by Austen and that in the 20th century society by Steinbeck. It is found that different social background with different moral standard, in the two different societies as portrayed affects the attitude to sex of the people in that age. We also see these differences in the attitude to sex, whether conservative or open, do not affect the purpose of their marriage in both societies. Both are after money. It seems that in both societies, marriage is the only allowed route to financial security. Elizabeth is the only exception who is seeking only true love in a marriage. Jane Austen writes in her novel, “ Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance,” which means to have a successful marriage is very difficult. She points out in “Pride and Prejudice” that it is the combination of true love, wealth and social status makes a successful marriage, lack of one thing will make it unsuccessful, especially without true love. While Steinbeck uses Curley’s marriage as a negative example bringing out the same message -- he tries to tell us what is lack in Curley’s unsuccessful marriage and that is to love each other truly.
Therefore, I can conclude that both books have successfully presented an ideal of the basis for a successful marriage and they are remarkably similar, suggesting that the two cultural attitudes to love and romance are not really so very far apart.
