The Theme of Marriage and the use of Irony in Pride and Prejudice
The apparent theme of this novel is husband hunting. Mrs. Bennet is anxious to secure suitable matches for their five daughters. The young girls are also separately eager to settle down. The Lucas family is worried about their plain and rapidly aging daughter Charlotte. Miss Bingley is hunting for Darcy’s hand, while Miss De Bourgh is also running after Darcy. Miss Darcy also apparently wants to rope in Bingley. IN fact Austen’s novel deals with the universal theme of love and marriage. It describes five marriages, four new ones and a fifth old one. The partners marry for different reasons, with the result that most of them prove a failure. MR. Bennet had married for the physical charm of Mrs. Bennet and was disillusioned soon. Charlotte Lucas married for economic security, while MR. Collins married for getting a wife, no matter if it was Jane, or Elizabeth or Charlotte. Lydia ran away with Wickham because she was infatuated with him. Wickham married her for material gain. Since they married for the wrong reasons, their marriages proved utter failures. Even Jane’s marriage with Bingley was not a roaring success. Only Elizabeth’s marriage had a sound basis. The novel thus shows the adverse effects of ill matched marriages.
