“I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and I an sure she is not half as handsome as Jane”
When Mrs Bennet meets Mr Darcy, she also wants one of her daughters to marry him, as he is a very wealthy aristocrat. As long as her daughters are married with a husband who is financially stable, she believes love doesn’t have to be involved in the relationship.
“The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news...”
Mrs Bennet is very much like Lydia, her youngest daughter as their minds both think about only marriage, status and wealth, three of the main themes in the book. Both women show themselves to be shallow and immoderate in their dealings with men.
“Lydia, my love, though you are the youngest, I dare say Mr Bingley will dance with you at the next ball.”
“Oh!’ said Lydia stoutly, ‘I am not afraid; for although I am the youngest, I am the tallest.”
Charlotte Lucas has very much the same attitude to love and marriage as Mrs Bennet. She is 27 years of age, the oldest Lucas daughter, and in the time of the book; this was considered very old to be unmarried. Charlotte makes no attempt to find a husband who she loves and esteems, but simply gives in to the necessity of acquiring financial security through marriage. She doesn’t view love as the most vital component of a marriage.
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.”
“When she is secure of him, there will be leisure for falling in love as much as she chuses.”
“...and if she were married to him to-morrow, I should think she had as good chance of happiness as if she were to be studying his character for a twelvemonth”
Most of the other characters see Mr Darcy as a proud man who is extremely conscious of class differences, but Charlotte believes Mr Darcy has the right to be proud simply because of his wealth and status. Austen does not discuss Charlotte in the same way as Mrs Bennet and it seems that Austen sympathises with Charlotte throughout the play. Charlotte actually wants something out of a relationship; she’s 27 and is having no luck at all in finding a man to spend the rest of her life with, in this way we see Austen writing almost feeling sorry for Charlotte.
Charlotte believes that love and happiness can come after marriage, so she just simply has to find a man with a large fortune to settle down with.
“I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask only for a comfortable home; and considering Mr Collin’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.”
When she does marry Mr Collins, we hear that Charlotte would much rather spend time in the house, which she considers her own while Mr Collins is out in the gardening, this way they spend very little time with each other.
“To work in his garden was his most respectable pleasures; and Elizabeth admired the command of countenance with which Charlotte talked of the healthfulness of the exercise.”
When Mr Collins could be forgotten, there was really great air of comfort throughout, and by Charlottes evident enjoyed it, Elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten!”
Elizabeth’s idea of love and marriage is the complete opposite to her mothers’ and Charlottes and she feels a marriage should be based entirely on love and happiness.
“She had always felt that Charlotte’s opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own”
When the eldest daughter, Jane dances twice with Mr Bingley at the ball in the nearby town Meryton, Mr Darcy exclaims that Jane is “the most beautiful creature he has ever beheld.” Mr Bingley suggests that Mr Darcy dance with Elizabeth, but Darcy refuses, saying, “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” He proceeds to declare that he has no interest in women who are “slighted by other men” and these comments make Elizabeth take an immediate and understandable disliking to Mr Darcy.
Elizabeth often, is Mr Bennet’s favourite daughter and the only input into the conversation of Mr Bingley marrying one of his daughters was:
“…I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chuses of the girls: though I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy.”
Elizabeth is concerned with propriety, good-manners, and virtue, but is not impressed by mere wealth or titles, which clearly makes her stand out from the rest of her family who are only interested in status and wealth. She believes that a lady should get to know a man before deciding to spend the rest of their lives together as husband and wife.
Elizabeth: “She has only known him a fortnight. She danced four times with him at Meryton; she saw him one morning at his own house, and has since dined with him four times. This is not quite enough to make her even understand his character.”
Charlotte: “Not as you represent it. Had she merely dined with him, she might only have discovered whether he had a good appetite; but you must remember that four evenings have also been spent together- and four evenings may do a great deal.”
These two quotes, spoken by Elizabeth and Charlotte show how different their ideas of love and relationships are during a conversation about Jane and Mr Bingley.
“Handsome young men must have something to live on as well as the plain.”
This quote is Elizabeth saying that she now realizes the reality of society of how Mr Wickham must marry a woman who is wealthy and does well in the world.
Austen continuously criticizes her society, making out that wealth, status and marriage is all that people want. In ‘Pride and Prejudice’ we can see that most of the characters are obsessed with these morals and only a very few characters are the ones that are in relationships due to love, which Jane Austen believes is the right kind of relationship.
