Elizabeth is the second eldest of the Bennet sisters. She is very witty and likes to adopt striking and independent views. She finds it easy to laugh at herself, not taking things too seriously;
‘She told the story with great spirit amongst her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous’.
This humorous quality of Elizabeth’s seems to be the one that attracts Darcy.
Darcy. Although a good looking and wealthy man, he is some what despised at the beginning of the novel as he is, proud, and prejudiced. We are told that ‘Darcy is clever. He was at the same time haughty, and his manners, though well bred, were not inviting’.
Elizabeth's and Darcy's relationship is filled with trials and tribulations, misjudgements and prejudice. They first meet each other at the Meryton assembly. Their relationship seems to be very unpromising. He was decided to be ‘The most proud man in the world, and everyone hoped he would never come there again.’
Elizabeth also understandably sees Darcy as a proud, arrogant and cold man as he talks of her as being "tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me."
Initially Elizabeth dislikes him because of these characteristics and she decides that he is resentful and hates everybody. She says:
‘And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody’. She also tells him that; ‘Implacable resentment is a shade in a character’.
Pride is one of the main barriers that create an obstacle to Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage. Darcy's pride in his position in society leads him initially to disrespect anyone outside of his own social circle, and Elizabeth's vanity clouds her judgment, making her prone to think ill of Darcy and to think well of Wickham.
However as the novel progresses we see that Darcy is shown to be more capable of change than any other character in the novel, even Elizabeth. He has enough flexibility to change his opinion of Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Darcy did not experience ‘love at first site’. They share a growing love for one another. When Elizabeth is asked when she thought she really started to love Mr. Darcy, she wittily replies saying: “She felt to be mistress of Pemberly might be something”
It is quite surprising that Elizabeth and Jane do achieve relationships involving love, compatibility and mutual respect, as that is certainly not the sort of relationship that their mother and father share. Austen portrays the family as primarily responsible for the moral education of children. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett’s failure to provide this education for their daughters leads to the utter shamelessness, foolishness, and immorality of Lydia. Elizabeth and Jane have managed to develop virtue and strong characters in spite of the negligence of their parents, perhaps through the help of their studies and the good influence of Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, who are the only relatives in the novel that take a serious concern in the girls' well-being and provide sound guidance.
“Seriously, I would have you be on your guard. Do not involve yourself, or endeavour to involve him in affection which the want of fortune would make so very imprudent.”
Elizabeth and Jane look up to the Gardiners and hope to achieve a loving and happy marriage like theirs.
Mrs. Bennet is an irritating woman whose main goal in life is to get her five daughters married.
“If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Neitherfield, and all the others equally well married, I shall have nothing to wish for.”
It might be correct to assume that she felt social and financial pressure to do so. Her husband's estate is entailed to his nephew, Mr. Collins, upon Mr. Bennett’s death. Therefore, Mrs. Bennet wants her daughters to have financial stability in case of their father's death. In the period of this story there was very little opportunity for women who were single. For the most part, women could not acquire money on their own without inheriting or marrying into good fortune.
The Bennets' marriage is not ideal. Mr. Bennet married his wife because she was beautiful in her youth. Eventually though, her beauty faded and so did their enjoyment of each other.
Intellectually, she is very much inferior to Mr. Bennet. He enjoys his time alone in his study where he can be away from his wife and daughters. Mrs. Bennet enjoys gossiping about neighbours and finding future husbands for her daughters. I do believe that Austen is showing the reader that marrying only for physical appearance is wrong - beauty fades with time.
In contrast to Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship, is that of Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins. This relationship is, however, very much more usual for 18th Century marriages, where a girl who is considered to be ‘old’ and unattractive, even ‘on the shelf’, marries without love, to achieve social acceptance and financial stability.
Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth's dearest friend, marries Mr. Collins for money. The narrator plainly states that Charlotte accepted his proposal for the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment. She is twenty-six years old and her family was beginning to be worried. Upon hearing of her engagement, her brothers no longer had to worry about Charlotte dying an old maid. Charlotte wanted nothing more out of marriage than financial stability and that is what she got.
“Consider Mr. Collin’s respectability, and Charlotte’s prudent, steady character. Remember that she is one of a large family; that as to fortune, it is a most eligible match.”
In Hunsford it seems that Charlotte does nothing but tend to the chores of maintaining her home and pleasing Lady Catherine. I do not believe that Charlotte and Mr. Collins are in love, and they do not really seem too happy in each other's company. I think their marriage is an illustration of why you should not marry just for financial reasons.
It is interesting that Mr. Collins first proposal of marriage is to Elizabeth Bennet. Obviously Elizabeth’s expectations of marriage are very different and far less compromising than her friend Charlotte. Elizabeth refuses his proposal, despite her mother’s protests, and despite the social and financial stability that such a marriage would have given her. Instead she continues to search for ‘love’. However Mr. Bennet approves of Elizabeth’s judgment, and says:
“Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”
When considering ‘love and marriage’ in ‘Pride and Prejudice’, it is also interesting to consider the relationship between Mr. Wickham and Lydia Bennet.
Mr Wickham is an officer in the regiment stationed at Meryton, Wickham is quickly judged to be a perfectly good and amiable man because of his friendliness and the ease of his manners. He initially shows a preference for Elizabeth, and she is pleased by his attentions and inclined to believe his story about Darcy. Yet while Wickham has the appearance of goodness and virtue, this appearance is deceptive. His true nature begins to show itself through his attachment to Miss King for purely mercenary purposes and then through Darcy's exposition of his past and through his elopement with Lydia, deceiving her to believe that he intends to marry her. Lydia Bennet is the youngest of the Bennet sisters; Lydia is foolish and flirtatious, given up to indolence and the gratification of every whim. She is the favourite of Mrs. Bennet, because the two have such similar characters. Lydia is constantly obsessed with the officers in the regiment, and sees no purpose to life beyond entertainment and diversion. She lacks any sense of virtue, propriety or good-judgment, as seen in her elopement with Wickham and her complete lack of remorse afterwards.
Getting married for Lydia is more of a competition than anything. When she next sees her sisters she says:
“Ah! Jane, I take your place now, and you must go lower because I am a married woman”.
She is very proud of herself that she is the youngest daughter, and the first married.
In the entire novel, there are three couples who find love; Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane and Mr. Bingley, and the Gardiners. It is made quite obvious that the most happy and compatible marriages are the ones who marry for love, not for financial stability.
