Mr Gardiner and Mrs Bennet are siblings. Mr Gardiner is a tradesman and he and Mrs Gardiner are a sensible loving couple. They love each other and form a good team together.
Mr Collins is a distant cousin to the Bennets. He proposes to Elizabeth but Elizabeth refuses. He then proposes to Charlotte, Elizabeth’s best friend. Although Charlotte does not love or even likes Mr Collins she still accepts the proposal. ‘I am not romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home.’ These are the words of her when she talks to Elizabeth about it. She does not care about romance; all she cares about is stability. Being 27, with no money or beauty this is the best chance she can get. After they are married Charlotte does not love him more, she tries to keep him out of her way but is always loyal to him.
The marriage between Lydia and Mr Wickham happened very much because of immature actions of the two. Lydia was a very social girl but very immature at the same time. Wickham is a man that loves money. He had first tried to run away with Georgina who inherited a big amount of money. Lydia believes that he wants to run away with her but took advantage of her. They finally got married because of Mr Darcy who took care of all the financial arrangements. Their marriage did not start very happily and I believe with little money it did not get any happier after the marriage. Jane Austen shows how money at that time is one of the most important things for stability.
Unlike the marriage between Lydia and Wickham the marriage of Mr Bingley and Jane is based on love and respect. She does not look for money in a husband but she looks for love. Mr Bingley is very easygoing and is influenced very easily. They both see well in everyone and Mr Bennet said that he was scared for people to take advantage of their innocent characters. And it does happen, Lydia and Mr Wickham stay with them for long periods of time and Lydia writes to Jane many times to ask for money.
Mr Bingley of course is a very wealthy man but Jane did not fall for his wealth. She fell for his kindness. Because Jane does not show her affections for Mr Bingley that much Mr Darcy thinks she is only out for his fortune. Of course at that time this must be a big issue as marriage and money were related together very closely. So men had to look out for who they should marry and who not.
The relationship between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth is very complicated at the beginning. They do not feel attracted to each other at all. Later on Mr Darcy is attracted to her but he is in denial because of her background. He is scared of what people think of him if he was to choose her for a marriage partner. ‘In vain have I struggled.’ He says and what made him want to stop his love for her was the ‘inferiority’ of her family and it would be ‘degradation’ for him to marry her. We here see how for the men also it was very important to look for a woman with wealthy family backgrounds. He proposes to her once but refuses. He was not expecting a refusal though because of his rank and wealth. She refuses him because he insults her family. Then Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter that explains everything. After this she doesn’t like him or love him but she does have respect for him.
After a while she starts having feelings for him but when Lydia and Wickham get married she thinks that he will never propose again because of the history of Wickham and Darcy.
Shortly after Lydia and Wickham’s departure Mr Bingley arrives in Netherfield, and so visits the Bennets accompanied by Mr Darcy. Mr Darcy’s behaviour is more reserved. They are both invited to dine at Longbourn and Elizabeth is puzzled by Darcy’s behaviour, as he is polite but quite and distant. When Mr Darcy returns to London Elizabeth’s hopes fall, she feels he will not propose again.
Lady Catherine scared the marriage is going to happen tells Elizabeth she has not enough connections and her family was just involved in a scandal so therefore is not good enough for Mr Darcy. Elizabeth does not promise her anything and stays polite all the time even though Lady Catherine gets very rude.
Darcy does propose to her a second time and they get married. It is a happy marriage. According to Jane Austen their marriage is the ideal marriage. They have things in common but they also have differences which keeps everything interesting. They love each other, respect each other and they learn from each other.
There are so many different couples in the novel and they are all very different. It is not so much about romance in this novel but more about how to make a marriage work.
