Also, the burden that Charlotte would have felt she was giving her parents would have been resolved if she had married when she was younger. Marriages related to security or money was basically ‘convenience’ marriages. It was what women did in the 19th century in order to be looked after, Charlotte Lucas shows her obvious display when she marries Mr Collins. On the other hand, there is an idea that Mrs Bennet could have married Mr Bennet for convenience.
Austen creates a stereotypical idea that women married for wealth, security and social status. However, in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ she contradicts this idea by making most of the Bennets’ daughters marry for love and the man’s personality instead of the obvious reason for marrying for wealth. However, Austen cunningly shows Mrs Bennets urge for her daughters to marry wealthy men. This is shown with Elizabeth marrying Mr Darcy, Jane marrying Mr Bingley, Lydia marrying Mr Wickham and perhaps Mrs Bennet marrying Mr Bennet. Mrs Bennet showed that she wanted her daughters to marry wealthy men when the book introduced Mr Bingley. Mrs Bennet targets Jane as the person most likely to marry him because she is the “most handsome” and also because Mr Bingley said that Jane was the “most beautiful creature” and because he danced with her the most. Mrs Bennet also shows her vanity in believing that appearance is all that matters in marriage. She later on finds out that this is not the case when her second daughter marries the supposedly “disagreeable man”. Elizabeth shows that marriage is not about money, security or social status and that marriage is all about love. Elizabeth also shows that just being attractive does not make it likely that you will marry the man you wish, and she also shows that you will never know what will happen as she firstly disliked Mr Darcy, but later on marries him.
However, Austen also uses Lydia to show that maturity is somewhat important in a marriage. Lydia is the youngest who often fails to show the slightest sign of maturity- especially at the Netherfield Ball. She had disgraced her family name when she had eloped with Mr Wickham, and thought that it was amusing “How I will laugh when I sign my letter as Mrs Lydia Wickham.” Her immaturity shows clearly throughout the entire novel. She makes the situations worse in her family when she actually marries under the complete opposite conditions of her mothers desires- she marries a man in debt, a womaniser and an untrustworthy person.
Society would also have made a huge impact in marriage in the 19th century, especially the importance of wealth (money, estates etc…). The women who were married would have wanted to impress others through the social status and how large their house was. The main obsession in marriage that society affected was the social status- who was ‘allowed’ to marry who and for what reason. For example, Miss Bingley and Mr Darcy tried to force Mr Bingley not to marry Jane Bennet mostly because of her social inferiority but they also used her wealth as a way to get him out of the idea of marrying Jane. Lady Catherine de Bourgh was also very against the idea of Elizabeth marrying Mr Darcy because of her social inferiority and also because of “her low connections”. Mr Darcy also objected to marrying Elizabeth when he proposed to her “Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?” this showed that even Mr Darcy completely disliked the idea of marrying Elizabeth- but his contradictions showed that society is not what marriage was about to him, he showed that love was more important when he said “My feelings cannot be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” Austen cunningly uses her approach to marriage in that chapter, and ridicules society.
Austen also showed that ‘arranged marriages’ rarely did work out- she uses Mr Darcy and Miss Anne de Bourgh to portray that because of the social status they were “meant for each other” this showed how society in the 19th century made an impact on every form of their lifestyle. She uses arranged marriages again when Miss Bingley ‘claims’ that Mr Bingley and Georgiana Darcy will eventually get married- because of the social status. Austen satirises society by changing her characters future, she shows that love is structured around marriage and that what kind of social status or how wealthy the person is not important.
Throughout ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Austen uses all her characters to portray the different statuses in life, their importance and how things are not always as they seem or directed. She satirises society not only in the entire novel but she satirises the lifestyle in the 19th century. She mocks and changes how they consider marriage, and she makes the characters actions and that thought and opinions create the atmosphere in her novel. She uses Elizabeth and Mr Darcy and Jane and Mr Bingley as her main source of bringing in new thoughts and ideas about society- Austen uses Mr and Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas to show ‘reality’ in the 19th century.
