Examine the different marriage relationships and attitudes towards marriage presented in 'Pride and Prejudice'. Is it possible to draw any conclusions about Jane Austen's own views on the subject?

Examine the different marriage relationships and attitudes towards marriage presented in 'Pride and Prejudice'. Is it possible to draw any conclusions about Jane Austen's own views on the subject? "Pride and Prejudice" was called "First Impressions" before it was finally published in 1813 under the title "Pride and Prejudice". The novel was written in the early 19th century at a time when social class and status determined a person's lifestyle and marriage partner. Marriage played the most important part in the life of women and men alike and a mother's main aim was to marry off her daughters to rich, eligible men and a man's was to marry a suitable wife. This was important because if the father died, the married daughters would have to be able to support the mother and family financially. Women could achieve a higher social status through marriage. The family's social status would rise if the daughter married into a higher status. If a man married a lower status woman, he would probably become outcast from his family, or if he married into a higher status he would become richer. Men would normally marry in the social class they were born into unless they made more money or got a promotion in their job. The social ranks that could be found in the gentry class are baronets, ladies, knights and dames, squires, gentlemen and ladies. Lady Catherine De Bourgh was a lady and Mr

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Portrayal of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice.

Portrayal of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice Five Sources Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice portrays varying attitudes to marriage. "The intricate social network that pervades the novel is one that revolves around the business of marriage". Through her female characters the reader sees the different attitudes to marriage and the reasons that these women have for marrying. These depend on their social status and their personal values. The reader is shown the most prevalent and common view of marriage held by society in Austen's time, and through the heroine, a differing opinion of marriage is explored. We are shown how marriage is viewed by the very wealthy and the values they emphasise in marriage. Through the characterisation of these women and use of irony, Austen has influenced the reader's opinions on the characters attitude about marriage and that of their contemporaries. Charlotte Lucas's views on marriage conform to those of contemporary society. For Charlotte, ' situation' is all. She requires no emotional motivat... Love and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice Four Works Cited There was a tendency to marry for money in 19th century England. A person sought a partner based on the dowry receivable and their allowance. This process went both ways: a beautiful woman might be able to snag a rich husband, or a charring and handsome man could woo a rich

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Look closely at the proposals of marriage received by Elizabeth Bennett from Mr Collins and Mr Darcy, considering the following: * The character of each man * His social and cultural background and how this influences the way in which he proposes * The proposal itself * The reaction to rejection and subsequent behaviour of each man Pride and prejudice is a novel written by Jane Austen and is probably one of the most famous and best loved novels in the English language. In my essay I shall be comparing the proposals of Mr Collins and Mr Darcy to Elizabeth. A proposal is a declaration of love to one person involving powerful feelings where one cannot imagine going on in life without the other, it is also a great compliment. The central theme of the novel is marriage. As well as the marriage between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy; Austen uses many other marriages within the novel to show and assist the reader in assessing her recommended ingredients for a lasting and happy marriage. The marriage of Mr and Mrs Bennett is a marriage of disrespect and dislike. Mr and Mrs Bennett got married very young, Mr Bennett was; 'captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour, which youth and beauty usually give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind, had very early in their marriage put an end to all real

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Analyse Jane Austen's presentation of love and marriage in her novel Pride and Prejudice. From your evidence suggest what Austen regards as a good marriage.

English and English Literature Prose Coursework Analyse Jane Austen's presentation of love and marriage in her novel Pride and Prejudice. From your evidence suggest what Austen regards as a good marriage. In the novel Pride and Prejudice marriage is one of the major themes and was for English novels at this time. In the 18th century, the time Jane Austen was writing, novelists would write about relationships usually ending in marriage. The opening sentence of the novel: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." shows the importance of marriage in the novel. Jane Austen's opening sentence sets the main theme of the novel, marriage. The sentence is very ironic implying that very often parents with daughters assume that single men of wealth want to marry, which may be the last thing they want. Marriage in the 18th century was very different to today, there was more to marriage than just love. Women had very few choices then and marriage was one of the only. Women had one of the main objective then and it was to get married, they were nervous about being left as a spinster. If they were left unmarried it was expected that their family would look after them, which was not an attractive choice, they would see themselves as a burden Courtship rules were also set out in the 18th century. Couples who

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Discuss Jane Austen's treatment of the theme of marriage in Pride and Prejudice.

Discuss Jane Austen's treatment of the theme of marriage in Pride and Prejudice Austen's view that marriage should be based on a developed knowledge of one another; intellectual and personal compatibility as well as genuine love and attraction was radical for her time. The main views of marriage at the time were that it should be for either economic security of women, because they could not work or inherit, social cohesion, because they were both from the same class, if the marriage was arranged or if the security of financial/land ownership by inter-marriage between "great" families and estates. Mrs Bennet is introduced with lots of gushing, direct speech such as "But it is, for Mrs Long has just been here and she told me all about it." This gives the reader the impression that she is slightly nosey and a gossip, whereas Mr Bennet's character is established with reported speech, making him more in the background of the text, for example when Austen puts "Mr Bennet made no answer." Simple, short and straight to the point, this gives the reader the idea that Mr Bennet is the same. Mr and Mrs Bennet are an incompatible couple, he is intelligent whereas she is less intelligent and he is constantly putting her down, although she realises and understands the social imperative to marry off her daughters as they would not be able to inherit their father's money or estate like when

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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"How does Jane Austen comment to her readers on the concept of a good marriage in 'Pride and Prejudice'?"

Pride and Prejudice: Coursework Essay Draft 1 "How does Jane Austen comment to her readers on the concept of a good marriage in 'Pride and Prejudice'?" By Tanya Sen "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." In the very first sentence, Jane Austen neatly paraphrases the main theme of Pride and Prejudice with a satirical comment on marriage in society of the time. The book remains, till today, one of the most acclaimed works of English literature because it provides a clever caricature of society at the time, and an ironic comment on how peoples' lives revolved so wholly around marriage. Despite being, as Austen herself puts it, 'light, and bright, and sparkling', Pride and Prejudice has a key message to convey which is not lost out even in all the humour. The plot seems to suggest that at the time, marriage was viewed as an end objective, and the ultimate accomplishment- unlike modern society, where marriage is thought of as more of a journey. Everyone has the final motive of matrimony; this is the purpose for which Mr. Collins goes to Longbourn, for example. The fact that books at the time usually ended with the marriage of the main characters emphasized this point further. Contrary to this, today we might find books that begin with a marriage, and the rest of the book might explore the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen as my pre-1914 novel and 'Bridget Jones's Diary' by Helen Fielding as my post-1914 novel. The main focus of my comparison, will be 'Women's social depiction' .

Wider Reading GCSE Assignment For my wider reading assignment for GCSE, I have chosen the novel 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen as my pre-1914 novel and 'Bridget Jones's Diary' by Helen Fielding as my post-1914 novel. The main focus of my comparison, will be 'Women's social depiction' . The reason for my choice of novels, relating to my topic, is fairly simple. Both novels have a heroine as the main subject, both are centred very much around this one heroine, and both go into great detail about the heroine and her state of mind in various points throughout each novel. This, of course, is necessary, as the subject of my comparisons will be the heroines, and how they are represented. The novel 'Pride and Prejudice' is very well known, and is considered one of Jane Austen's finest pieces of writing, a classic in every way. So when I chose this book, I had a fair idea of what to expect. Before hand, all I knew of this novel, was that it was a love story, with an unexpected twist. So going into the book, I had some fairly prejudiced notions, knowing that it was a romance story, I was expecting a drawn-out tale of 'young love' with plenty of angst and picturesque scenes. Similarly, I also knew that 'Bridget Jones's diary' was a romantic and humorous novel that also contained feminist themes. Judging from the genre, I thought that this book would contain lots of

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Jane Austen's presentation of Emma as an unlikeable heroine

Jane Austen wrote 'I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like.' Explore Austen's presentation of Emma in light of this statement, noting the effects of social, historical or cultural influences on the text as a whole. In Austen's Emma, the eponymous heroine emerges as an idol for the simple reason that Austen portrays her as being perfect. The definition of heroine is, according to the dictionary, 'a) a main female character b) courageous, brave, superior qualities, noble, strong (mentally and physically)'. Emma is the main female character of the book thus making her one type of heroine but in the case of the definition courageous, brave and superior, we can not be sure she is a heroine. In the book many look up to her but readers see her faults. She has many layers and during the course of the book each one of these layers is torn away. On the outside she is perfect but each layer underneath exposes her imperfections. Austen's fondness of Emma is because Emma has faults. Heroines are supposed to be perfect but she isn't completely perfect once she's explored into, this makes her more human and relates her more to readers. This makes her an idol to others but not because she is perfect, but for the simple reason that she has elements of perfection and imperfection, making her both excellent and awful. When we first hear about Emma, she is described

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  • Subject: English
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Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen.

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen was born in 1775 and died in 1817. She has written numerous best selling novels. One such novel was Pride and Prejudice, which was published in 1813. This novel reflects the life and society of Jane Austen's time. She uses the characters to describe how she feels about a number of issues. Pride and Prejudice is based on the fictional Bennet family and I will be describing how the characters change and react towards certain events that occur throughout Pride and Prejudice. Mr Bennet is the head of the family of a wife and five daughters. He is not a wealthy man as we realise that because of this, his wife is anxious to marry her daughters off to wealthy aristocrats: "Four or five thousand a year, what a fine thing for our girls."(Chapter one) Mr Bennet is an intelligent man: "Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr Collins, and I will never see you again if you do."(Chapter twenty) with good sense, because he is one of the first to visit Mr Bingley to make an acquaintance with him; "Mr Bennet was among the earliest of those who waited on Mr Bingley."(Chapter two) However Mr Bennet is not the best of fathers as he neglects his duties towards his family and therefore stays mostly in his study: "and secondly, of my room. I shall be glad to have the library to myself as soon as may be."(Chapter twenty) Mr

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Discuss the proposal scenes in Pride and Prejudice showing how they relate to the main themes and issues of the novel and how they give an insight into the characters and their attitudes.

Discuss the proposal scenes in Pride and Prejudice showing how they relate to the main themes and issues of the novel and how they give an insight into the characters and their attitudes Jane Austen wrote the love story 'Pride and Prejudice' to show her views on love, marriage and reputation at the time. It is set in the 19th century, mainly in Longbourn, Hertfordshire and Meryton, which is twenty-four miles from London. The theme of Pride and Prejudice is mainly marriage and social status and how the two are related and how sometimes they can come between two people. Marriage at the time when Pride and Prejudice was written was not always a love-based relationship. The people at that time had to worry about a secure and comfortable future, more then it is considered today. It was unusual to cross social boundaries within a marriage. Pride and Prejudice illustrates a society in which a woman's reputation is of high importance. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways. Stepping outside the social boundary makes her in danger to isolation. This theme appears in the novel, when Elizabeth walks to Netherfield and arrives with muddy skirts, to the shock of the reputation-conscious Miss Bingley and her sister. At other points, the ill-mannered, ridiculous behaviour of Mrs. Bennet gives her a bad reputation with the more refined Darcy's and Bingley's. The theme of class is

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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