The main characters in which the novel centres around, Lizzy and Darcy finally get engaged at the end of the novel. Mr Darcy’s pride and Lizzy’s prejudice are forgotten. “To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose conditions in life is so decidedly beneath my own?” (Vol.2 Ch.12) Mrs Bennet’s relatives are trades people and therefore of lower class. Mr Darcy’s love for Lizzy grew throughout the novel he told her “I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun” (Vol.3 Ch.18) Lizzy did not except Mr Collin’s marriage proposal because she found him pompous. Lizzy wanted to marry for love and had a very strong character. She would not have said ‘yes’ to Mr Darcy’s second proposal if she did not love him. It was nothing to do with money and a safe future, she wanted to wait to marry someone whom she loved.
Elizabeth first turns down a marriage proposal from Mr Collins, a clergyman because she finds him a ‘conceited, pompous, narrow- minded, silly man’ (Vol.2 Ch.2) and believes in falling in love then getting married, unlike Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte and Lizzy talk on there views of marriage, they are discussing about Jane and Mr Bingley. Charlotte comments “When she is secure of him, there will be leisure for falling in love as much as she chooses.”(Vol.1 Ch.6) Charlotte’s family is of lower class than the Bennet’s and if she does not marry she would probably have become a governess. Charlotte in hope of a secure future sees the chance of marrying Mr Collins after hearing of Lizzy declining his marriage proposal. In telling Lizzy of her engagement to Lizzy she says “I am not a romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home;”
Mr Wickham a man who is in great debt, first planned to elope with Georgiana Darcy and then successfully went to London with Lydia, the Bennets youngest child. Both girls were in their mid-teens and it is thought that he planned to elope with them for personal pleasure and material gain. I don’t think he was actually planning to marry Lydia and their debt is increasing, in a letter written to Lizzy after they were married she writes ‘I am sure Wickham would like a place at court very much, and I do not think we shall have quite money enough to live upon without some help.’ Wickham is a fortune hunter; he needs money to pay off his debts. He chased Miss King because she was a woman of great fortune, in Mr Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth he writes his “chief object was unquestionably my sister’s fortune”(Vol.2 Chap.12)
Each married couple moved away from the area of Longbourn, Lydia and Wickham were the only couple that were unstable financially. Once married they went to Newcastle where Wickham’s regiment settled. Charlotte and Mr Collin’s went to live in Hunsford, Kent where he is employed as a clergyman. When Mr Bennet dies he will inherit Longbourn house. Mr Bingley has inherited a large sum of money and rents Netherfield house just outside Longbourn. But when he married Jane they only stayed at Netherfield for twelve months and then moved. Mr Bingley ‘brought an estate in a neighbouring county of Derbyshire’ (Vol.3 Ch.19) and Lizzy is moving to the “beautiful grounds at Pemberley” (Vol.3 Ch.17) with Mr Darcy. Mr Darcy comes from a family of wealthy land owners and gets around £10,000 per year.
Mr Darcy’s lifestyle substantially differs from The Collin’s. Each family lives a different lifestyle and their wealth is the main reason. Charlotte moves 50 miles from Longbourn when she marries, for Elizabeth this is a long journey as she hardly ever leaves Longbourn but for Mr Darcy it is a “very easy distance”(Vol.2 Ch.9) Mr Darcy travels allot and it is a coincidence that Lizzy meets him wherever she travels, as she does not travel much. Normally Lizzy contacts friends and relatives by writing a letter. Social gatherings are important in each characters lifestyle as it would be where men and woman would meet. Balls were common, like the one held at the beginning of the play in Netherfield. They would either be held privately or in a local inn. Balls were where Mr Bingley and Jane met, also where Lizzy met Mr Darcy for the first time. In the evening people usually played cards or woman spent their time sewing. At the beginning of the novel Lizzy is ‘trimming a hat’ (Vol.3 Ch.17) which she is preparing for the ball at Netherfield.
The novel captures the classes when they are at a height of variation. Lady Catherine De Bourgh and Mr Darcy are both proud. Lady Catherine looks down on people of lower class and expects them to look up to her. Lady Catherine is surprised when Lizzy is confident and forward in conversations, unlike Mr Collins who does everything he can to please her. Lady Catherine cares a lot about class and when she hears that Lizzy and Mr Darcy might get married she travels to Longbourne to speak to Lizzy asking if it is true. She does not want Lizzy to marry Darcy because she is of lower class and Lady Catherine has planned him to marry her daughter. Darcy at the beginning of the novel is ignorant, he comments that Lizzy is ‘tolerable’(Vol.1 Ch.3) and says that Jane is the only person who would be good enough for him, out of everyone at the Netherfield ball. Mr Collins a man, who is in the middle class, wants to have a wife and his changing decision quickly ‘The strangeness of Mr Collin’s making two offers of marriage within three days, was nothing in comparison with his now being accepted.’(Vol.1 Ch.22) Mr Wickham at the beginning of the novel is unknown by the reader to be in debt. As he is in a regiment it is assumed that he is stable financially. The Bennets are in the middle class they are not as poor as the Lucas’ but not as well off as Mr Bingley. They have a stable amount of money to keep four girls.
