Presentation of love in Romeo and Juliet compared with Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice was written by English novelist Jane Austen and was first published in 1813 - over 200 years after the first performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and almost 200 years before the present day.  The main character is a young middle-class woman of marriageable age (20 turning 21) called Elizabeth (Lizzy), who is one of five daughters, all of whom are brought up to believe that “a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”.  The second half of this opening sentence of the novel reveals that the “universal truth” that it proclaims is nothing more than a social assumption.  When claiming that a single man "must be in want of a wife", Jane Austen reveals that the reverse in also true; a single woman may be in desperate want of a husband.  However, being the second daughter in the family, Lizzy is unable to marry in a “respectable” way until her elder sister, Jane, has already done so.  She is repelled by the attention of the pompous minister, Mr. Collins; by contrast, she attracted to the youthful, but dangerous, cavalry officer Mr. Wickham.  Although mostly a peripheral character to begin with, Mr. Darcy is the best friend of the rich young man, Mr. Bingley, who Jane falls in love with.  When their relationship fails to develop as hoped, Darcy is blamed by Lizzy for turning Bingley against her sister.  Despite his reservations, which she interprets as arrogance, Darcy is attracted to Lizzy, but she cannot see him as anyone other than “the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps forever, the happiness of a most beloved sister.”  Shocked by her refusal of his offer of marriage, Darcy helps both Jane and another of her sisters, Lydia, and Lizzy begins to realise that he is not the monster that she initially took him to be and she starts to have positive feelings for him.  When he proposes marriage to her for a second time and she willingly accepts, much to the surprise of her family, all of whom thought that she hated him.

The importance of marriage for a young woman and her family in the nineteenth century was that, although the daughters of the middle and upper class could be sent to school, their education consisted of nothing more of becoming accomplished i.e. learning to behave ‘correctly’.  Because of the extremely limited options that a woman had in those days in order to earn a living, marriage was essential for financial and social well-being.  Therefore, if a woman remained unmarried for the rest of her life, she would remain dependent on her relatives, living with or receiving a small income from her father, brothers or any other relative that could afford to support her.

Both stories show that true love is not necessarily a rational or logical experience, arising from a considered appreciation of circumstances.  Romeo’s love for Juliet was totally illogical, as he and she were from rival families; similarly, having offended her with his comments early on in the story, and acted in a way to damage the marriage prospects of her sister, Lizzy should have never had positive feelings for Darcy, but she does.  In both stories love is shown to be a feeling that comes from the heart, rather than the brain, as the choices the lovers make of each other are not the sensible or logical ones.  Because of the reasons that should keep the lovers apart, but fail to do, the love between them is more intense and precious as a result.  Darcy is from a different class to Lizzy, and, because of this, he would not have been expected to marry her, but he cannot deny his feelings for her.

The ‘proper’ or socially-acceptable way of conducting a love affair has always been important, and this is present in both of the stories; however, because of the differences in time and culture, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ are not identical.  Juliet is expected, by her father at least, to marry Paris, and Romeo’s lover Rosaline is noticeable by her absence for the play.  Similarly, Lizzy is under pressure from her mother (but not father), to marry Mr Collins, as she needs the long-term financial security of marriage, and Darcy has been intended, since his youth, as the husband of the daughter of the influential Lady Catherine de Burgh.