The Difference in the Importance of Marriage and Money in Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Today.

 Austen’s novel illustrates and satirizes the importance of women finding a wealthy husband during that time period: “You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.” Mrs. Bennett biggest concern was marrying her daughters off to wealthy men such as Mr. Bingley. She knew that marriage was an important issue to all women during that time. Mrs. Bennett found herself a wealthy husband in Mr. Bennett, and hopes that her daughters do the same: “If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Netherfield and all the others equally well married, I shall have nothing to wish for.” If all Bennett girls get married Mrs. Bennett will be happy. She wishes for nothing else but for her daughters to be married to wealthy men. Mrs. Bennett goes as far as to plot to get her daughter, Jane Bennett, sick so she will be able to stay at Netherfield with Mr. Bingley. She herself does anything to get her daughters married because she believes that marriage is the crucial part of a woman’s life.

Not all women during this time period thought marriage should be based solely off money. “As yet, she cannot be certain of the degree of her own regard, nor of its reasonableness. She has known him only a fortnight.” Elizabeth feels that people should form a relationship with one another and know a little about each other before marriage is considered. Knowing a person for only one night is not enough time for one to familiarize their selves with the other person’s character. She also does not hide her feelings and is quick to express them, which was not truly common at the time. She believes marriage should be based off happiness and is exceedingly serious about the power people have to make each other happy or unhappy.

Today marriage does not play such major a role in women’s lives, unlike in Jane Austen’s times. Women, of course, dream of getting married but they do not base their marriages off of money but off of love and happiness. Time changes accompanied with the change of feelings towards women makes the concept of marrying for money archaic. For example, women are deemed equal to men in today’s society. Sequentially women are able to obtain jobs considered suitable for only men. This advancement allows women freedom from men and autonomy in their own homes. Women have become independent and are expected to be more than homemakers. Now, women have the option of daycare for their children while they hold regular jobs. Women are given more opportunities today then they were in the past, and are quick to take advantage of those opportunities.  There are special circumstances in which women with little or no education try to get married to men that are “going places” or even women who are referred to as “gold-diggers,” who dedicate their lives to finding husbands. Besides these few exceptions, women do not seek out husbands to secure their future financially and socially, like those of the women in Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice.

After finishing Pride and Prejudice good analytical readers can compare the marriage problems of women in past to women in the present. Marriage was critical to women of the past for financial and social status. On the contrary, today, marriage is not as vital to women financially. Women have not only become financially and socially independent, but independent in all aspects. The present has changed drastically from the past meaning that marriage is not as important to most women today for financial reasons, as in the past.