The next couple we encounter in the book are Mr. Collins and Miss Lucas, who marry after Mr. Collins is rejected by Elizabeth. This is clearly not a marriage for love, but for Miss Lucas’s.Little importance is attached to the marriage, and it is told about in just four words “The marriage took place”. This signifies that Jane Austen did not attach much importance to marriage with no love. Although Mr. Collins is shown as insufferable and stupid, Charlotte Lucas, appears likeable, although without Elizabeth’s flair and individuality. She is not looked down upon for her pragmatic views on marriage, but appears to be more pitied. ““Poor ! -- it was melancholy to leave her to such society! -- But she had chosen it with her eyes open”.
We are then introduced to the Gardiners, Elizabeth’s Aunt and Uncle. Mr. Gardiner has made his fortune by trade, and this is looked down upon by many of the snobby upper-class characters, such as Mrs. Hurst, Caroline Bingly and Lady Catherine, and also at first it is thought by Mr. Darcy that such connections may “very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world''. However, when Darcy meets the Gardiners, he does not at first realize who they are, “``What will be his surprise,'' thought [Elizabeth], ``when he knows who they are! He takes them now for people of fashion.''” When he learns who they are, he treats them no differently, and Elizabeth “[glories] in every expression, every sentence of her uncle, which marked his intelligence, his taste, or his good manners”. The Gardiners have a happy marriage and appear as a well-balanced couple. I think in this couple Jane Austen shows how she does not disapprove of people earning their keep by being in respectable business.
The next marriage is the rather scandalous affair of Wickham and Lydia. Lydia “had high animal spirits, and a sort of natural self-consequence”, and Elizabeth is worried “the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark character” will shame all the Bennet sisters. In the end, Elizabeth is proved right, as Lydia elopes with Wickham, who at first appears “amiable and pleasing”. However, beneath his “happy manners” he is shallow and fickle, switching his affections from Elizabeth to Mary King and then back to Elizabeth, and attempting to elope with Georgiana Darcy before his elopement with Lydia. Thinking back on what Wickham has said, Elizabeth “was now struck with the impropriety of such communications to a stranger, and wondered it had escaped her before. She saw the indelicacy of putting himself forward as he had done, and the inconsistency of his professions with his conduct.” IN short, both characters are looked down upon and seen as idiotic and insensible. It is Darcy who pays for their marriage. The marriage is not seen has perfectly happy and equal, as Elizabeth observes, “ affection for was just what had expected to find it; not equal to for him. She had scarcely needed her present observation to be satisfied, from the reason of things, that their elopement had been brought on by the strength of her love, rather than by his; and she would have wondered why, without violently caring for her, he chose to elope with her at all, had she not felt certain that his flight was rendered necessary by distress of circumstances; and if that were the case, he was not the young man to resist an opportunity of having a companion.” This is shown as the worst kind of marriage in Pride and Prejudice. There is no love, and no connections gained in this marriage.
The next marriage in the book is Mr. Bingley and Jane. Mr. Bingley “was good looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners”, and Elizabeth considers that “To herself,'' she exclaimed, ``there could be no possibility of objection. All loveliness and goodness as she is! Her understanding excellent, , and her manners captivating” Mrs. Bennet is delighted with this match, as at the very beginning of the novel she declares “If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at ,'' said to her husband, “and all the others equally well married, I shall have nothing to wish for.” This is a very happy marriage, when it eventually comes about. They are both in love, and in the same class. It is approved of by Mr. Bennet, who says, “, I congratulate you. You will be a very happy woman.''
The final marriage is that of Elizabeth and Darcy. Elizabeth is the heroine of the novel, and much of it is told from her point of view. She is Jane Austen’s ideal woman, and very likeable. She is Mr. Bennet’s favourite daughter, as he believes “ has something more of quickness than her sisters.” At first, Darcy is seen as proud and arrogant, and at the Netherfield Ball, it is decided that “He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and every body hoped that he would never come there again.” However, after Elizabeth tells him what she thinks of him, he makes an effort to change, and when they meet at Pemberely, Elizabeth is shocked that he should “speak with such civility, to enquire after her family! Never in her life had she seen his manners so little dignified, never had he spoken with such gentleness as on this unexpected meeting. What a contrast did it offer to his last address in Park, when he put into her hand!” This is when Elizabeth finds herself starting to fall in love with him. Darcy finds that he is attracted to Elizabeth much earlier on, and that “[her face] was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes…he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness.” Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet approve of the marriage, although Lady Catherine does not. “ was extremely indignant on the marriage of her nephew; and as she gave way to all the genuine frankness of her character in her reply to the letter which announced its arrangement, she sent him language so very abusive, especially of , that for some time all intercourse was at an end. But at length, by persuasion, he was prevailed on to overlook the offence, and seek a reconciliation; and, after a little farther resistance on the part of his aunt, her resentment gave way, either to her affection for him, or her curiosity to see how his wife conducted herself” This does not appear to This is Jane Austen’s perfect marriage. Both characters are very much in love and Elizabeth has married above her class.