‘Without thinking highly of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want’().
By marrying the pompous and ridiculous Mr Collins, Charlotte is prepared to lose the respect of her closest friend .
Whereas Charlotte’s marriage receives considerable disapproval, indiscreet and impulsive attachment receives heavy condemnation. After disappearing with Lydia it soon becomes clear that does not intend to marry her, and that Lydia when embarking on her adventure, has no idea of Wickham’s real intentions. The marriage can only take place as a result of tenacity in persuading the untrustworthy Wickham to do the honourable thing. Wickham, a skilled confidence trickster, accepts Darcy’s generous financial incentives. If it had not been for Darcy’s intervention, the resulting scandal would have had damaging consequences for all the Bennet girls.
In Jane Austen’s world, Lydia’s scandalous loss of dignity and fall from grace would have resulted in banishment from her family and respectable society. Even though Lydia is saved from total degradation, her punishment will be an unhappy marriage without the love and respect of her partner.
Jane Austen’s view of marriage is not totally cynical as at the end of the novel we witness two happy marriages. First we experience the conclusion of courtship of . This is a marriage based on real affection and romantic love, where feelings are mutual and genuine. Elizabeth who has a warm regard and genuine admiration for her sister, has no doubts that true happiness is the guaranteed reward for this uncomplicated and generous couple:
‘they had for basis the excellent understanding, and super-excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself’().
There can be no question of Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s future happiness. Jane Austen ends the novel with a portrait of a successful relationship based on growing admiration and affection. Both characters have overcome earlier feelings of before realising the other’s suitability. Their love is gradual, hard won and therefore worth having. The witty and lively Elizabeth could only be happy with a man whose talents and understanding matched her own. Accordingly, Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage is based on mutual respect and intellectual equality.
Pride and Prejudice
At various stages of the novel both and are guilty of pride and prejudice. Elizabeth’s pride stems from her wit, perception and confidence in her own abilities. She is offended by anybody who does not treat her with respect. Darcy’s insulting remarks in the assembly rooms, ‘She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me’(), hurt her pride and begin to feed her feelings of prejudice against him.
It is only in having read Darcy’s letter that Elizabeth begins to fully appreciate the consequences of her prejudice and misjudgement of both and Darcy. She admits to her mistaken impressions and could not think without feeling ‘she had been blind, partial, prejudice, absurd’ (, see theme of ).
It is generally accepted at the beginning of the novel that Darcy is ‘the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world’(). There is no question of the extent of his pride, although he later tries to justify his behaviour in public by claiming it is due to his shyness. Darcy’s inborn pride originates from his wealth, social class and superior connections, which all lead him to be prejudiced towards people of Elizabeth’s lower social class. His prejudice, therefore, is reflected in the way he judges people, not on their character or merits, but by their first impressions and social status.
Darcy is rude and condemns Elizabeth before he has even spoken to her, and is totally dismissive of her family. Furthermore, he is offended by vulgarity and lack of breeding. It is these prejudices which in part drive him to come between and . It is that Darcy should endeavour to separate Jane and Bingley on grounds of social incompatibility, as Bingley's wealth was acquired ‘through trade’ and not by the more socially acceptable method of inheriting land.
Ultimately, Darcy is also purged of his prejudices and can admit to having been guilty of pride and conceit. His lesson of humility at the hands of Elizabeth, removes many of his pretensions and prejudices.
Austenian Irony
There is always the impression that things are not quite as they seem in Jane Austen’s novels. The world of Pride and Prejudice is full of anomalies and paradoxes and the reader’s first impressions are often later contradicted by a gradual uncovering of the truth.
There are many levels to Austen’s writing and her characters. First of all, a person’s outward appearance is restricted in the superficial world of social protocol, where a charlatan such as can appear convincing and charming, and the thoroughly decent is criticised for his arrogance:
‘There was certainly some mismanagement in the education of those young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it’().
Secondly, there is a character’s real worth which is only discovered when all the trappings of social nicety and appearances are dismantled. Lastly, there is the difference between how characters see themselves and how they are perceived by others. The hypocrisy of the actions of this last category of people, where actions contradict beliefs, is a common source of and . , , and all have a high opinion of themselves which does not correspond to the opinion of others.
Social Satire
When Jane Austen wrote her novels in the early nineteenth century, English society was dominated by the aristocracy and landed gentry. and etiquette was controlled by a rigid set of conventions and protocol, which on the surface at least, were there to preserve decency and good manners. As a result of their inherited wealth and positions, the landed classes, who owned much of the countryside, had an innate belief in their own superiority over the rest of society. Consequently, they looked down on those whose occupations and income were not connected with land ownership.
