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Significance of marriage in Pride and Prejudice

The first lines of "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen: "It is a truth universallyacknowledged that a single man in !ossession of a good fortune must be in want of a

wife" is a satire and it sets the mood for the novel and the kind of tone Austen is going to

ado!t# an ironic one The o!ening lines of the novel draw attention towards the central!lace that marriage will be the !lot of the story The real issue which is being dealt with is

of the need of young ladies in the late $%th and early $&th centuries to find themselves

rich husbands who could very well !rovide for them Instead of men trying to find

themselves suitable brides as the 'uote says it(s the women who are actually !ursuingthem

)irstly in the $%th and $&th centuries marriage was just a commercial contract* as +aniel

+egoe says in his book ",oll )landers": "carrying on business and love had no share or

but very little in the matter" -ecause of the custom of !rimogeniture which said thatonly the eldest son could inherit the !osition of female was unstable without marriage or

money The -ennet sisters are in this e.act situation without a male heir in theirimmediate family their home and land will be entailed to ,r /ollins a distant relation

0nce ,r -ennet died his daughters would be left homeless because their home would

belong to ,r /ollins Their only ho!e to esca!e their fate is to get married,oney was the "anthem" of success in that time It is such an im!ortant consideration for

marriage that ,r /ollins mentions it twice 1hen he is !ro!osing he make her sure that

she will never be in lack of money or something she needs Secondly he mentions money

after 2li3abeth has declined his !ro!osal 4e tells her that even she has many attractive'ualities he will be the only suitor and his offer may be the only one she will get since

she is so !oor ,oney is also the only reason why ,rs -ennet tries so hard to get richhusbands for her daughters Is is clear that to this society the lack of fortune threteans awoman(s !ros!ects

The education of a woman only considered of needlework sim!le arithmetic fine

handwriting enough music to be able to sing and !lay some country dances drawing andreading All of their learning basically involved learning how to attract a husband and to

be a !ro!er wife

Secondly Austen tries to illustrate in a sarcastic manner the traditional marriages The

first marriage the author describes is ,r and ,rs -ennet(s ,r -ennet is an intelligentman who usually uses sarcasm as a way of e.!ressing himself 4e is a country gentleman

and the father of five daughters 4is favourite daughter is 2li3abeth and he a!!reciated

her for her intelligence 4e occasionally makes rash and !oor decisions but is consideredin higher regard than his more crass wife 0n the other hand ,rs -ennet is a chatty

gossi!y im!ulsive and uneducated woman who is com!letely inca!able of understanding

the irony and subtely of s!eech of his husband The business of her life was to get herdaughters married but she usually acts vulgar embarassing her daughters and

disinteresting suitors and their families She is often very 'uick to !ush them towards

!otential husbands and acts with minimal intelligence on certain matters relying instinct

instead

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",r -ennet was so odd a mi.ture of 'uick !arts sarcastic humour reserve and ca!rice

that the e.!erience of three#and#twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife

understand his character 4er mind was less difficult to develo! She was a woman ofmean understanding little information and uncertain tem!er 1hen she was

discontented she fancied herself nervous The business of her life was to ger her

daughters married* its solace was visiting and news",r and ,rs -ennet have a !oor relationshi! Perha!s ,rs -ennet was once a great

beauty and ,r -ennet fell in love with her for her looks

"I certainly have had my share of beauty but I do not !retend to be anythinge.traordinary now"

4e enjoys teasing her doing so throughout the novel In /ha!ter $ o!on ,r -ennet

calling his daughters silly and ignorant ,rs -ennet e.claims ",r -ennet how can you

abuse your own children in such way5 6ou take delight in ve.ing me 6ou have nocom!assion on my !oor nerves" -ennet re!lies: " 6ou mistake me my dear I have a

high res!ect for your nerves They are my old friends I have heard you mention them in

consideration these twenty years at least"

Their relationshi! is more likely to be based u!on res!ect and tolerance rather than love!assion and com!licity which should be the roots of an ideal marriage

The youngest -ennet daughter 7ydia makes rash decisions and though she is ,rs-ennet(s favourite she finds herself shunned by her father and the rest of the family when

she makes the mistake to fall in love with ,r 1ickham and run away with him 4er

im!rudence ruined her re!utation and damaged the re!utation of her entire family Shewas now considered to be a loose woman and no man of good family would ever

consider her " marrige material" ,r 1ickham was still !lanning on making his fortune

by marrying a woman with money Therefore ,r +arcy had to in fact !ay ,r

1ickham to marry 7ydia -y ,r +arcy arranging for ,r1ickham to marry 7ydia he!reserved not only her re!utation but also her sisters( re!utations 1hen ,r -ennet says

" I think 1ickham shall always be my favourite" he is being sarcastic

/harlotte 7ucas marries out of sheer !rudence because she is 8% years old still singleand she wants to get out of her !arents( house She marries ,r /ollins even though she

does not love him 0f the women characters in the novel /harlotte seems to be the most

aware of the economic contingencies that inscribe marriage within her culture /harlottethinks that a woman must in grow with her man only after she is married to him In fact

she thinks that marriage changes !eo!le drastically so it hardly matters whether cou!les

marry after knowing each other for a day or a year In /ha!ter 88 ,r /ollind !ro!oses

to /harlotte and she acce!ts for material reasons)inally 2li3abeth -ennet is the second daughter in the -ennet familly and the most

intelligent and 'uick#witted She is the !rotagonist of Pride and Prejudice and the most

well#known female character in the 2nglish literature As ,r /ollins says she hasama3ing and admirable 'ualities# she is lovely clever and she owns the art of dialogue

Pride and Prejudice is essentially the story of how she and ,r +arcy overcome all

obstacles including their own !ersonal failing to find ha!!iness,r +arcy is a wealthy gentleman from +erbyshire 4e is at first a rude and un!leasant

fellow full of !ride who will eventually come to love 2li3abeth and change his

manerisms for her 4e shows his love for her by hel!ing her sister in the marriage to

1ickham and by being cordial and !olite after her refusal of marriage 4e eventually

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succeeds in winning her love in return 2li3abeth(s first im!ression of +arcy leads her to

form a negative o!inion of him This dislike is reinforced when she meets the handsome

and attentive ,r 1ickham a lieutenant 2li3abeth is thus sur!rised when +arcy declareshis love and !ro!oses 1hile e.!ressing his love he reminds her of their social status She

is offended by his !ride and refuses him Although 2li3abeth and +arcy initally dislike

one another each develo!s emotionally to overcome their own !ride and see each otherfor what they truly are not what society makes them out to be Jane Austen uses

characteri3ation and conflict in order illustrate their relationshi! They both have high

e.!ectationsIn the end love is the engine of all our actions and we can be ha!!y only by living and

loving Austen(s characters have all the life that they choose to have +arcy was an

egocentric full of !ride man but he gave away all his !ride when he fell in love with

2li3abeth She finally discovered that he is all that she wanted in a man someone who isintelligent enough and can sustain a conversation with good arguments Jane Austen(s

novel teach us that you can break all the social or economics rules if you love enough