Critisicm On Pride And Prejudice Essay

The next day, the Bennet’s cousin and heir to their estate joins them for breakfast. Elizabeth views him as a prickly, awkward, conceited man who places great value on things which Elizabeth does not- for example, class rank. As breakfast ends, he asks for a private audience with Lizzy. The Bennets know that this could only mean one thing, and before Elizabeth has a chance to respond, Mrs. Bennet enthusiastically agrees. Lizzy begs her family to stay, crying that Mr. Collins “can have nothing to say to me that anybody need not hear” (100). However her mother ignores her pleas and orders everyone from the room. Mr. Collins launches into a lengthy proposal, which Elizabeth flat out turns down. Mr. Collins responds,

One of the most obvious attitudes that is shown throughout the book is Mrs Bennet's expectations. Her main aim is to get her daughters married to men with fortune. I think her reason for this is because as Mr and Mrs Bennet do not have any sons, their estate will not be entailed onto the daughters, and so Mrs Bennet wants to secure them a good future. She is arranging their marriages to pick someone suitable for them and also she may want them married to rich men for the society aspect. It would make them look higher class and would gain respect, as at that time people with more money were treated better.

Mrs. Bennet’s desperation is especially noticeable when Elizabeth, the protagonist, is given the opportunity to marry Mr. Collins, a distant cousin and a wealthy land owner. After learning of Elizabeth’s refusal to marry Collins, she implores Mr. Bennet to force Elizabeth to change her mind. In her final efforts to convince Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet addresses,

This stands in stark contrast to what Miss Elizabeth Bennett wants. Mrs Bennett wants her daughters to marry because it’s thea only way for them to solidfy that they will have food on their plates and a roof over their head. Mr. Collins is Mr. Bennetts brother and is set to inherit his estate when he dies. He comes to visit in the middle of the book and his main intentions are to ask on of the daughters to marry him and to observe what he will in time own. Mrs. Bennett says in response to all this “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousnd a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” (57, Austen) The single man she speaks of his Mr. Collins, the Bennett kids uncle. Austen describes Mr. Collins as a self retious kind of man who thinks he is above the Benntt’s just because he is set to inherrit their estate. This gives him a villeness quality. Austen is commenting on the blindness of Mrs. Bennett to the qualitys of Marraige. She only shes Mr. Collins as money but Elizabeth sees him as a bad person to spend the rest of her life with and theirfore turns down his marraige purposal. Which causes trouble between her and her mother. This is the best example of the contrast in what the two women see as the meaning of Marriage.

1), is from Mrs. Bennet’s viewpoint. This shows how narrow-minded Mrs. Bennet is because people like herself would believe this statement, but everyone else may disagree. This quote became an irony in the fact that the word “universal” does not pertain to all but only to some. The universal truth would then mean “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of no fortunes must be in need of a husband.” This is a well-known fact because women without a fortune are in danger in which by marrying a husband, they are financially secured and protected showing the predicament they are in. This is the reason why Mrs. Bennet is so obsessed with marrying off her five daughters. Mrs. Bennet is one of the most ridiculous and highly exaggerated character in the novel who Austen satirizes to mock how women would only desire to marry wealthy men because society taught them to want that which is part of the humor in the novel. Although Mrs. Bennet actions are well intended and she just want her daughters to be financially secure, her actions and characters masks her well-intention because of how ridiculous and silly she is. For example, in Chapter 7, when Jane was invited to dine with the Bingley

toward his wife. As a young woman she had all the charms of 'youth and

“But Mrs Bennet’s obsession with marrying off her daughters at all costs stems from real practical parental concern—if they do not marry, they may starve, especially given that Mr Bennet himself has made no provision for his daughters' futures but seems instead to be in a form of denial—he retreats to his library” (Jones). Readers sympathize with Mrs. Bennet’s aggravating personality when they realize her actions stem from a place of worry for her daughetrs’ future. Since Mrs. Bennet is a woman, she can provide no other form of security but marriage for her daughters. Mrs. Bennet’s actions also originate from a deeply personal part of her life- her marriage. Compared to other men during this time period, Mr. Bennet has done little to give his daughters a financially sound future and sees the search for a husband as silly and dismisses it. Mrs. Bennet has no other way to support her daughters, causing her to obsess over the idea and constantly push her daughters to act proper in order to get a husband. “Mrs. Bennet makes herself ridiculous in her attempts to be overly feminine; she fancies herself a victim of others’ cruelty, constantly complaining that no one regards her ‘nerves’. She has little respect for decorum…her marriage, built on physical attraction, is now a loveless union” (Guggenheim). Mrs. Bennet’s desperation to find her daughters’ spouses can be attributed to the unaffectionate

Jane Austen’s writing has always been based around relationships and the motives behind them and the novel Pride and Prejudice is no exception. During this time period, women were expected to follow strict social rules, and their main goal was to get married. Some women choose to marry for money, security and social status; while others choose to solely focus on finding someone they truly love. Each relationship in the novel faces its own challenges and contains various motives for marriage, some follow and decide to go along with social norms and others take a different path. The book outlines the relationships and marriages of the Bennets and their five daughters.

The Bennet family’s lack of fortune ensures that the girls would have a very difficult time finding a suitable husband. The only way they can survive without marrying well is if their dad had set aside some of his annual income to

An example of Austen's view on feminism is, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife". In this quote from page 1, Jane Austen is saying isn't really that all wealthy bachelor's need a wife, but that women always assume a wealthy, single man to need a wife. Elizabeth, as well as her sisters, are representatives of the dependent young women who MUST marry well in order to remain respectable or even to progress upwards on the social ladder. The quote, therefore, is also a confirmation of Austen's belief that women in her society were very much dependent on marriage and this has progressed to such an extent that women have thus ended up looking upon all wealthy bachelors as an advantage. Hence, the assumption that "all wealthy bachelors MUST be wanting to get married" actually disguises the truth, that it is, in fact, the women who are desperate for marriage.

Mr Collins’ reaction to Elizabeth’s rejection reveals his egotism, how he objectifies Lizzy, and Regency Era marriage expectations. When Elizabeth rejects Collins proposal, he says that he hopes ‘to receive a more favourable answer’, he is in denial that someone with Elizabeth’s status would reject him, this exhibits his narcissism and lack of respect for Elizabeth as an individual. Collins doesn’t accept Elizabeth’s refusal, because he assumes that she will accept, due to her situation in life – The Bennet Estate being inevitably taken over by Collins. Darcy and Collins are alike in this circumstance as they believe that they are superior to Elizabeth, but Collins’ sense of superiority is pretentious as he has no power, money or privilege, whereas Darcy has all of these things.

England has always had a rich history of interesting cultural traditions but arguably none as prevalent as marriage. Marriage, the union of two people with emotional ideals and expectations, are brought on by many different factors that include: for love, for money, for climbing social status, escapism, survival, etc. In Jane Austen’s novels, she focuses on the importance of marriage in her world because she wanted to emphasize how marriage is the most important life event of a woman as this would determine her place in society. Persuasion shows readers good and bad examples of marriage: the amiable Crofts and other couples such as Sir Walter & Lady Elliot and the Smiths. Jane Austen uses the Crofts to support the importance of marriage

Through the use of literary devices, Pride and Prejudice reveals Jane Austen’s attitude towards the novel’s theme of true love through the actions of the suitors; the process of courtship in the 1800s articulates characterization, foreshadowing, and irony. The novel opens with the line, “it is a truth acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of wife,” (Austen 1) which foreshadows the conflict of finding a significant other . During the Victorian age, men and women courted others of the same education, wealth, and social status; it was considered uncommon for someone to marry beneath them or to marry for love. Jane Austen uses Elizabeth Bennett’s encounters with different characters of varying

However, Mrs Bennet's insensitivity and pride in her daughters and towards her neighbours is seen as embarrassing, which creates problems in the lives of her daughters, especially the eldest, Jane, who is deceived by Mr Bingley's two haughty sisters. They see her as much beneath their brother and unsuitable for him, and later on in the novel try to separate them by drawing Mr Bingley away from Netherfield to London for the winter, and uniting efforts to increase the friendship between Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy's sister, Georgiana, who has inherited a fortune. And so we are lead, by the authoress, to believe that the possession of wealth by both gentlemen and women in these times was important especially for marriage, yet there are many setbacks. Towards the middle of the novel, we become aware of the fact that wealth also sets barriers on marriage.

Elizabeth was not nearly an accomplished woman. She was unconventional. “My fingers,” said Elizabeth, “do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women’s do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault – because I would not take the trouble of practicing. With this in mind and behavior, Elizabeth was less favored by her mother among other siblings. Seemingly unable to marry Jane to prospective wealthy man, her mother set her eyes to other siblings of Jane to market for marriage. This clearly suggests that financial security of women in Austen’s time can only be realized through the union with the opposite sex--that women cannot live independently for herself. Jane who was in her twenties also refused to marry Mr. Collin, a distant cousin who received their father’s wealth. Her refusal of the marriage showed that she did not want to follow the normal demands of her society-to be financially secured under a man’s wing. Also, the wealth of the Bennet’s was bequeathed to Mr. Collin who was a distant cousin of Elizabeth. The reason for not bequeathing the