Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice Essay

From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. ---Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do’” (97). Mrs. Bennet makes a fuss over trivial things and is partial to exaggeration. These attributes prompt her children and husband to see her as unimportant and harmless. Although her word is ineffective in her household, Mrs. Bennet’s persistence to marry her daughters is ceaseless: “Not yet, however, in spite of her disappointment in her husband, did Mrs. Bennet give up the point. She talked to Elizabeth again and again; coaxed and threatened her by turns” (97). Mrs. Bennet can’t see past her marital ideals for her daughters and can’t understand why they don’t concern themselves as ardently as she does with them. In a fit of anger, Mrs. Bennet claims to disown Elizabeth for refusing Mr. Collin’s proposal by stating, “’But I tell you what, Miss Lizzy, if you take it into your head to go on refusing every offer of marriage in this way, you will never get a husband at all --and I am sure I do not know who is to maintain you when your father is dead’” (98). Elizabeth’s mother thinks that her threats have weight but all the Bennet children know her warnings are hollow. Even when Lydia runs away with Wickham and brings shame to the Bennet family, Mrs. Bennet is only concerned with the fact that Lydia is getting married: “She was now in an irritation as violent from

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.

responded, “I hope I do. I hope my affection for them will ever keep me

serve her best work ethic toward being the wife of Collins. Referring to her own statement, "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance,”(Austen 30), she has chosen a life of misfortune. Unfortunately, Charlotte and Collins’ marriage was common in 1800s, and still is to our present days. We measure each other’s wealth, not love; we let future to depend on wealth, instead of creating our own pathway; we believe that wealth is the ultimate fame, not happiness. Pride is an empty pleasure that corrupts humans’ primary senses.

or other, and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense

This is the most prevalent characteristic of Charlotte Lucas. In marrying Mr. Collins, she let her superego take control. She determines this choice of marrying Mr. Collins to be the most reasonable option for herself. She has been told by society that once she reaches her current age, 27, she can no longer afford to be selective when courting. Marriage was to be her ultimate goal and to maintain good social standing. She alters her view of marriage to be able to fit into the social stratosphere. She approaches her marriage with Mr. Collins with a resigned attitude which makes it possible for her to live with her decision

The author created Charlotte and Mr. Collin's relationship to exemplify this observation. It also conveys the reader that some women and men made themselves fall in "love" just to be married. Impassively explaining to Elizabeth why she accepted Mr. Collins's proposal, Charlotte admits "[she] ask(s) only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins's character, connections, and situations in life, [she] [is] convinced that [her] chance of happiness with him is fair, as most people can boast on entering the marriage state" (Austen 123). Concentrating on her friend Charlotte's nonchalant attitude towards her serious engagement with unbearable Mr. Collins, Elizabeth felt sorry for her internally miserable friend. The reader is presented with the idea that, "in other societies, 'love', in terms of the strong bond of affection between man and woman, does not play a prominent role or even a significant role," (Baker) in this period at all. Intermingling of social hierarchies and true love were a rare combination; but Mr. Darcy, nevertheless, gradually learned he loved the flaws that Elizabeth possessed along with her family's, as she did for him, and they learned they did not have to settle for each other at

We see this in Charlotte Lucas after she accepted such a low proposal from Mr.Collins.“Without thinking highly either of men or matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want. This preservative she had now obtained; and at the age of twenty-seven, without having ever been handsome, she felt all the good luck of it.” (Austen, 1995, pg. 185). Charlotte Lucas didn’t care who she had to marry, as long as he would give her comfortable living and make her a mother she was satisfied. Women of this era were driven to desperation from the horrible living conditions and expectations of the male population and society. According to Smith (2002), “Some compare the conditions of women in this time to a form of slavery. Women were completely controlled by the men in their lives. First, by their fathers, brothers and male relatives and finally by their husbands. Their sole purpose in life is to find a husband, reproduce, and then spend the rest of their lives serving him. If a woman were to decide to remain single, she would be ridiculed and pitied by the community.” Some may argue that women did have the freedom to choose who they wanted to marry, and while this may have been true in very

The marriage of Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins is one that Austen sees as an average one.  It is similar to some of those at the time.  It is most certainly a marriage of convenience.  Charlotte is very cynical about marriage and love.  She believes that "happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance" Jane Austen criticises Charlotte's lack of romance and idealism, through Elizabeth but underlying that we know she understands her motives for marriage. Charlotte also says that a woman must let a man know that she's interested to make sure she snags him.  She advises Elizabeth that Jane does this to ensure a marriage to Bingley.  Charlotte is obviously not speaking from experience, because at 27 year old, she is practically an old maid and on the shelf.  Nobody wants her, and soon she will be forced to become a governess if she can't find a husband soon.

In the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the comical scene in which the protagonist, Elizabeth, receives a marriage proposal from her cousin, Mr. Collins, addresses the issue of the societal expectations regarding women accepting marriage proposals. One wrong expectation that is reflect in this scene is a women must accept a marriage proposal, even if she does not love the man, out of fear she will never receive another one. Mr. Collins tells Elizabeth that she should marry him, because she may never receive another proposal. Another struggle that exists in the novel is the presumption that a woman should marry a man if he lives in better circumstances than the woman. Mr. Collins tells Elizabeth that he lives in superior circumstances

Charlotte is not a romantic, and is very practical in her views of matrimony, that an agreeable

I ask only a comfortable home.” (Austen 134). Charlotte in marriage admits to Elizabeth that she does not love Mr. Collins, but she enjoys her comfortable home.

Charlotte is a neighbour and friend of Elizabeth, who is older and unmarried at the beginning of the story. She is simple in her values and does not question a women's role in society. Charlotte's main achievement in the story occurred when she was able to secure a proposal of marriage from Mr. Collins after he had been rejected by Elizabeth, who asked why she accepted. Charlotte explained "I am not a romantic you know. I never was. I only ask for a comfortable home; considering Mr Collins's character, connections, situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is fair, as most people can boast on entering a marriage state" By this Charlotte is questioning Elizabeth's values, believing she is over her head in her ideas. She is simply happy with what she has been dealt

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

Elizabeth’s snobbish pride hinders her from understanding her friend Charlotte Lucas’s best interests in regard to her desire to marry Mr. Collins. Elizabeth “prides herself on being a perceptive “studier of character,” as Mr. Bingley calls her, but how well does she really know her very good friend Charlotte…” when she “responds with amazement and horror” upon hearing that Charlotte wants to marry a man who is “dull”, “pompous” and “physically unattractive”. Elizabeth’s excessive pride blinds her from recognizing that Charlotte is “not much interested in men and very much interested in marriage” (Moler, 26). Elizabeth could have ruined the prospects of Charlotte’s marriage because of her self-importance in the way she