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Love and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice Essays

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How does Jane Austen present love and marriage in Pride and
Prejudice?

Jane Austen presents love and marriage in many ways in the novel
“Pride and Prejudice.” In this essay I am going to discuss some of these marriages, not only from Jane Austen's portrayl of her characters but also from my own point of view.

Jane Austen opens Pride and Prejudice with a statement:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must want be in want of a wife.”

By using this statement as her opening line she makes it very clear that she is humoured by the idea that every young an who has a large sum of money are eagerly looking for a wife. The main part of her book is based on matrimony. The …show more content…

When Mr Bennet speaks to his beloved daughter Lizzie, he feelingly says to her,

“ My dear child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life. You know not what you are about.”

This happens when Mr Darcy has just proposed to Elizabeth. When I question why Mr and Mrs Bennet’s marriage is so unsuccessful, I am faced with three points that I think contribute to their marital problem. Between Mr and Mrs Bennet there is no intellectual equality. Mr
Bennet is clever, but on the other hand his wife isn’t, in fact Mrs
Bennet is a fool! She does not understand her husband in the slightest manner, and so Mr Bennet frequently takes this opportunity to make a quick comment that will offend Mrs Bennet. Jane Austen says, “ The experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his temper.”

These twenty-three years of his unhappy marriage had brought Mrs
Bennet’s characteristics out in a true light. She was a woman of mean understanding, very little information and an uncertain temper. She fancied herself nervous whenever she felt discontented. The business of her life was to get her daughters married, it seemed that was all the poor woman ever went on a bout and it infuriated Mr Bennet greatly. The second point is that Mr Bennet never showed any respect for his wife and almost seemed to enjoy ridiculing her in front of her

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