Theme Of Marriage In Pride And Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice tells a story of a young girl in the midst of a very materialistic society. Jane Austen uses the setting to dramatize the restraints women had to endure in society. As the novel develops, we see how women have to act in a way according to their gender, social class, and family lineage. Elizabeth Bennet’s sisters represent the proper societal lady while Lizzy is the rebel. Through her characters Austen shows how a women’s happiness came second to the comfort of wealth. As the plot develops, events are laid out to illustrate how true love is unattainable when women marry for intentions of wealth. Women have very specific and limited roles in a society where men are the superior. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

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.

The roles of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice are contrasted between a father who cares about what’s inside of people and a mother who only worries about vanity and appearance. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s parental guidance is unique to their personalities. Because of their two opposing personas, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s ideas of marriage are contradictory for their daughters; Mr. Bennet believes in a loving respectful marriage whereas Mrs. Bennet values a marriage which concerns wealth and social status. Their aspirations for Lydia, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Elizabeth mirror their conflicting ideologies. Mr. Bennet seems to have a quiet deep love

Bennet exclaims, “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls” (2). Considering Mrs. Bennet’s lines, the reader acknowledges Austen’s first claims on marriage. Mrs. Bennet not only exemplifies the opening statement of the novel, but also justifies the effect it has on mother figures. As Mrs. Bennet’s character develops, the reader recognizes her obsession with the marriage of her daughters. Mrs. Bennet understands the importance of marrying ‘well’ in order to maintain a high standing in the social realm. However, understanding the consequences directly affects Mrs. Bennet’s desperate behavior. This interpretation becomes an inevitable experience for each of Mrs. Bennet’s daughters.

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.

The first proposal is from Mr Collins, a man to whom Elizabeth was not even his first choice; Jane, the eldest and most beautiful, was his first fancy, but when informed that she had been privately engaged, he swiftly switches to Elizabeth, who is ‘equally next to Jane in birth and beauty’. His introduction to Elizabeth is not a pleasant one, although he is too ignorant to notice; she finds him ‘a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man’. Her observation is quite correct, and illustrated to the greatest affect in his proposal speech.

Jane Austen’s novel is commanded by women; Pride and Prejudice explores the expectations of women in a society that is set at the turn of the 19th century. Throughout the plot, Austen’s female characters are all influenced by their peers, pressures from their family, and their own desires. The social struggle of men and women is seen throughout the novel. Characters, like Elizabeth, are examples of females not acting as proper as women were supposed to, while other women like Mrs. Bennett allow themselves to be controlled by men and society. Mr. Collins is a representation of the struggles males deal with in a novel dominated by women. The theme of marriage is prominent during Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Marriage can be examined in

fortune. No man would want to marry a woman who has a family with a

Their limited education consisted of needlework, fine handwriting, singing, dancing, playing piano, and reading (3). Marriage at this time was the only thing that could give a woman any sense of security. If their fathers were to die, it was custom that only the eldest son could inherit the money and property. Unfortunately, if the family did not have a male son the land would be given to the closet male relative, which left the women in a very delicate position. Austen show’s readers this aspect of her society by having the Bennet sisters in the same situation. Without a male sibling their land and home will be entailed to a Mr. Collins. If Mr. Bennet were to die, his five daughters and his wife would be left homeless or at the charity of others because Mr. Collins would not have it in his heart to let them reside in the house with him. Their only way to escape this fate would be to get married. However, there was many obstacles that middle class young women had to deal with that kept young suitors uninterested. One was their social station. The society of this time was so stratified that even one class could be broken down into more distinctions of rank (2). The people did not often marry outside of their social rank, which left middle class women with middle class men. Unfortunately, money also played a big part in the determination of whether

“Mrs.Bennet cries out to her husband “Ah! You do not know what I suffer” (5). These words seem to emanate from the imaginary sufferings of an over-privileged female, and our sympathies go out to out her much beleaguered mate rather than to the complainant” (Wylie, 1). Austen portrays Mrs.Bennet her as a selfish and greedy character as she tries to find five wealthy men to marry her daughters. Mrs.Bennet only believes that Elizabeth can only truly be happy if she is married, that is why she is so upset when Elizabeth turns down Mr.Collins proposal.

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen uses various characters to make observations about British society in the eighteenth century through satire, irony, and character development. Mrs. Bennet is one of the more boisterous and transparent characters in the novel, who plays a key role in Austen’s critiques of British society. Austen creates a caricature of Mrs. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet is portrayed as irrational, nervous, and hysterical to highlight how the pressure of motherhood and British societal expectations in the eighteenth century can affect one’s priorities and mental state.

JANE AUSTEN: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE A Critical Analysis The opening chapter of the novel gives us a brief introduction to the lives of the Bennets. Mrs Bennet’s sole purpose in life is to marry of her daughters to wealthy young men. It begins with Mr and Mrs Bennet having a conversation about marrying of their daughters as soon as possible.

One of the most notable aspects of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, is the use of satire as a way to comment on English society in the 19th century. Austen’s satirical approach to analyzing societal norms gives the novel a comedic and lighthearted tone, while also educating the reader on faults in the social class in which she was raised. Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins serve as satirical objects of the society Pride and Prejudice depicts and are crucial in portraying Austen’s view on conventional attitudes towards marriage and women. Austen establishes her satirical view of these characters in the first line of the novel. The narrator states, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” (p.1). The plot of the novel surrounds this societal assumption and provides a medium for author Jane Austen to critique society. In the classic novel of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen uses satire as a way to critique the role of women and marriage.

Pride and Prejudice is one of the successful novels written by Jane Austen. She uses more exquisite irony through the characters to criticise the society and challenge the values of the Regency period. She presents the values of roles of women, marriage is a business arrangement that women often marry for money and class is the most important in all the social situations.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a revolutionary novel that portrays the social expectations of women during this time. In Pride and Prejudice, women were expected to married to a successful and wealthy young man that could provide them comfort and economic security. Austen contrasts this social standard by creating the main protagonist of the book, Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth Bennet, who is headstrong and clever, believes that the purpose of marriage is to find love rather than economic security. Because of her beliefs, she is viewed as very unorthodox and stubborn. As a result, Elizabeth is not a typical 19th century women because