Connotation Of Marriage

Martin Burstein

Ms. Hilary Smith

Honors English 10

30 October 2016

Jane Austen on the Topic of Marriage What makes a marriage? The connotation of marriage implies a union between two loving people who want to be together till the end of time. This was not the case in Regency Period England. The Regency Period was a short decade in England’s history, 1811–1820, which was known for its elegance and reformation of cultural structures. Jane Austen, an author who wrote her most famous works during this small decennium, implemented her regency ideals in the novels. In one of her well known books, Pride and Prejudice, she writes about her views on marriage. There are 3 couples that get married in this book; the Collinses , the Whickams, and the

Charlotte Lucas came from a less than affluent background, but she got by. Mr. Collins was only marrying because that was the norm for men. He didn’t care at all about her feelings or wants. Charlotte, however, thought this was a great opportunity for increasing her wealth. After learning of this, Elizabeth Bennet, the main character of Pride and Prejudice, comes to visit her best friend. She sees her friend married contently, but feels something off about it. When asked about her marital situation, Charlotte responds with, “I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins’ character, connection, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state” (Austen 123). When considering marriage back then, most just thought about the monetary gain. Charlotte Lucas is one of those people, by itself wasn’t abnormal. The majority of Regency citizens would wholeheartedly marry for the commercial investment. Ms. Lucas knows that this is the norm of society and if this is how good it can get for this “arrangement,” she would gladly oblige.

Jane Austen makes all of those other marriages seem shallow and contrived (and granted, they are), but she makes marriages about true love seem the best. The union between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy is one of the most famous examples of true love, on par with Romeo and Juliet in terms of literary significance. Ironically, they hated each other to begin with. Mr. Darcy was an antisocial, proud man and much as Elizabeth tries, he would never break his countenance. The first time he proposed, Elizabeth, without equivocation, rejected him. After he gave his condescending speech, Elizabeth hits him with a smashing rebuttal: “...[Y]our manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike,” (188). Jane Austen doesn’t sugarcoat the conflicts of a relationship. She writes ups and downs, this being a certain low point. The pair, thankfully, developed over time, which signifies how Jane Austen really cared about developing the characters and showed how deep and complex those relationships get. In the novel, a noblewoman named Lady Catherine De Bourgh tried to tell Elizabeth off marrying Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth flat out