Love and Marriage in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Love and Marriage in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Analyse Jane Austen's presentation of love and marriage in her novel

Pride & Prejudice. From your evidence suggest what Austen regards as a

'good' marriage.

On first impressions of the novel, my own prejudices clouded my

judgement of the book and of what it might have consisted. Living in

the 21st Century it is somewhat difficult to imagine anything remotely

similar, interesting or slightly scandalous happening in a period in

which rich men marry apparently beautiful women whose main ambition in

life is to marry well. However, as Jane Austen illustrates in the form

of Elizabeth, not all women in this period marry just for money, but

as Elizabeth proves, some marry for love.

Austen, through the image of Lizzy, projects her opinion on love and

marriage: she is clearly a woman who believes in marrying for love and

I expect that many of her personality traits are possessed by Lizzy,

perhaps it is with this level of intimacy and openness that she has

discretely (and perhaps subconsciously) projected herself into a

character so as to make Elizabeth a reflection of herself. It is

within the physical form of Lizzy that the authorial view is made

clear.

I suppose I shall have to follow suit in the beginning of an essay of

Pride & Prejudice. Where else could I start, other than one of the

most famous quotes ever:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in

possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife."

This practically sums up everything that any gentleman or gentle lady

living in the late 1790's and onwards would have had to have known. It

...

... middle of paper ...

...food. Austen could be hinting to what Charlotte

and Mr. Collin's marriage will end up like; bitter and no amount of

money will ever be able to sweeten it again. Perhaps this is a warning

to anyone thinking of marrying just for money.

This proves that Pride and Prejudice can and does apply to our life

today. We are all subject to our own prejudices as well as our own

pride. Both of these traits prove problematic, not only in Austen's

era, but in ours as well.

On completion of the novel, my prejudices were overcome. Once the

exterior of the 19th century; the dresses, the mansions, the

tradition, the culture, has been removed, one is left with people who

are the same as we are, full of pride, prejudice, insecurities,

ambition, expectation, denial, and dependency: although times change,

human nature stays the same.