Elizabeth's Dilemma: Love, Wealth and Women in Pride and Prejudice

In the nineteenth century, women were seen as useless. Men and women alike viewed females as the lesser sex. They could not get jobs, and becoming educated was seen as futile and unnecessary. Thus, they could not afford to care for themselves and were expected to marry the first man who proposed to them. Austen defied societal norms with her then radical character, Elizabeth, in her novel, Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth attempts to overturn the societal view of women as weak and inferior by denying marriage proposals based on wealth and asserting that love and happiness are essential in a marriage; however, she succumbs to the draw of money once she can picture herself as a wealthy mistress and winds up marrying Darcy for his wealth and estate.

Elizabeth does not view herself as inferior, as many people viewed females in the early nineteenth century. Even though her family has less wealth and connections, she does not view herself as inferior to Darcy and becomes offended when he refers to her as such. She says, “why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character? Was not this some excuse for incivility, if I was uncivil?"(Austen 129). Elizabeth will not accept Darcy’s proposal, since he “offend[s] and insult[s]” her. She will not accept that she is lesser than Darcy simply because of her family’s wealth and her status as a woman. Elizabeth refuses to marry someone who “liked [her] against [his] will, against [his] reason,” and tells her such in his proposal. Elizabeth does not love Darcy and is much offended by his comments on her inferiority, so she once again rebels against society’s view that she should be lucky to marry someone higher in status and more wealthy than herself by denying a second

Though it may appear as though she accomplishes her desire to marry for happiness on the surface, she is clearly driven by the wealth and property that she will gain from her marriage to Darcy. She hates Darcy for the majority of the novel, even denying his first proposal, but once she visits Pemberley, she decides that she can be happy in a marriage to him. She does rebel against societal norms by refusing the first two marriage proposals she receives, but she abandons her ideals of marrying for happiness and love when she realizes what marrying for wealth can offer