What Are The Pros And Cons Of Marriage In Pride And Prejudice

History has shown humankind that marriage is hard. It takes an immense amount of work and requires constant tending to maintain an easy balance of two human beings. Each marriage is different though, which is shown in multiple kinds of marriages throughout time. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen illustrates the pros and cons of not looking beneath the service in relationships through a set of three marriages. The first marriage Austen looks at is between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Immediately the reader gets this sense of teasing. Not until later does one realize that this isn’t the kind of teasing a person wants in a lifelong partner. Mrs. Bennet starts the novel by hounding her husband with a conversation about Bingley moving to Netherfield

Collins after Elizabeth turned him down. She dares not pass up an opportunity that she knows will not be given to her on any normal day. “But if Collins appears lucky in making the sensible Charlotte his wife, it is only because of the pains she takes to create such an impression. What appears as his luck may be at least equally attributed to her skill in manipulating what chance throws her way” (Schneider). Such manipulative features in Charlotte can be seen two days after Collins is rejected by Elizabeth. “Miss Lucas perceived him from an upper window as he walked towards the house, and instantly set out to meet him accidentally in the lane” (Austen 83). Because she is not considered a very pretty female, she must do what she can’t. She doesn’t want to have to depend on her parents, whom she is already a financial burden to, and marriage to Collins is preferable because they can easily ignore the other when they dislike what is being said. As Lizzie observes when she visits Rosings, “When Mr. Collins could be forgotten, there was really a great air of comfort throughout…by Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it…he must be often forgotten” (Austen 105). The good part about this marriage is the fact that they know it is a marriage of mutual need and tend to stay out of each other’s hair. They can stand each other whereas Mr. and Mrs. Bennet can’t because these two have a more similar manner of character and