Love
and marriage are two most important themes that have been dealt with in Pride
and Prejudice written by Jane Austen. However, love and marriage not only
show love and marriage between fictional characters but also shows the
condition of women in the society and their sufferings. These themes cannot be
ignored. In one way or another, they played a very important role in shaping
the characters. The writer has shown both good and bad reasons of love and
marriage in her novel. However, I will discuss about love and marriage of this
novel one by one.
Pride
and Prejudice
is one of the best novels written by Jane Austen. Jane Austen has written only
a few novels, but all of her novels are taught at the university level. Her
novels mainly talk about the relationship between men and women. Though she is
a writer of Romantic Age, we can find elements of the Victorian period. The
main reason behind this is she lived mainly inside her house and she did not
have that much opportunity to travel. She was not exposed to the other world as
much as other Romantic Age writers. Naturally, her knowledge of outer world did
not develop to the extent she could write on issues other than those she found
in her limited social boundaries. So, she did not find enough of opportunities
to associate with many people. She just portrays in her works what she has
experienced in her society.
It
is a novel that focuses mainly on marriage. As I have mentioned earlier, in the
19th century England, women did not have any rights. Women were not
supposed to go out and earn money like men. They had no ownership over their
finances and physical property. After growing up, a woman’s only concern was to
find a suitable husband. Here, “suitable” means one who has steady income, who
can provide her a good house. The richer a man is the better. The novel opens
with the line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in
possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”.
Mr.
and Mrs. Bennet lived in Longbourn, Hertfordshire, England. The Bennets have
five daughters- Jane Bennet, Elizabeth Bennet, Mary Bennet, Catherine Bennet
and Lydia Bennet. Mr.Bennet is a landed gentry. He owns an estate in Longbourn.
Mrs. Bennet’s only concern is to get her daughters married. The reason behind
this is, after the death of Mr. Bennet, all his property will go to a male
heir. In this case, the property will go to the son of Mr. Bennet’s closest
relative, Mr. Collins. Mrs. Bennet is afraid that if her daughters are married
to a man of lower social status, he will drive her out of the house. Hence, the
only goal of her life, after Jane turned 16, to get her married to a man who is
“financially secure.” She became very excited when she came to know that a
wealthy man named Mr. Bingley, moved into Netherfield Park. Speaking about Mr.
Bingley, she said, “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!”.
In
the Merryton ball, Mr. Bingley and Jane meets and they fall in love
immediately. Jane is beautiful and gentle. Her beauty and gentleness won
Bingley’s heart. Since, Jane was the most beautiful of all her sisters, she got
a rich husband. There were some minor hiccups. Bingley’s sisters and his friend
Mr. Darcy did not like the Bennets. It was Darcy who pursued his friend not to
marry Jane. Eventually, Darcy understood his mistake and convinces Mr. Bingley.
Jane and Bingley’s marriage was a successful one.
Eventually,
we see two more marriages- Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins; Lydia Bennet and
Mr. Wickham. These two marriages actually revealed the negative aspect of
marriage without love. Charlotte Lucas is a close friend of Elizabeth Bennet.
Initially, Mr. Collins proposed Elizabeth but she refused to marry him.
Charlotte took the opportunity and accepted his proposal. All this comes as a
big shock to the readers because the speed in which after Elizabeth's refusal
of marriage to Mr. Collins was made, he practically immediately asked for
Charlotte's hand. This tells us that Mr. Collins is very interested in getting
a wife and his view on marriage does not involve love but only an agreeable
woman whom he can call his own, and a woman who is more likely to agree with
him on his views, like Charlotte, rather than a fiery woman, like Elizabeth,
who would challenge his every high and mighty statement or remark out of pure
hatred for him. Mr. Collins has given an idea of his view on marriage in
chapter 19. He said to Elizabeth,
“My
reasons for marrying are, first, that i think it a right thing for every
clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony
in his parish; secondly, that I am convinced it will add very greatly to my
happiness; and thirdly-which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it
is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have
the honor of calling patroness.”
Charlotte
immediately accepts Mr. Collins. Ignoring Elizabeth's advice to reconsider, she
marries him. Charlotte knows that Elizabeth is not jealous and understands her
point of view in marrying the most ridiculous man in Britain. She told
Elizabeth, “I am not romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable
home.”
When
Elizabeth visits Charlotte after marriage, she could clearly see the lack of
love in their relationship. Charlotte lives in a well-furnished house and gets
three meals a day but she is not happy. The writer says, “When Mr. Collins
could be forgotten, there really was a great air or comfort throughout. And by
Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it Elizabeth supposed he must be often
forgotten.”
The
marriage between Lydia Bennet and George Wickham was nothing but deceit. There
was no love in their relationship. Wickham is an evil person and likes to take
advantage of women. He is a military officer with good looks and charm.
Initially, he gets Elizabeth’s attention but when she came to know about his
affair with another woman named Miss King, she did not see him anymore.
However, her younger sister, Lydia, falls in love with his charm. Being the
youngest and most stupid girl of the family, she is the most open and willing
to be led into any trap. Persistently flirtatious, she is noticed by Mr.
Wickham. Wickham runs away with young Lydia. Lydia is obsessed with men. She
likes to live the dream of marriage and could not wait for her future to roll
out in front of her very eyes. When Mr. Wickham takes her away she definitely
believes they will be married. Neither Wickham nor Lydia cared about how it
would affect the family. Eventually, Mr. Darcy cleared Wickham’s debts and paid
a huge sum of money to him in exchange of marrying Lydia. Lydia and Wickham’s
marriage is a bad example. No one should enter such a marriage.
Finally,
we come to the marriage of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, the most desired
one. Elizabeth and Darcy are the central characters of this novel. Elizabeth is
an exceptional woman. Unlike traditional women, she is opinionated,
strong-minded, rationale, sensible and intelligent. Elizabeth believes that a
husband must be worth of his wife. She believes that one should be in love to
get married. Like Jane Eyre, she never compromises with her ideals. In the
beginning of the novel, Darcy seems a proud and pompous man, but deep inside he
was also very honest person. Like Elizabeth, Darcy also believes that his wife
has to be worthy of him. He does not want just to marry a rich girl. He wants a
woman who has self-respect and would challenge him in every way possible. This
is the reason Darcy fell in love with Elizabeth. Unlike other women, Elizabeth
did not care about Darcy’s rich and wealth. She never cared about it. The
strength of her character won Darcy’s heart. So he tries heart and soul to
prove that.
The
love relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy gets much attention of this
novel. If we carefully observe this couple then we can see that their
relationship cannot be regarded as a romantic one. Both of them develop a
negative thought against each other in their poor first impression. When Darcy
makes his first proposal to Elizabeth, he was too much pride and acted as if he
was offering a prize which no sensible woman can refuse. However, Elizabeth
rejects his proposal but accepts it for the second time after Darcy sheds his
pride and becomes really gentleman. Darcy wins Elizabeth’s love by acting nobly
and generously. Between them developed a mutual affection that shapes the
foundation of a sound marriage. She said, “It is settled between us already
that we are to be the happiest couple in the world.”
The
oldest couple of this novel is perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Very little thing
has been said about this couple. They are said to be the most unmatched couple
of this novel. From this couple, readers come to know that things like
fermenting anger, loneliness and madness can explode between two people if they
are married without love. Though there is not enough description of how Mr. and
Mrs. Bennet get together, it can be assumed of their conversations that their
relationship was similar to that of Lydia and Wickham. Mrs. Bennet’s partiality
towards Lydia and her comments on how she was once as energetic as Lydia
reveals this similarity.
Mr.
Bennet marries Mrs. Bennet being seduced by her good looks and youth, but later
she realizes that she is an unintelligent woman. Their marriage was lack of
love. The outcome of this marriage is that Mr. Bennet isolates himself from his
family, finding refuge in his library or through mocking his oblivious wife.
This becomes his only happiness. We cannot find them spending some good time
together. Mr. Bennet is highly educated. On the other hand, Mrs. Bennet was not
that much educated. That is why, we can see a big difference in their culture.
This unhappy conjugal life had negative impact in the psychological development
of their five daughters. Elizabeth is very strict and practical while Jane is
soft and gentle. Mary becomes a vain. Lydia is a stupid and flirtatious girl
who elopes with Wickham. Though Kitty was elder than Lydia, she followed her
younger sister. Jane Austen has showed the importance of finding a right
partner when it comes to marriage. Otherwise, married life will be an unhappy
one.
