Marriage in Pride and Prejudice
Introduction
It is worth noting that marriage is an institution everyone in the society and especially women seek to accomplish. From the novel “Marriage in Pride and Prejudice”, looks and money dominate many marriages in this society,” ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. Youthfulness is also a major consideration as far as marriage in this society is concerned (Morrison, 83).
Mr. Bennet married Mrs. Bennet because of her beauty and youthfulness and not because of love. The couple has five daughters. From the book, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet marriage eventually worsens with the fading of Mrs. Bennet beauty. They do not enjoy the marriage. Mr. Bennet loses all the interest and respect he initially had for his wife as years goes by. His wife is getting old and so her beauty and youthfulness is quickly fading. Towards the end of the novel, Mr. Bennet admits that he made the wrong decision of choosing a life partner out of beauty and youthfulness as opposed to love and affectionate. Mrs. Bennet on the other is interested in getting her five daughters to marry men who are financially stable with more riches.
Jane Austen is not criticizing marriage in this society but she is instead trying to highlight what norms and value the people in this society consider as far as marriage is concerned. We have come to understand that people in this society have different views on what to look out for in life partners. The society has two already established marriages, the Bennet marriage and Gardiner’s marriage. According to Austin, the Bennett’s marriage is not an ideal one because it is purely based on physical attraction and not love and affection. Austen is trying to highlight the effects of such marriages to the society as well as to the couple themselves.
As Mrs. Bennet physical attraction deteriorates, Mr. Bennet loses interest on her. He does not show love and affection and he instead spends most of his life alone in the study. Although he is a man with a sense of hilarity, he makes offensive statements about his wife and which his wife seems to accept as true. His wife never gets annoyed towards his husband since she financially depends on him. Therefore Austin is not offering criticism on marriage institution but she is trying it ascertain the effects of pride and lack of correctness in choosing a life partner.
For instance, the Bennet marriage is not working due to mistake made initially when making their partners choice. Elizabeth and Darcy marriage is working and is the best because it is based on maturity, love, respect, mutual relationship and affection. Darcy only proposes to Elizabeth after he was unable to control his feelings of love and affection, “In vain have I struggled”. He is of a higher social class and though he was afraid that his marriage to Elizabeth would degrade him, he chose to follow his feeling which has become his value for a life partner.
At first Elizabeth turns downs his proposal since she initially thought that Darcy was flattering her since he was a wealthy man and Elizabeth was a person of low class and he knew it. At first Elizabeth did not like or love Darcy but due to the respect she had for him she eventually changed her feelings towards him (Hugh, 12). It is actually the best marriage in this society. Jane is also trying to highlight the effects of prejudice, absurdness, partiality, immaturity, lust and blindness which can actually lead one into making wrong decision. Elizabeth could have made the wrong marriage choice if she had stuck to her feelings towards Darcy which were all wrong.
Charlotte marriage to Mr. Collins is purely because of material things. It is not based on love. Charlotte was twenty seven years old when Mr. Collins proposed to her (Brooks, 18). His family and especially his brothers are overwhelmed with joy upon hearing the news of their sister’s marriage proposal. They thought at twenty seven Charlotte is late for marriage and they do not want her to spend her entire life as a maid. However, what matters to charlotte is not her age or love; she is more concerned about Mr. Collins financial stability (Morrison, 83).
From a clear look, Mr. Collins and Charlotte marriage is not a happy one, they seem unhappy while every time they are together. Charlotte spends most of her time doing her house chores as well as well as pleasing Catherine instead of being with her husband,” ‘I am not romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home”. This is an indication that marriage purely based on material wealth is not workable and always leads to unhappiness.
It is clear the Mr. Collins is first interested in Elizabeth whom he first proposes to. Charlotte over hears their marriage proposal and so she tries her best in order to get Mr. Collins for herself. She does not love him and at the same time she knows that Mr. Collins does not love her either. What she is after is money and she knows she can get it by delighting Mr. Collins. She exactly knows how to delight him and eventually succeeds in winning him. After Collins proposes to her, she does not hesitate but she quickly accepts the proposal. Charlotte views marriage as a chance of securing a coherent standard of life. She does not care about her husband especially during the time illness as indicated in the novel. This is because she does not love him at all.
Lydia marriage to Wickham is purely based on lust and romance. Lydia is an immature teenager who has interests on military men (Bennion, 5). According to Austin, Lydia seems to like Wickham but it is evident that he does not like him as much as she likes him. Lydia meets her marriage partner during a dance. Though Wickman is first attracted to Elizabeth, he changed his mind after realizing that Miss King whom he first wanted to escape with had inherited a fortune. It is for this reason that he drew his attention away from Elizabeth. Wickman is a man who has many debts; he want to escape due to his debts. And because Lydia is a girl full of lust and romance and she has interests on military men, Wickham takes and advantage of her. Wickman and Lydia marriage materializes after Darcy agrees to pay off Wickman’s debts (Deen, 10).
From this notion we can deduce that Lydia likes Wickham but he does not like her in return. Lydia is a young irresponsible girl who cares about her own feelings. She does not care what others feel towards her,” She had high animal spirits”. Her husband on the other hand is ambitious and does not care what Lydia feels about him. He is interested with money and nothing else. Their marriage is shaky and lacks direction. They are always in debts and he makes his wife to write to her sisters to ask for money. Lydia’s marriage to Wickham shows how irresponsible behavior and immaturity can lead one to making an irrational decision which will affect him/her in his/her entire life. Lydia choice of marriage partner is purely based on her own feelings and not how the two felt for each other.
Jane marriage to Mr. Bingely is a much better relationship. Though Mr. Bingely is rich, kind, handsome and popular, they both have admirable personalities. They talk freely an indication that they like each other the same way. They marriage is based on respect and love. Jane does not take anything for chance. She is humble and physically attractive. She likes people and she sees the good part of people, “I never heard you speak ill of a human being in my life”. She is very keen when choosing a life partner. She wants a lively, hilarious and sensible person for a partner. The two are optimistic, nice and kind. They make a good and a happy coupe.
Elizabeth and Darcy marriage is the most excellent one among all the other marriages. The two are equally intelligent and they know what they are looking for in a marriage. They are physically attractive, financially stable, respectable towards each other, romantic and have deep affection for each other. For sure their marriage is a happy one since it has the best and correct values (Hugh, 12).
At first, the two do not like each other. Darcy had once indicated that Elizabeth is inferior to him. This causes Elizabeth to hate him and she shows him after turning down his first proposal. What makes their attitude towards each other change is respect and trust they have developed for each other. At first Elizabeth thinks that Darcy was trying to make her sister Lydia, unhappy since he had tried to interfere in their marriage (Brooks, 18). This makes Elizabeth to develop a feeling of hatred towards him. However, Darcy tells Elizabeth the whole truth about Wickham. From this point Elizabeth changes her feelings towards Darcy who has fallen in love with her (Ward, 18).
Conclusion
Marriage in Pride and Prejudice is a novel that highlights how people in this society holds different norms in choosing a marriage partner. The women in this society have different interests in choosing a marriage partner some of which are unsuitable. Wrong values leads to unhappy marriage while correct values leads to stable and happy marriages.
Work Cited
David Allen Ward. Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ (Jane Austen). Academic Journal. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2010.Vol 68,Issue 3.p18
John Bennion. Austen’s Granddaughter: Louise Plummer Re (de) fines Romance. Journal of English: New York: National Council of Teachers of English, 2002 Vol. 91, No. 6 , pp. 44-50.URL.http://www.jstor.org/stable/821815.
Mary Brooks. Matter out of place: Paradigms for analyzing textile cleaning. Journal of the American institute for conversation. New York: The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works, 2006. Vol. 45, No.3 pp 171-181
Robert Morrison. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: A sourcebook: London: Routledge, 2010 p83
Stella Deen .So Minute and yet so alive”: Domestic Modernity in E. H. Young’s “William”. Journal of Literature. Tulsa: University of Tulsa, 2003 Vol. 22, No. 1 , pp. 99-120
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20059134
Thomson Hugh. Mr. Collins and Elizabeth, from ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen. New York: The Bridgeman Art Library 2008
