Study on Jane Austen’s Views on Marriagein Pride and Prejudice

【Abstract】Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular literature masterpieces written by Jane Austen, which shows five different marriages in a realistic writing style. It also exposes the marriage based on money and property in the capitalistic society. This essay is focused on Jane Austen’s views on marriage in Pride and Prejudice and its practical significance to our modern females.

【Key words】Jane Austen; Pride and Prejudice; Views on Marriage; Practical Significance

【作者簡介】王楠(1998-)，女，漢族，河北景縣人，石河子大學，本科。

1. Introduction

Jane Austen is one of the most famous realistic woman writers of the late 18th century and early 19th century. She didn’t get married; however, with a keen insight into life, she devoted her life to reading and writing. She’s not looking at the kind of poverty that Dickens describes, say, in Bleak House or Oliver Twist. She’s looking at society for middle class women and in her society, at this particular time, inherited property runs through the male line. Jane Austen created six novels in her life, including Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

Among these works, Pride and Prejudice is the most successful and impressive masterpiece, which was written in 1813. It is the illustration of the society at that time, showing the daily lives and values of the Middle-Class Englishmen of that time, which was Male-Centered. In this book, Mrs. Bennet is a woman who makes great efforts to marry off her daughters. Her different attitudes towards her daughters’ marriages showed Jane Austen’s views on marriage, that is, it is wrong to only pay attention to money, property and social position in marriage, while it is also foolish to show no consideration to these three factors. Austen used biting irony, along with her realism and humor, to criticize those marriages which only depend on money. Jane Austen perfectly reflected the relationship between money and marriage at that time in Pride and Prejudice. In fact, the marriage is not the result of love, but the result of economic needs.

In this essay, we will discuss the five marriages in this book, Austen’s views on marriage and its guiding meaning to modern females.

2. Five Marriages in Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice described five marriages, including Collins and Charlotte, Lydia and Wickham, Jane and Bingley, Darcy and Elizabeth as well as Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet. These five marriages are totally different from each other, showing us the role of money, property, social position as well as love in marriage.

2.1 Jane and Bingley

Jane was the eldest Bennet sister and was acknowledged to be the most beautiful of the five Bennet sisters as well as the most beautiful woman in the local Meryton neighbourhood. Kind and gentle, Jane never spoke evil of other people, and the aspect of her character was exposed in “You never see a fault in any body. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in my life” in Chapter Ⅳ. However, she didn’t have enough courage and bravery, so she pretended that she didn’t fall in love with Bingley. Bingley was a wealthy young man. In Chapter Ⅰ, we know he was “A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year.” from Mrs. Bennet. With a handsome appearance and a decent manner, he was always generous with his money in giving help. Although he was very rich, same as Jane, he lacked independence and courage in marriage, which almost let their love and marriage die. It seems that both Jane and Bingley had all the good traditional virtues, such as kindness, beauty, generosity and so on. So the marriage between Jane and Bingley was a successful and perfect one.

2.2 Lydia and Wickham

Lydia was the youngest and Mrs. Bennet adored, spoiled her. She was also silly, flirtatious and girlish past propriety, as Darcy points out to her sister. She liked socializing, especially flirting with the officers of the militia. Her marriage to Wickham was the most ridiculous one and wasn’t accepted by most of her family members. Jane Austen even didn’t describe how they “fell in love” with each other in details, but money indeed played an important role in their marriage. Wickham was a complete playboy. Before he ran off with Lydia, he went after Georgiana Darcy, Mr. Darcy’s shy young sister, for money. In his opinion, love was just recreation. At the same time, Wickham threatened not to marry Lydia so that he could blackmail Darcy with a lot of money. Even when Wickham was in trouble with a large debt, it is also Darcy who helped him pay off that debt and gave him another one thousand pounds to let him marry Lydia. Although this marriage cost a large amount of money, it may be treated as the cheapest one.

2.3 Collins and Charlotte

The marriage between Collins and Charlotte seemed to be more rational based on the consideration of social position and property. In other words, their marriage was the result of profits.

For Charlotte, she was well-educated and smart, but she wasn’t as pretty as Elizabeth and didn’t have rights to inherit anything. As a matter of fact, what Charlotte wanted was just a comfortable shatter, a higher social position and a better wealth. She once explained to Elizabeth, “I am not romantic, you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins character, connections, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair, as most people state.” So this was the reason why she chose Collins as her husband. Although Collins had low manners and got his job as a clergyman by crawling to Lady Catherine, he had the right to inherit the property of Mr. Bennet. When Elizabeth refused Collins’ proposal of marriage, Charlotte caught this chance to marry him. Through marriage, Charlotte gained a beautiful house with yards, servants and a comfortable life.

For Collins, he had a stable income due to his job so he just needed to find a wife no matter who she was. He wanted to choose Jane as his wife because he heard that Jane was the most beautiful young lady in this neighbourhood, but Mrs. Bennet refused him. Then he thought Elizabeth was also good enough to be his wife; however, much to her mother’s displeasure and her father’s joy, Elizabeth firmly and promptly rejected him. He almost immediately transferred his affections to Charlotte and married her. Thus, what he needed was just a wife who helped him not to be a single man any more.

2.4 Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet

The way that this couple lived was different from others, which filled with irony and misunderstanding. Mr. Bennet was “so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character”, while Mrs. Bennet was “a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper”. As a husband, Mr. Bennet was unreliable because he had no feelings for his wife any more. Instead, he teased, or even made fun of Mrs. Bennet. When Mrs. Bennet heard that there was a rich young man moving in this neighbourhood. She asked Mr. Bennet to visit Bingley all the time, but Mr. Bennet just said “I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party”. Sadly, Mrs. Bennet didn’t understand those jokes that Mr. Bennet was talking about. She just replied that “My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty”. So to speak, they didn’t have a lot in common.

Mr. Bennet was a man of weak character. In general, when people are faced with great difficulties, they may try to solve them or escape from the frustration. Mr. Bennet chose the latter. As we all know, marriage is based on love. If love was gone, marriage has become a cage.

2.5 Darcy and Elizabeth

As the hero and heroine in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen used much more details to describe these two characters. Elizabeth was not only a bright and intelligent woman who knew her own mind, but also very pretty. Compared to her sisters, Elizabeth was also like her father the most. Mrs. Bennet didn’t like Elizabeth very much, because she once said that “Lizzy is not a bit better thanthe others; and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good humoured as Lydia”; however, Mr. Bennet was always giving her the preference for “they are all silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters”.

Darcy was born in a wealthy, aristocratic family so he had an innate sense of pride. Many people fawned over him for he had a large manor and countless fortune. As a result, Darcy thought that anyone who flattered him aiming for his money. At the beginning of the ball, Darcy found the Bennet were all eager to marry wealth gentlemen. He looked down on this kind of people, including Elizabeth. But after knowing more about Elizabeth, Darcy was deeply attracted by this gorgeous young lady. However, his pride prevented him from expressing his love, which made Elizabeth feel being despised. Luckily, they finally resolved the misunderstandings and had a happy ending.

The marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth was the most recognized one by Jane Austen. Their marriage was not mainly based on money, property, beauty or other things. Instead, it was built on love.

3. The Practical Significance to Modern People

Through writing Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen expressed her views on marriage, that is, a good marriage is based on love safeguarded by money. This view still has practical significance to our modern people.

First, Jane Austen highly praised love is the foundation of marriage. Besides, marriage needs to take social position and property in consideration. This rational view on marriage is helpful for modern people to form a good marriage view. In modern society, the social and family position of females has been greatly raised. The change happened in social orders makes women become less dependent on the materials provided by men. As a consequence, characters, manners, and personalities are also factors that people need to think over in their marriages.

Second, in 21th century, many romantic people recommend that marriage should only consider the existence of love. However, Jane Austen thought that marriage without the consideration of money is foolish. Besides, Jane Austen encouraged people to think about the role of social position, family background, financial situation, education level and other factors played in marriage.

In conclusion, modern people need to learn Jane Austen’s views on marriage deeply, which has a great practical significance in choosing the partner, and leading a happy life in marriage.

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