19th century England had some serious social
problems left over from
the heyday of
Royalty and Nobility. One of the most
significant of these was
the tendency to
marry for money. In this basic
equation, a person sought a
spouse based on
the dowry receivable and their allowance.
This process
went both ways; a
beautiful woman might be able to snag a rich husband, or a
charring handsome
man could woo a rich young girl. In
these marriages,
money was the
only consideration. Love was left out,
with a feeling that it
would develop as
the years went by. In Pride and
Prejudice, Jane Austen
comments that
marriage in her time is a financial contract, where love is
strictly a matter
of chance.
Lady Catherine states the fact that happiness
in marriage is strictly a
matter of
chance. This holds true in the
conception of marriage held in the
novel. All of the marriages in the book formed under
the bonds of money
rather than the
bonds of love end up unhappy or unsuccessful.
The whole
novel outlines
attempts to dance around love for the combination of a wealthy
person with an
attractive person.
The first line of Pride and Prejudice, "It
is a universally acknowledged
fact that a
single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a
wife", sets
the tone for the rest of the novel. We
interpret it to mean that a
wealthy man
either actively pursues a wife based on his knowledge that no
one would turn
down a wealthy suitor, or attractive women use their beauty
to their
advantage to attract a rich husband.
Confident in his knowledge of
his own wealth
and magnificence, Darcy's less than romantic first proposal to
Elizabeth is a
good example of the first of these truths.
Darcy marches into
the room, and
after stating all the reasons why a wealthy man such as himself
should never
marry a "socially inferior" person such as Elizabeth, he
proposes to
her. He is totally confident in the
knowledge that no woman
would turn down
marriage to a person as rich as himself, no matter how
obnoxious he
is. He seems outrightly stunned when
Elizabeth refuses him.
This refusal
shatters his conception of reality, showing him that money is not
all powerful. This is what seems to throw him head over
heels in love with
Elizabeth.
Mrs. Bennett is the embodiment of the second
part of the rule. Her
marriage was
based on the principal of financial gain, and she desires her
daughters to be
the same. She was able to attract Mr.
Bennett, a seemingly
sensible and self
controlling man, by, "keeping her mouth shut and smiling a
lot." Basically stated, she entered their marriage
under false pretenses. She
had no real love
for him, only a desire to gain financially.
Every action taken
by her in the
novel is directly intended to undermine her daughters marriages,
guiding them
toward financial gain. She is furious
when Elizabeth turns down
Collins, as her
marriage to him would mean the estate would stay in the
family. She found Darcy most disagreeable, but would
have been furious if
Elizabeth had
told her the she had turned Darcy's marriage proposal down.
Charlotte Lucas represents the group entirely
left out of this equation.
She has neither
extreme beauty nor wealth. She can not
even attract a
husband through
her wit as Elizabeth does, and so she is
basically without
hope for
inclusion. Elizabeth is astonished when
Charlotte accepts Mr.
Colleen's
marriage proposal, as she does not understand fully Charlottes
predicament. She can not hope for a wealthy and handsome
husband like
Elizabeth and
Jane can, as she does not have their particular assets. She can
hope at best for
security and a degree of comfort.
In conclusion,
the essential statement made about marriage in Pride
and Prejudice is
that a marriage for money will end up unsuccessful. This is
proved by
examples of unsuccessful marriages formed for money, and
successful
marriages formed for love.
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