“Marriage and what makes a good one?” i Essay

â€Å"Marriage and what makes a good one?† is a major theme of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ discuss this aspect of the novel. The novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ gives many ideas of marriage. It can be seen as a business transaction, an alliance between families or a social improvement for women but whichever way it is seen sometimes, ‘happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance’. As the novel opens we can tell that marriage in the late 19th century was mainly based around society; ‘it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’ We learn in the novel that women did marry for money or security like Charlotte Lucas but others like Elizabeth and Jane marry for love. Mr and Mrs Bennet’s marriage was impulsive, Mr Bennet was ‘captivated by youth and beauty’ and because of Mrs Bennet’s ‘weak understanding and illiberal mind’ it ‘put an end to all real affection for her’. Mr and Mrs Bennet’s marriage is a good example of what a marriage shouldn’t be, if they had married for love, Mr Bennet wouldn’t use his ‘sarcastic humour’ to ‘vex’ his wife. Their bad marriage has a serious effect on Kitty and Lydia who are ‘two of the silliest girls in the country,’ this is caused by their parents’ lack of guidance in life and is the reason for their insensible behaviour and frivolous nature around men, which later leads to Lydia’s ‘elopement’ with Mr Wickham. Mrs Bennet’s ‘business of life was to get her daughters married,’ and to her it was important to do this before anybody else. This is why when Lydia marries Mr Wickham, Mrs Bennet fails to see their unsuitability because she is so happy that her youngest was married; ‘she will be married at sixteen.’ Lydia is like her mother in many ways so her marriage to Mr Wickham will end up like that of her parents. Lydia and Mr Wickham’s marriage is unbalanced so it is unlikely that it will last; ‘their elopement had been brought on by the strength of her love, rather than by his’ Jane and Mr Bingley are well suited because Jane always sees the best in people; ‘never†¦speak ill of a human being’ and Mr Bingley was ‘good looking and gentlemanlike’ with a ‘pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners.’ Mr Bingley doesn’t care about social status; ‘if they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside it would not make them one jot less agreeable,’ and he loves Jane for who she is. Jane has the ‘most affectionate, generous heart in the world’ and was ‘all loveliness and goodness’ so her and Mr Bingley were able to overcome their obstacles to be the perfect match. Elizabeth also wants to marry for love so when Mr Collins proposes to her she rejects him because she doesn’t love him and he doesn’t mention that he loves her. At first impressions Elizabeth finds Mr Darcy the ‘proudest, most disagreeable man in the world’ which was contrary to her ‘lively, playful disposition’. Elizabeth is prejudice against Mr Darcy because he is ‘proud and conceited’ and even though he believes that someone with his high social status shouldn’t form a romantic attachment to someone of a lower status he ‘began to feel the danger of paying Elizabeth too much attention.’ Elizabeth falls for Mr Wickham’s charms and believes his story about Mr Darcy which leads her to not just dislike him but to hate him and when she finds out that it was he who warned Mr Bingley off her sister Jane she chooses to hate him even more. Mr Darcy proposes to Elizabeth and confesses how he ‘admires’ and ‘loves’ her but at this point in the novel they aren’t suited to each other because they both still have narrow views. Also at this point in the novel they are both guilty of pride and prejudice. As the novel progresses we see that Elizabeth’s prejudice gradually disappears and is replaced with love for Mr Darcy, but by then she thinks it is too late and that he will never want to marry her after the shame Lydia put their family to. However he proves that he is not ‘proud and conceited’ anymore by paying off Mr Wickham and when she thanks him thinking all hope is lost in him ever asking her to marry him again, he does. Charlotte’s idea of marriage is very different to that of Jane and Elizabeth; she would rather sacrifice love for security. She believes that ‘a woman had better shew more affection than she feels’ or she may ‘lose the opportunity of fixing him’. This is why she agrees to marry Mr Collins who only wants to marry because he thinks it will be good for his image and she ends up avoiding him throughout the day because he is a ‘pompous’, ‘odious man’. Mr Collins doesn’t show any sign of wanting to marry for love because he first turns his eye to Jane but when he finds she is already taken, he turns his eye to the next best thing: Elizabeth.Ã'‹