What attitudes to love and marriage does Jane Austen explore in Pride

What attitudes to love and marriage does Jane Austen explore in Pride

and Prejudice? Can you identify Jane Austen’s own view?

Jane Austen’s novel of Pride and Prejudice is set in the early 19th

century and the central theme of the novel is love and marriage.

Marriage was viewed very differently in those days and each character

in her novel has different views of marriage. Marriage to women gave

status and independence as women could not acquire money on their own

without inheriting or marrying into good fortune, so many girls at

that time did not marry for affection or love. Jane Austen uses the

Bennet family to illustrate different types of marriage and thus

reveals her own view.

An example of marriage can be found between Charlotte Lucas and Mr

Collins. Charlotte married for economic reasons and Mr Collin on the

other hand married to “set a good example”.

Mr Collins is the Bennets’ cousin who’s “neither sensible nor

agreeable”. The letter he wrote to the Bennet family “is a mixture of

servility and self-importance”. He married mainly because Lady

Catherine de Bourgh advised him to do so. This shows the importance of

class as Mr Collins spends most of his time being obsequious to his

upper-class patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. His choice of wife

changed early from Jane to Elizabeth and then to Charlotte after

Elizabeth’s rejection in just a few days. When he found out that Jane

might be engaged to Bingley soon, he hardly needed time to consider at

all “to change from Jane to Elizabeth while Mrs Bennet was stirring

the fire”; this shows clearly that he did not choose his partner for

love. The five reasons Mr Collins gave for proposing to Elizabeth was

firstly, he thinks it’s the right thing to do as a clergyman to “set

the example of matrimony”, secondly he thinks that it will provide

happiness for him, thirdly it was advised by Lady Catherine De Bourgh,

fourthly because he is inheriting the Bennets’ house, he thought it

would be a very gallant thing for him to do to marry one of his

cousins so the Bennets will lose as little as possible, and lastly and

the least important reason is he said that he likes Elizabeth and

thinks her suitable. This shows how little affection he has for her,

and the way he lays out his reasons shows how formal and dull he is,

and all he is doing is trying to please Lady Catherine by doing as she

advised.

Charlotte who is Elizabeth’s closest friend married Mr. Collins

despite how little she loved him, just to gain financial security and