Explore Austen’s Presentation Of Marriage in Pride & Prejudice

Explore Austen’s Presentation Of Marriage in Pride & Prejudice

Marriage forms the basis of the events featured in Pride and Prejudice

and is presented in various ways in order to convey to readers the

importance of it in society and the expectations which come with it.

Throughout the book, Austen clarifies what makes a good marriage and

how society views marriage as a unity of equal classes and a way to

establish connections.

The first aspect of marriage which is revealed is the way a person’s

position in society affects the choice of partner. Austen states in

the opening line of the book:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in

possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”

This line both sets out the beliefs that were held by society at the

time, but also the tone of the book and the attitudes of the

characters featured. From this line, we can learn that society

considered marriage to be not only a unity of two people but also a

unity of assets and connections in society. The expectations held by

people are also revealed in the way that it is expected of men with a

sound financial status to succeed in marrying a woman of equal if not

higher status in order to maintain the connections previously

established. This line stresses the belief that wealth was of great

importance in society and that it was a factor that was taken into

consideration even before love and was believed to form the basis of a

successful marriage.

Another aspect portrayed by this line is the extent to which Austen

included irony in her writing. The word universal for example

indicated that this is a worldwide belief, however, it is the belief

of the several characters portrayed throughout th...

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...formed due to the upbringing of people

in different classes and the fact that women at the time had very few

rights and little independence and therefore relied on men much more

than in today’s society. Due to the extreme differences between the

classes, many views were held in order to keep money in one family;

such as the view of arranged marriages between relations. Society had

very strict views on what was and was not acceptable behaviour and

people such as Lydia who broke these unwritten codes of conduct

suffered exclusion from society.

Although the storyline speaks about love and marriage, it also reveals

to readers other aspects of society which are not as positive, such as

a marriage of convenience, and therefore helps readers to understand

why many characters acted in the way they did and how society affected

behaviour and influenced decisions.