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The passages from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, two men attempt to persuade their women into marrying them though marriage proposals. While both proposals state the men’s intentions of marriage, Headstone’s proposal is more effective than Collins’ because he clearly shows his affection for her, includes benefits for her family, and takes consideration of his audience.
In the excerpt from Austen’s novel, William Collins writes his marriage proposal for Elizabeth Bennet as though he were presenting a business proposition. Collins structures his arguments much too logically for a marriage proposal, by using the words “first” and “secondly.” These transition words present his reasons in the format of
In Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, the necessity of marrying well is one of the central themes. In Austen’s era a woman’s survival depended on her potential to acquire an affluent partner. This meant a choice of marrying for love and quite possibly starve, or marry a securing wealthy person, there was a risk of marrying someone who you might despise.
Shakespeare’s “Richard III” portrays a ‘serious’ yet passionate declaration of love to Anne greatly contrasting with the more solemn and composed confession given by Mr Collins in Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. Where Richard III seems to be unable to hold back his feelings Mr Collins appears to quite calmly lay out his reasoning for his proposed match to Elizabeth Bennet. Thus both extracts could be said to be giving us very different depictions of the idea of a ‘declaration of love’.
England has always had a rich history of interesting cultural traditions but arguably none as prevalent as marriage. Marriage, the union of two people with emotional ideals and expectations, are brought on by many different factors that include: for love, for money, for climbing social status, escapism, survival, etc. In Jane Austen’s novels, she focuses on the importance of marriage in her world because she wanted to emphasize how marriage is the most important life event of a woman as this would determine her place in society. Persuasion shows readers good and bad examples of marriage: the amiable Crofts and other couples such as Sir Walter & Lady Elliot and the Smiths. Jane Austen uses the Crofts to support the importance of marriage equality as a contrast to marital traditions of Regency England.
“The greatest marriages are built on teamwork, a mutual respect, a healthy dose of admiration, and a never-ending portion of love and grace” is a quote by Fawn Weaver which suggests that matrimony should be based upon the authentic ideals and principles of love and respect. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen ridicules Mr. Collins proposal because of his unauthentic and superficial approach on marriage. Through the analyzation of this self righteous clergyman's proposal, Austin implicitly displays the dynamics between female and male and also brings light on the objectification of women in the 18th century. Specifically, this essay will analyse Austen’s commentary of the inconsequential fundamentals of marriage through the investigation of Mr. Collins proposal structure and the key factors missing from his speech and Elizabeth's rejection of Mr. Collins and what it inherently says about women in the Victorian Era.
In Austen’s time, the inability to see past wealth when considering marriage is a cultural tie to the era and its norms. It’s a pitiable and vain cultural upbringing that is frowned upon in this century. One does not simply marry for the sake of wealth and reputation. Without love, marriage cannot last. It ends in a deadlock, or with two people living together but leading separate lives behind closed doors.
Connections between texts of different eras illuminate the dynamic nature of those central values that have continued to resonate within different contexts. A comparative study of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice and Fay Weldon’s 1984 epistolary Letters to Alice highlights the evolution of autonomy within marriage, shifting away from traditional Regency values of marriage to become more liberal in Weldon’s society, while also exploring the value of self-reflection through the reconsidering of past superficial values of their respective Regency and Post-Modern milieus.
Marriage is a powerful union between two people who vow under oath to love each other for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. This sacred bond is a complicated union; one that can culminate in absolute joy or in utter disarray. One factor that can differentiate between a journey of harmony or calamity is one’s motives. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners, where Elizabeth Bennet and her aristocratic suitor Mr. Darcy’s love unfolds as her prejudice and his pride abate. Anton Chekhov’s “Anna on the Neck” explores class distinction, as an impecunious young woman marries a wealthy man. Both Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Anton Chekhov’s “Anna on the Neck” utilize
...n a man of large fortune should be in want of a wife. Though Mr Bennet was not a man of large fortune, he did however, need a wife so that in the event of his death, he had a heir to pass of family fortune to. Mrs Bennet married Mr Bennet simply because women wish to get married. It seemed a perfect match, Mr Bennet had to marry someone to pass on family heritage whilst Mr Bennet married for her own needs. Those being, for connections and fortune of another man. This reflects how marriage between Mr and Mrs Bennet is conveyed to the readers as entirely different reasons. Thus showing how Mr and Mrs Bennet married for necessity.
"You know what I am going to say. I love you (Dickens 1)." In modern day times, marriage proposals are seen as the epitome of love as demonstrated by the beginning of this proposal by Dickens; however, during the early 1800 's, the majority of people married for social reasons rather than love. These differing purposes are made evident in the proposals made in classic novels written by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Comparing these two proposals shows the development of marriage during the 1800s from a social device to an emotional and loving act through the different arguments, attitudes, assumptions, and diction both men use in addressing the woman as well as the effect it produced.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Austen #1-2). Marriage is an agreement between two people to be joined together for eternity to passionately support and love each other. However, as shown in two proposals from the novels, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen with Mr. Collins’ proposal along with Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens and Mr. Headstone’s marriage proposal, there can always be added twists and turns to each marriage proposal. The proposal of Mr. Headstone is more rhetorically effective than Mr. Collins’ proposal, due to Mr. Headstone’s display of passionate emotion with minor desperation and pushiness for Lizzie Hexam; on the other hand,
Marriage in the 19th century was a woman’s priority. Many times women married for social status or attraction but hardly ever for true love. In many cases the happiness of a marriage was based on whether the girl was beautiful and lively and the boy handsome and competent, and whether they were attracted to each other. Jane Austen would not believe that the happiness of marriage was based upon attraction, she believed it should be based upon love. In her novel Pride and Prejudice, she illustrates three main reasons for marriage, true love, attraction, and economics.
married. However, “for pragmatic reasons, the author’s conclusions favor marriage as the ultimate solution, but her pairings predict happiness” (“Austen, Jane”). Als...
In Pride and Prejudice, the author Jane Austen expresses her views on the attitudes and reasons for marriage in the 1800’s. Austen used the different relationships between the characters in her novel to outline her personal view on marriage. I believe that Austen’s expresses her view of the perfect marriage by three characteristics of compatibility, respect and most importantly love. In the novel Austen relies on her opinions to shape the plot of Pride and Prejudice. Austen expresses her opinions through the main characters’ relationships between Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Bennet, Jane Bennet, Charles Bingley, Lydia Bennet, George Wickham, Charlotte Lucas, Mr. Collins, Mr. Gardiner, and Mrs. Gardiner. In the novel the different
While Pride And Prejudice is demonstrably concerned with the subject of love, from Lydia's physical passion for Wickham, through Jane's slightly too patient and undemanding feelings for Bingley, to Elizabeth's final "perfect" match with Darcy, it would be doing the novel and its author a great injustice to assume that it is merely a love story, and has no other purpose or design. The scope of the novel is indeed much wider than a serious interest in who will marry who and who will have the manor that is worth the most money, or even the less shallow subject of women trying, failing, and succeeding at finding their perfect mates on a romantic level. While the investigation of love in its many forms is by no means a completely trivial exercise in and of itself, Pride And Prejudice does not confine itself to that one topic, but while presenting a story that details several love affairs and the variously intelligent, mistaken, and idiotic views of diverse characters towards the subject, Jane Austen also gives the reader insight into issues that range from moral questions of pride and lack thereof, to individual and class prejudice, to the expected roles of women eighteenth and nineteenth century society.
The roles of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice are contrasted between a father who cares about what’s inside of people and a mother who only worries about vanity and appearance. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s parental guidance is unique to their personalities. Because of their two opposing personas, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s ideas of marriage are contradictory for their daughters; Mr. Bennet believes in a loving respectful marriage whereas Mrs. Bennet values a marriage which concerns wealth and social status. Their aspirations for Lydia, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Elizabeth mirror their conflicting ideologies. Mr. Bennet seems to have a quiet deep love for his daughters while, on the contrary, Mrs. Bennet’s love is over-acted and conditional. Both parents help to shape their daughters’ characteristics and beliefs: Lydia reflecting Mrs. Bennet’s flighty and excessive behavior while Elizabeth inherits Mr. Bennet’s pensive and reflective temperament. Looking past their dissimilar personality traits and contradicting convictions, both parents hold the family together and play an integral role in the household structure.