Love and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

What is your response to the way love and marriages are presented in

Pride and Prejudice by JaneAusten?

Pride and Prejudice was written in 1796-7 during the romantic period

and was published in 1813, it is set between 1797 and 1815, in rural

England when the agriculture society was changing into a modern

industrial nation. Pride and Prejudice is about love and marriage,

personal happiness, andamongst other things, status and reputation.

Pride and Prejudice is a popular romantic novel, which Austenherself

described as "rather too light and bright and sparkling". It is about

a clergyman, his wife and their five daughters that are on a "quest

for true love and endless happiness in marriage". The early eighteenth

century world was structured, almost planned and controlled. Women

were expected to marry for security and men were expected to marry to

further their families' status and expand their families' estates.

Austen's views on different subjects are told through Elizabeth

Bennet, the main character and heroine in this novel. Austen herself

never married and she was a great observer of relationships. She also

made fun of the girls that only wanted clothes and men. Austenwas both

against and supportive of marriage in general as she shows us in this

novel. She disapproved of some of the reasons why people get married,

for example Charlotte for security and Lydia for excitement and lust,

but she also shows that marriage is the perfect solution when two

couples marry for love; Jane and Mr Bingley and Elizabeth and Mr

Darcy.

Attitudes to marriage today are very different from the attitudes when

Austen was writing her book. In the early nineteenth century it was

standard for the majority of the population ...

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...t it is a big hidden

factor behind the marriages. Austenshows us that true love can happen

even in tough situations. For example, the Gardiner's have a

meaningful marriage because they deeply love each other and did not

marry for future comfort. One main moral message presented to us is

marry for love if you can, wealth and status are not entirely

important. Pride and prejudice is to some extent related to the modern

world. There are some cases where families are very traditional, other

cases when someone like Wickham could trick his way into a females'

heart, marry her and take all her money, or there are other cases when

two very opposite people overcome their differences and fall in love.

Love and marriage is presented in a way that somehow relates to most

people. It tells us of consequences of marrying for money and the hope

of finding your true love.