Pride and Prejudice: Marrying Someone due to his or her Financial Status

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Recommended: Character analysis on pride and prejudice

The unsuccessful defines the successful. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen paints the lifestyle of the nineteenth century elite, emphasizing the continual struggle to find financial prosperity and matrimonial success. After witnessing shortcomings in several of these matches, Elizabeth, the headstrong Bennet daughter, unearths the formula for a lasting marriage. Austen includes the unfavorable marriage of Charlotte Lucas and the independence of Mary Bennet to convey companionship as the definition of a happy marriage, tying into modern twenty-first century marriages in order to promote the liberty of the individual within these relationships.
Austen juxtaposes the nineteenth century definition of a happy marriage with the opportunistic match of Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins. Charlotte, a quiet but clandestine young woman, marries Mr. Collins, a hubris gentleman, purely for the opportunity of the moment. She quickly consents to his proposal despite their being intimately unacquainted. Every aspect of their pairing is part of a calculated plan formed by society, binding these two people together for the sole purpose of the image it will portray over the town. However, Austen makes it evident Charlotte is equally aware of her motives towards the marriage, as she commits to Mr. Collins for her “disinterested desire of gaining an establishment” (Austen 97). The potential for property and financial freedom clouts all other reason for marriage and leaves Charlotte blindly accepting his offer, even though her prospect of future happiness remains inauspicious. Austen is giving the stereotypical version of the nineteenth century marriage; it is one of marrying for the prospect of higher societal grounds, and it becomes a pure “want o...

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...st in the midst of misery. It is possible to attain this status, yet it must be by the companionship of two people alongside the glorification of the individual. The individual must be content in order for the couple as a whole to function properly. People must avoid the sacrifice of personal identity in exchange for an image, averting the chance of becoming a victim of this irreparable system. The uniting of Charlotte and Mr. Collins provide the negative alternative resulting from marriages of selfish motives. In addition, the progressive attitude of Mary Bennet allows the conclusion that marriage is not an alternative to destitution, and that it is rather a decision made by the free thought and liberty to choose marital status. Even though a happy marriage is unconfined to one distinct category, it must resemble the true happiness of the two individuals involved.

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