Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

'Pride and Prejudice'is a novel about love and marriage. Examining the

main marriages in the story, discuss how successfully Jane Austen

communicates her own views on the nineteenth Century attitudes towards

marriage.

'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in

possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.'

This is a very ironic opening statement. The reader instantly detects

the wit and humour of the well-loved author Jane Austen. This wit and

humour is reflected and plays a major part is this novel. For in fact

rather than it being a 'truth universally acknowledged' it is in fact

the notion of a certain shallow-minded Mrs Bennet. Mrs Bennet is the

mother of five girls. She finds it her ultimate duty to get all of her

five girls married and preferably to a wealthy gentleman. Marriage in

the nineteenth century was very important for a girl. She would want

to get married as soon as possible before she was too old to do so.

Most young girls would want to marry a wealthy man, with a big estate

who could take care of her.

Jane Austen never married but she reflected many of her own views in

her writings. Austen was writing at a time when then interests of

society were of passion and emotion, which many of the authors of that

time wrote about, but instead Austen's work reflected the classical

ideals of order and reason.

There are many different attitudes to love and marriage in the novel.

Mrs Bennet influences her two youngest daughters, Lydia and Kitty but

perhaps captures a more negative sentiment for example the way she

lets them fool around with the regimental...

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...his novel is about love and marriage and the ways of the nineteenth

century. Jane Austen has shown many typical views of her time. She has

also shown us her view on these people she has written about. Her

narrative voice in the novel persuades us to believe, what was

happening, to be true. The irony in the story provides humour

especially with Mr Bennet and Mr Collins. An important lesson that

Jane Austen reflects upon in her novel is; not to let your pride

reflect on who you are and not to let your prejudices blind you. If

Elizabeth and Darcy had done this in the beginning then there would

have been no story. Thanks to the imagination and great writing skills

of Jane Austen, this wonderful story was brought to us and filled us

with love, compassion and hopefully made us think twice about how our

actions effect others.