The Importance of Marriage in "Pride and Prejudice"

Jane Austin ensures that marriage remains a central component to the main plotline throughout the novel. Through the use of Elizabeth as a literary tool, Austen is able to use her in order to portray her own feelings on marriage. In the novel, the opinion that comes through is that she is of the opinion that marriage should only take place on the basis of love. This is evident through the failings of those who marry for something other than love, and Darcy and Elizabeth’s success. The central plot of the novel is revealed quite plainly in the opening sentence

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.”

Here, the main aspect of the novel is revealed by Austen presenting to the reader, what marriage was thought of at the time of writing. This quotation contains no utterance of marrying for love, only doing so on the grounds of obtaining a greater social standing and increased financial security. This quotation also goes to show how important the “want of a wife” would have been at the time of writing; not singly to the man himself, but also “in the minds of the surrounding families”. The consideration of marriage as being vastly important lies with the surrounding families as well due to the fact that they will inevitably be hoping to offload an eligible daughter into the hands of the man in possession of a good fortune; not only for the benefit of said daughter, but for the social standing...

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...: Charlotte Lucas. It is most obvious that this marriage is not based on love, as it could be argued that Mr Collins may have had loving feelings for Elizabeth only days before; therefore making it highly improbable that both he and Charlotte could have developed feelings of love for one another in such a short space of time. Charlotte’s swift acceptance of Mr Collins’ offer shows that she is anxious to get married to gain both social and financial security. From this point on, Austen ensures that the reader is made aware of the very likely possibility that Charlotte may never have loving feelings towards Mr Collins, and vice-versa. However this should not prove to be a problem for Mr Collins, as he only desires a wife so to conform to the status quo.

Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr Collins is an important indication of Elizabeth’s feelings towards marriage.