The first time Jane and Mr Bingley meet, the air is filled with promise

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Recommended: Theme of love and marriage in pride and prejudice

The first time Jane and Mr Bingley meet, the air is filled with promise

and romance.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession

of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

There are many women and men in this world that state that they don’t

need bind in holy matrimony in order to feel complete or happy about

their lives. Obviously, these women and men don’t live in the world of

Pride and Prejudice. Even the opening line declares a subtle truth so

well that it get you thinking. At first one sees it as an ironic

statement trying to open the book’s comedic and love-related

atmosphere. However as one digs deeper you see there is more to this

line than what meets the eye.

This sentence can sum up the goal of many women in this novel who are

in search of a single man in possession of a good fortune such as Ms

Lucas, as it does sum up the plot in many ways. As it states that men

must be in want of a wife, it subtly hints that the women in the novel

are most likely looking or are in desperate need of a [wealthy]

husband. This line also sets out little hints as to who are these men

in search of these women? If one reads on the same page as this line

is printed on, one notes that Mr Bingley, who has just recently moved

into Netherfield, is one of those men "Why, my dear, you must know,

Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large

fortune from the north of England… . This quote states that Mr Bingley

is a man of large fortune which is similar to good fortune, in fact

even better. The meeting of each new male central character is

attached to a descriptive sentence of his wealth and background. As we

read along the novel we see that most of the women in the novel notice

this wealth and also notice that these men are in fact looking after

wives to wed and share their life with.

The first time Jane and Mr Bingley meet, the air is filled with

promise and romance. They can be referred back to this opening line of

that he is looking for mutual affection in his life. There is a lot of

truth behind this quote which sums up the behaviours of most of the

male characters in the book; with the slight exception of Darcy who

doesn’t seek love though is surprisingly revealed to it.

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