The Role Of Marriage In Pride And Prejudice

The novel, Pride and Prejudice, revolves around relationships and the attitudes towards marriage of different characters. Each couple in the story has a different motive for their marriage. In the Regency Era that the novel was written, it was typical for a woman to marry a man for money or social status. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Jane and Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Lydia and Mr. Wickham, and Charlotte and Mr. Collins are five of the couples in the novel that all married for various reasons. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have four daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia, that are all on the search for a husband. Mrs. Bennet wants her daughters to marry rich men with high social status’. The marriage between the Bennets is not one of love, instead Mrs. Bennet married Mr. Bennet because of his social status and sense of security. It is evident that their marriage is not one of love because they both revolve their time around anything other than each other. Mrs. Bennet lives vicariously through her daughters and is constantly on the search for a suitable man for them.

Wickham, before their marriage the two of them ran away together with no intentions of marriage while Wickham was stationed in Brighton and Lydia was staying near by. Lydia had no understanding that her actions were very shameful to her family. When Mr. Darcy finally found Lydia and Mr. Wickham he convinced them to elope and he paid off all of Wickham’s debt and paid Lydia’s dowry. The marriage between them is certainly not a marriage out of love, but more of a marriage out of obligation, and money. Wickham has a past of being a gold digger and almost tricked Mr. Darcy’s younger sister Georgiana into marriage because of her large inheritance, and he also pursued Miss Mary King because of her wealth. Lydia is very attracted to all of the officers and she is very young and immature, so she was excited to have a