"Pride and Prejudice": Exploring the Chasm Between Love and Marriage in Georgian England

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“Pride and Prejudice”, is a novel which explores the huge chasm between love and marriage in Georgian England. Jane Austen’s presentation of passion and matrimony reiterates the fact that marriage is a “business arrangement”. Austen uses irony to make fun of polite society in this satire and Austen also emphasizes the point that social hierarchy dictates whom you can marry. The pressures of men and women in Georgian England are revealed through her exploration of the aristocracy’s prejudice against the middle class society in which she lived. Finally uses comedy to expose hypocrisy

Early in the Novel, Jane Austen is initially presents Mr. Collins with comic irony and as a figure of absurdity to be mocked as a potential husband; Austen reveals Mr. Collin’s s palpable and selfish reasons for marrying in a simple comic statement “Mr. Collins had only to change from Jane to Elizabeth — and it was soon done — done while Mrs. Bennet was stirring the fire” Mr Collins an obsequious, egotistic and contemptible man uses a shallow approach to marriage, this is shown by the word “stirring”. Jane Austen uses a comic comparison to reveal how little time Mr. Collins has devoted to this change of heart. Mr. Collins is presented as a male whose “business” is to get married due to the pressures of society.

Equally, Mr. Collins’s proposal stresses even further, how he is willing to marry without passionate feelings, Jane Austen presents the ingratiating, self centered side of Mr. Collins in the line “I am convinced it will add greatly to my happiness” Firstly this quote is evidently suggesting that Mr Collins is a sycophant and he is trying to marry purely for selfish reasons and for his social status. Secondly, Mr Collins is also trying to...

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...views should be accepted. Finally an allegory is used as she mentions Pemberley which could be reflecting Darcy’s true character and Rosings where much of the embellishment is purposely flamboyant just like Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Jane Austen is exemplifying that Elizabeth’s gentility enhances Darcy’s ability to accept love and marriage. Equally Jane Austen accentuates the fact that love and marriage concerning Elizabeth and Darcy may be uncertain but there are possibilities of mutual respect and affection.The fairy-tale factor of the ending, with Darcy flouting family honour underlines the point “love” can redeem a man. While Darcy represents pride, and Elizabeth prejudice, the majority of the characters in “Pride and Prejudice” are impacted by both pride and prejudice, and their disdain towards the two pivotal characters in the novel becomes only hypocritical.

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