Pride and Prejudice

This opening line of Pride and Prejudice could well describe the whole point of her book. With this single short statement, Jane Austen declares a couple of things essential to her novel. She declares one of her major themes: Money and Marriage. She establishes the fact that everyone is in the search for someone to marry; someone that reaches his or her standards economically and socially. It is the pursuit of a perfect husband or wife.

The central theme of Pride and Prejudice is based on the concerns of people in early nineteenth-century country society. One of these concerns is money. Austen could observe the money problems of a middle-class family right in her own home. Her father was an educated man and a gentleman, but his income didn't provide enough for his family. His daughters would not be able to survive if they remained unmarried. The same exact situation that the Bennet’s encounter in the novel. The situation of young women in these times was a critical one. In our time, women have many other choices in addition to marriage. Marriage is not looked upon so much as a financial security but

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Yet in Austen’s hands, under the costume of comedy, the subject is transformed into a serious and understanding exposure of the role of women in her society.

The novel demonstrates how money manipulates everything; women marry men that they are not in love with simply in order to gain financial security, like Charlotte. The ball provides us with the extreme importance that rank and wealth played in social relations. She comments, through Elizabeth, on the ironic fact that the Bennet’s must be happy over a marriage, like Lydia's to Wickham, that can bring no happiness to anyone. Darcy at one point says a comment to his sisters about the Bennet’s because they are discussing the fact that they have no social standards: “But it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world” (Chapter 8). Then she might have to become a governess, living in other people's houses, looking after their children. Today you can find a very wealthy man marrying a woman who as almost nothing. Elizabeth is extremely aware of these social gatherings, and is continually being embarrassed by her family's lack of propriety. If her husband was poor or a gambler, she and her children could suffer true hardships. In the novel, Elizabeth and most of her sisters end up getting married not so much because of money but because of love and happiness. Almost everyone wants to marry for love and happiness. Collins, a cousin whom the Bennets’ have never seen, is going to inherit Mr. Even though the society class “rule” still exists today, it is not as followed as before. Hurst said to Darcy in chapter 8: “I have an excessive regard for Jane Bennet, she is really a very sweet girl, and I wish with all my heart she were well settled.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1077
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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