Jane Austen: Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

             Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice carries through a lot of thoughts about marriages in the 18:th and 19:th century. In the novel, Jane Austen is rather critical about the whole system of hierarchy during the time. The critics are especially directed towards the situation for women. This can be seen in several of the marriages, where she uses them as examples of the focus on class and money, instead of on love. Another part of the novel is where she gives a warning to everyone, telling you to be really careful with who you marries, and not just take the first one. Yet, she does not only complain about how it works, but she also shows us what she considers to be a wealthy marriage.
             In Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice there is a lot of criticism upon the system of hierarchy. This is shown in many of the different marriages, with the way they do not like each other, persons marrying for class instead of love, and several other aspects. One example of people marrying just for the different advantages it means in society, is the Collins. Charlotte goes into the marriage with the reflections of it to be "general satisfactory" (90).The result of it is being rather depressing. Already in the beginning of the engagement Charlotte feels that she " [cares] not how soon that establishment were gained" (90) . All because of the society's demands on how a marriage should look like, and also because of the trap Jane Austen consider young girls to be held captured in. Since girls can not own anything in any way, they have to marry. Otherwise they take the risk of being thrown out a house some day. An highly uncomfortable situation for the women who can sometimes come even from the upper gentry. Therefore, if you are approaching the age of being to old for marriage, you should seriously consider to get married as soon as possible, just like Charlotte Lucas.
             Another big part of the novel is where Jane Austen explains how she c...

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Jane Austen: Marriage in Pride and Prejudice. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 14:35, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/85534.html