Preview

The Problems with Marriage: the Contrasting Relationships in Pride and Prejudice

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2450 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Problems with Marriage: the Contrasting Relationships in Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is about a small country town in England, where life is all about having money, getting married, and having more money. In this novel, Austen focuses in on one particular family, the Bennets, who consist of five daughters and one over-obsessive mother who is looking to marry off each of her daughters before her husband passes away, for they do not have a son to inherit their estate and therefore her daughters will be left without a home, money, or respect in society. The story has ups, downs, and surprises around every corner for each of the relationships that are formed, broken, then formed again between the daughters and other men, until finally four sharply contrasting marriages emerge to show how real marriages are to be built. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen effectively shows her theme that happy strong marriages take time to build by contrasting Darcy and Elizabeth 's relationship with the marriage relationships of, Mr. Wickham and Lydia, Mr. Collins and Charlotte, and Mr. Bingley and Jane. Darcy and Elizabeth are made up to be an example of the perfect couple. They are the ones who discover that a relationship will not last without love, and manage to balance love with the need of money and social power. Although, in the beginning, Darcy seems to be a very ". . .disagreeable man . . ." (Austen 14), he begins opening himself up to the Bennet family, near the end. The journalist, Martin Amis points out that Darcy ends up dealing with the issues surrounding Lydia and Wickham 's relationship and ends up freely inviting Elizabeth 's aunt and uncle to come live with them at Pemberley (4). This marriage is also a force that will lead to the end of the division between the two classes; an article in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism notes that by marrying each other they "forged a contract between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie"("Austen: Pride" 35). While Darcy and Elizabeth do end up living happily ever


Cited: Amis, Martin. "Miss Jane 's Prime." The Atlantic. Feb. 1990:100(3). InfoTrac. DISCUS. 8 Feb. 2004 http://www.scdiscus.org. 5pp. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Modern Library, 1995. "Austen: Pride and Prejudice." Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Vol. 119. Detroit: Gale, 1992. 35-37. "Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice." World Literature Criticism. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1992. 7-9. Kneedler, Susan. "The New Romance in Pride and Prejudice." Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 299-302. Marcus, Mordecai. "A Major Thematic Pattern in Pride and Prejudice." Nineteenth-Century Fiction V. 16. (1961): (92-93). "Pride and Prejudice." The Literature Network. 8 Mar. 2004 http://www.literature-web.net/austen/prideandprejudice. 2pp. Wylie, Judith. "Dancing in Chains: Feminist Satire in Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions Nov. 2000: 5pp.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    UNV501

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen that deals with issues of class, gender, and social status, in addition to being a love story.”…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Classical Literature, there are few works which can boast having a huge societal impact upon their publication, yet still cause a modern reader to sit at the edge of their seat turning the page in anticipation of what happens next. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is one of these evident pieces. In Pride and Prejudice, the life as a middle-class English woman in the 19th Century was portrayed so astutely that the world around her was forever altered. The novel is also not only readable, but stimulating, with each page alluring the reader to find out what happens next to the unforgettable characters. But how is Austen able to accomplish this? What is the quality that makes her work stand out from the rest? It is evident through textual analysis that Jane Austen uses distortion as a device to aid not only in her plot development, but also in order to express her views on societal issues within Pride and Prejudice. This distortion is most prominently seen in the amplified characters, exaggerated circumstances, and the misrepresented interactions.…

    • 990 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This story mainly focuses on the March family that consists of Mr. March-the father, Mrs. March-the mother, and the children: Margaret (Meg), Josephine (Jo), Elizabeth (Beth), and Amy. As the story evolves, we find out about their dreams and fears, the troubles they each go through in life, and the strong bond shared between them even though they are all different in their own unique ways. We walk through each daughter 's struggles in life and how they overcome the pains of life. (Alcott, 1994)…

    • 5281 Words
    • 22 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    APA Activity ONE

    • 425 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen that deals with issues of class, gender, and social status, in addition to being a love story.”…

    • 425 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    To say the very least, the characteristics of Elizabeth and Darcy change dramatically throughout the novel of Pride and Prejudice. At the beginning of the tale we see Elizabeth does not have the most pleasant feelings towards Darcy. Lizzy basically just doesn’t even like him enough to care about his opinion for her. “‘She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me’…Mr. Darcy walked off; and Elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings towards him.” (3) As the story moves along Elizabeth’s initial dislike turns into a burning hatred as a result of Wickham’s deceitful information. “I had not thought Mr. Darcy so bad as this – though I have never liked him, I had not thought so very ill of him – I had supposed him to be despising his fellow-creatures in general, but did not suspect him of descending to such malicious revenge, such injustice, such inhumanity as this!” (16) Since, even the slightest thought of Darcy repulsed Elizabeth’s very soul, she rejected his initial proposal. This event stirred something in Darcy to write a letter explaining the truth of the situations that had Elizabeth’s heart and mind in complete disgust. Elizabeth’s feelings…

    • 1309 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The three main marriages that are presented within the novel each denote a different type of marriages that were commonly found in the 18th century. These are the marriages of Mr and Mrs Bennet, Lydia and Mr Wickham and Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins. Austen has juxtaposed the foremost marriage in the novel, the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth, with the other three listed, in the sense that the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth was based on ‘true love’ an ideology that Austen herself adhered to.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane Austen’s famous work, Pride and Prejudice, is entwined with each character’s social, political, and personal vanity, especially Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Elizabeth Bennet. Without these comedic elements this piece would never have come as far as it has.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The passage of Pride and Prejudice contains many narrative devices to help further the understanding of the reader. This includes the narrative devices of ‘telling’ the reader events using narrative voice, free indirect speech or focalisation, and ‘showing’ them using dialogue. ‘Telling’ has the advantages of usually being quicker to make points and allowing the reader access to a characters private thoughts and feelings. ‘Showing’ is more dynamic as it involves interaction with other characters.…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Austen, J. (1998) Pride and Prejudice. [Kindle version] Available from: http://www.amazon.co.uk. [Accessed 3rd October 2011].…

    • 2474 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Newton, Judith Lowder. “Pride and Prejudice: Power, Fantasy, and Subversion in JAne Austen.” Feminist Studies 4, no. 1, 1978. Print.…

    • 1552 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, first published 1813, published in Penguin Classics 1996, updated Further Reading and 1972 Penguin Classics Introduction by Tony Tanner 2003.…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Romanticism - Coleridge

    • 3412 Words
    • 14 Pages

    [ 9 ]. L. Smith. Jane Austen and the Drama of Woman. New York: St. Martin 's Press, 1983. p.9.…

    • 3412 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice presents five married couples. No two are alike. In the novel we see different reasons for marriage between the different matches made in the novel. Austen reveals many messages through her characters on her major theme, being marriage.…

    • 1303 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In what ways does Fay Welden in Letters to Alice reposition readers in terms of their understanding and appreciation of Pride and Prejudice.…

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stereotypes of Men and Women

    • 13045 Words
    • 53 Pages

    This essay attempts to show that by looking at stereotypical characters in Pride and Prejudice, as well as looking at what qualities in men and women were considered desirable, a very interesting discussion might arise in the classroom, concerning gender roles, and inequality between men and women. A discussion of this sort gives the students an opportunity to question the gender roles we have in today’s society, as well as the relationship between men and women.…

    • 13045 Words
    • 53 Pages
    Good Essays