Discuss Jane Austen’s presentation of the theme of marriage in Pride & Prejudice Essay

â€Å"It is the truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.† The opening sentence in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice is so important given the social context and the notion of marriage at that time: it was the one fundamental purpose of most girls to marry. Moreover, the motives and the attitudes towards marriage were far more complex in the 19th century than nowadays since love marriages were rare and marrying for ‘advantages’ were the obvious. Jane Austen explores all the different outlooks on marriage through the characters and reveals her views towards marriage by the consequence of each type of marriage. The novel is quite clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ and follows the ‘love conquers all’ platitude, however- still manages to be quite enjoyable read due to all the drama and upheaval concerning marriage. The novel, which tells the story of a commonplace 19th century family whose 3 daughter came ‘of age’ and therefore were in search for a suitable husband. Furthermore, the sense of drama is heightened by the fact the aging alpha-male of the Bennet family was unfortunate to bear only daughters and could therefore not pass on his belongings- including the property he and his family lived in to either his wife or his children as the law stated woman were unable to inherit. Therefore, everything the Bennet family owned would be given to Mr. Collins- a cousin of Mr. Bennets’. Mrs. Bennet is well aware of this and therefore has made it the main business of her life to get her daughters married. She herself has married Mr. Bennet for advantages as she was born poor and managed to ensnare him with her good looks. Consequently, she believes it’s highly likely her daughters will have the same good fortune, and as Mr. Bennet was getting older, her determination to marry her daughters off to rich men became stronger. Along with Mrs. Bennet’s determination, the pressure increased for her daughters to â€Å"secure† a man sufficient enough to please Mrs. Bennets views. Jane austen presents the theme of marriage as a comprehensive one, since she presents each character with a different view of marriage. I will compare the different views towards marriage in the novel and discuss Jane Austen’s presentation of the theme of marriage in the novel Pride & Prejudice in this essay. Enhancing the amount of money, the class of social connections, security and social status seem to be the grounds on which the ill-fated marriage of Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins are established. Charlotte Lucas is introduced as an ‘intelligent, twenty-seven year old woman whom concerned her family as they were scared she would die â€Å"an old maid.† Even though Charlotte knows she will never love Mr. Collins, she would much rather marry him than be a cause of embarrassment to her family due to her life-long bachelorhood. She believes â€Å"love is not a necessity and financial ambitions should be the main priority for a woman†, as it increases not only the wealth of the woman in question- it also increases the importunacy of her voice- essentially making them more powerful and prone to change. Furthermore, there are several quotes to back up her argument including. Otherwise the other woman thought flirtatious behaviour and humongous booby muscles did the trick. Furthermore, there are several devious competitors whom love in repetition of all sorts off material find it hard to believe that there are several cases of weird and odd behaviour created by an environment of hard parents giving daughters evil looks in order to keep her in check. Also, they’ll stretch the time of their appearance downstairs in order to find that perfect balance of animism and scrim. Furthermore, they find themselves so perfect and deem their voice as an alpha voice with steps pounding with such verbosity it shakes even the soft padded couch imp sitting on! It is scary, it is wild, it is my father. He is not so nice and honest. However, I find it irrational he has to find his stay downstairs and pray downstairs because of all the trouble he has to go through going up the furthermore, there are several objects of admiration staying up at night merely to control a daughter is too cautious behaviour implying an untrustworthy presence of an ordering and a sophisticated alpha male in the presence of an untrustworthy.