Marriage In Pride And Prejudice Essay

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In Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen introduces the pensiveness with socially advantageous marriage in nineteenth-century English society. Marriage for women had to be obtained and everything women did at this time was with the goal to marry a man. Money was a main component marriage must include. Marriage was seen as an economic contract and in the case of the Bennet girls, a means of financial security and social acceptability. English social etiquette was emphasized throughout the novel as well. Presented as a strict set of rules for how one was to appear as socially proficient and of course, always leading up to, a desirable match for marriage. The three themes, marriage, money and manners are all intertwined with each other, with marriage…show more content…
Money determines your social class, how people view you, and can make and save relationships. When Lydia, foolishly runs off with Whickham, he leaves her with “the hope of more effectually making his fortune by marriage, in some other country” (3.10,3017). He later agrees to the marriage after being bribed by Darcy. He agrees to this, knowing he has extensive gambling debts to pay off, and has no money to pay them. Mrs. Bennet is also a great example of someone who lets money affect her actions, but unlike Darcy, for good reason. For the most part, women are unable to obtain money on their own without inheriting or marrying into good assets during the nineteenth century English society. The Bennet family daughters have almost no money, marriage is the only possible way for them to be financially stable. Mrs Bennet may seem extremely avaricious, yet she understands that money is connected to not only her daughters daily lives, marriage, property, and social status, but hers as well. Mrs Bennet reveals early on “a single man of large fortune...What a fine thing for our girls!” (1.1,2). Right from the start, we as readers understand that Mrs. Bennet’s motive is to marry off her daughters to high income suitors, to asure not only their happiness, but hers as
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