Love and Marriage for Women in Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is considered, if not her best novel, her most popular one. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” The sentence with which the novel begins refers suggests that poor single woman must are be desperate for a husband. In the 19th century, women’s concern was to find a husband. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen portrays the theme of love and marriage through the feminine character.
Through the main character, Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Austen depicts a woman who believes in marriage for love, which was not common at that time. Elizabeth misjudgement of Mr. Darcy’s character makes she her turn him down after the first proposal, although he is considerably more rich than she. As she states, “From the very beginning, […] I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.” Elizabeth is against a marriage without love, no matter how rich the man is. Only at the end of Pride and Prejudice does Darcy reveal his real character completely and it makes Elizabeth to be aware of her love for Darcy. Elizabeth’s initial rejection of Darcy usefully assures us that she is not marrying him for his money, but for loving him.
In contrast, the character of Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s best friend, agrees to marry the unattractive but wealthy Mr. Collins after Elizabeth has rejected him. As Charlotte argues when she was is talking to Elizabeth, “I am not a romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collin’s character, connections, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair, as most people can boast on entering the marriage state”. Charlotte supports the idea of marriage for a comfortable establishment rather than for love. Moreover, Elizabeth’s mother's  , Mrs. Bennet, only concern in the novel is to get her daughters married as soon as possible. In the novel Mrs. Bennet says to Elizabeth, “But I tell you what, Miss Lizzy, if you take it into your head to go on refusing every offer of marriage in this way, you will never get a husband at all — and I am sure I do not know who is to maintain you when your father is dead.” By the middle of the history Elizabeth has turned down the proposal of marriage from Mr. Collins, but Mrs. Bennet expected Elizabeth to accept the proposal because she is a woman and that marriage would improve her financial situation.

This is a good summary of the novel, and your English is excellent!