Marriage in Pride and Prejudice During the early 1800’s many people were considered part of an upper class society known as the aristocrats or nobility. For the women of these groups there was one main goal: marriage to someone who was rich and wealthy so their husbands could take them care of. This way of thinking was definitely prominent in the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; many of the characters marry for sake of money and status. In this paper, I will a few examples of this way of thinking and I will also give the alternative to that way of thinking: marriage out of love. I will then give my opinion on which I think is a better reason for marriage. The first person that I will identify as wanting to marry only for money is Mrs. Bennet. She got married to Mr. Bennet because he had a small fortune and an estate. It appears to me that they aren’t really in love with each other. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet seem to only have been married out of convenience. She is also in a hurry to marry off her daughters to handsome, rich men. She displays this desire when she says, “A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” She goes on to say to Mr. Bennet, “You must know that I am thinking of marrying one of them” (5). Throughout the play she is always doing things to try and force the marriage between Jane and Mr. Bingley. The most outrageous thing that she did was when Jane was sick and she had to be kept at Netherfield. Lizzy went to look after her, and when she felt that it was in Jane’s best interests to go home, Mrs. Bennet said that they couldn’t possibly have it and if the Bingley’s invited them to stay longer, they should. This plan didn’t work out though. Lizzy was far too uncomfortable being there and she had already resolved that she wouldn’t possibly stay another day there. On Lizzy’s insistence, Ja...
