The theme of love in Pride and Prejudice

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an essay about Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice must begin with the novel’s most recognizable sentence. The book revolves around a twenty-year old girl, Elizabeth Bennet, who hopes to marry for love. Austen’s own life influences the protagonist’s thoughts and actions significantly. She shares some characteristics with the author and also believes in the same morals. Austen uses the book and the opinions of her characters as a means to criticize the society of 18th century England. The novel can therefore be categorized within the genre satire (Bruff A. 2014).

Elizabeth Bennet (portrayed by Jennifer Ehle) and Fitzwilliam Darcy (portrayed by Colin Firth) in the BBC series adaption

The main theme is love. Austen places a high moral value on marrying for love. This aspect can on various occasions be found in the book. She includes both good and bad examples of marriage, praising the good ones and judging the bad ones. Doing so, she addresses the possible social complications which can arise when wanting to marry for love, such as the inequality of women and feelings of superiority due to social status or wealth. These topics in relation to love will be discussed in full length in this essay, starting with social class and wealth.

The concept of class in 18th century England

18th century England consisted of three main classes (Olsen K. 2017):

1. The working class: is never featured in the novels of Jane Austen, which is still a subject of criticism to this day.

2. The middle class: consists of people who worked their way up to wealth and status, such as merchants, lawyers and doctors. Mr Bingley is the friendly eligible bachelor who is a possible marriage candidate for the Bennet sisters. He comes from a successful traders family and also belongs to this class.

3. The upper class: are the people who were born into money. Both the Bennet family and Mr Darcy are part of this group.

Although the Bennet family and Mr Darcy belong to the same social class, the reader immediately notices that there are some important differences between the two.

• Due to his upbringing Mr Darcy grew up to feel superior, thinking less of people outside his social circle, which explains why he acts arrogantly and proud.

• Meanwhile, the social status of the Bennets has been lowered due to their lowly connections (their cousin Mr Collins for example) and due to the location where the Bennet family lived: the countryside was looked down upon.

2 examples of 'bad' marriages

As said above in the introduction, Austen shows in her novel both good and bad examples of marriage. In her opinion, bad marriages are based on achieving wealth and social success instead of on true love and happiness. One of the examples from the book which illustrates this idea is the connection between Elizabeth’s best friend Miss Lucas and Mr Collins.

In the novel Miss Lucas states:

“I am not romantic, [...]. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins’s character, connection, 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.” (Austen, 1992, p87)

This statement sets marriage and love apart as two separate ideals. Miss Lucas didn’t marry out of love, but out of a social necessity. Elizabeth Bennet reflects the author’s opinion by being the one to refuse Mr Collins’ marriage proposal because he is “a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man”. (Austen, 1992, p93) Elizabeth would never marry for social status, and neither would the author herself.

Another good example in this regard and possibly the worst marriage of them all, is the connection between the youngest Bennet, Lydia and Mr Wickham, the man who Elizabeth actually was interested in. The latter had no intention of marrying her whatsoever. Only when Mr Darcy’s generosity alters Lydia’s prospects, does he accept her hand.

It becomes even more clear that Mr Wickham is in search of wealth when Elizabeth learns of Mr Wickham’s true backstory with Georgiana Darcy, Mr Darcy’s sister. He wanted her to elope with him in order to keep her inheritance of 30 000 pounds, which at the time was a huge amount. When he realized he would never receive any of it, he left Georgiana heartbroken.

Showing these bad examples serves as a criticism on people who would marry for wealth and/or social status.

2 examples of 'good' marriages

However, there are two marriages which portray how society should think. The eldest Bennet sister Jane and Mr Bingley almost have the perfect love story. When Miss Bingley, Bingley’s sister, makes remarks about the Bennet’s connections in Cheapside, which is a poor region in London, Mr Bingley’s reaction is one in a million:

“If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside,” cried Bingley, “it would not make them one jot less agreeable.” (Austen, 1992, p25)

He argues that social class or wealth does not affect how good or likeable a person is, which once again also reflects the author’s opinion on the matter.

The next marriage is the one of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, who both behaved in a proud manner and had prejudices against each other, hence the title of the novel. At the end they both reflect on their actions and realize that they handled wrongly. This moment of self-reflection which the two main characters go through has some symbolism. This is a means to show that true love conquers all and that society should rid itself of self-importance and judgemental attitudes (Bruff A. 2014).

Inequality between men and women

Not only does Austen criticize society’s selfish behaviours, but she also denounces the inequality between men and women in that period. Much like today appearance was heavily focused on. How a woman looks is crucial in pursuit of marriage. She has to always be immaculately groomed. When Elizabeth has a chance to dance with Mr Wickham at the Netherfield ball, the book states that “she had dressed with more than usual care, [...]” (Austen, 1992, p 62). This suggests that looking your best could be beneficial in securing a husband.

One of the characters, Miss Bingley also mentions the characteristics of an “accomplished” woman.

“A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages [...] and [...] she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved.” (Austen, 1992, p27)

In this passage Austen once again uses Elizabeth to portray her opinion. She underlines the impossibility to achieve such expectations when Elizabeth says to Mr Darcy:

“I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing any.” (Austen, 1992, p27).

Also, women are not taken seriously. While men are learning the skills to become lawyers and doctors for instance, women are supposed to practice skills to entertain their husbands.

Longbourn, the Bennet Estate from the 2005 movie adaptation.

Furthermore, women are heavily dependent on men in regard to income. Men, first the father and later on the husband, provide for women. They do not own anything themselves. In the case of the Bennet sisters, this is taken a step further. The house of the Bennet family is entailed which means that only one male heir can inherit the property. However, the family only consists of daughters. This means that when their father dies, they will not have any accommodation while unmarried. This is the reason why Mrs Bennet is so obsessed with them marrying well.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Pride and Prejudice serves as a criticism on the society and its morals of 18th century England (Bruff, 2014). In this essay the novel’s mayor theme of love has been discussed, in particular in relation to:

• on the one hand social status and wealth

• and on the other hand the position of women.

The voice of the author is very present in the novel. She reflects on the social conventions which also influenced her own life and happiness. Doing so, she shows the reader both good and bad examples of marriage, denouncing the bad ones and praising the good ones.

Furthermore, she takes a strong stance against the impossible expectations of women. Against all odds, Austen has written a novel whose themes are still relevant today.

Bibliography

• Austen J. (1992) Pride and Prejudice. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited. (Original work published in 1813)

• Bruff A. (2014) Mr Bruff’s Guide to ‘Pride and Prejudice’. Retrieved from https://mrbruff.com/product/mr-bruffs-guide-to-pride-and-prejudice-ebook/

• Olsen K. (2017) Daily Life in 18th-Century England. ABC-CLIO.

Note: A. Bruff makes videos on Youtube using the content of the above cited book. These videos are freely accessible on Youtube, without buying his book. The numbers in superscript in the essay serve as a substitute for page numbers.
 
1 As heard in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XtSePN_BlI&list=PLqGFsWf-P-cDYyP3JXHpSz29JCVZau1JV&index=2
 
2 As heard in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ7cZ6VZces&list=PLqGFsWf-P-cDYyP3JXHpSz29JCVZau1JV&index=8