In Pride and Prejudice, the relationship between love and marriage is the core of all problems and therefore the issue the novel revolves around.
One of the reasons why Jane Austen's novel is still so widely read and talked about today, is that despite the social and political changes, the hard questions the characters face are also relevant today. Women today are - in most parts of the world - free to pursue careers and make their own destiny, but it's no surprise that many women face the same dilemmas as Austen's heroines. And for that matter, the heroes as well.
At the time when Pride and Prejudice takes place, love was much more a bonus than a necessity for marriage. A cherry on top, so to say. It's the reason why Elizabeth's heart breaks so badly for Jane, because she sees that rare opportunity being taken away from her sister by people who will not accept their family's lower standing. She herself is much more rational about her own options, since she knows she's not the stereotypical wife the gentlemen are looking for.
The novel's world, the society the characters live in, is cruel towards the relationship between love and marriage. Whether a man or a woman, everyone is expected to follow a certain standard, marry within their status and try to live with the person they ended up with. The task of the gentlemen is to ask and the task of the women is to say yes, which is the pattern most of the novel spends breaking.
Elizabeth says no to a few proposals and both men are taken aback. Their first reaction is deep surprise, because it honestly never occurred to either of them that a young woman in Elizabeth's situation would ever turn them down. That is the reaction of upbringing. The secondary reaction is what makes the difference. Mr. Collins, who did not truly love Elizabeth, moves on quickly, determined to find a wife, as he thinks is his duty. Mr. Darcy, who did, starts to consider that perhaps love is an integral part of marriage. True love triumphs in the novel, because at no point is Mr. Darcy as out of options as Elizabeth is, but it is he who has to keep asking her. They both push their way out of the standard way it goes.
The novel makes a gift of happiness to Elizabeth and Jane, rewarding them with good men and good fortune, but it's Austen's brilliance that she doesn't let the reader truly forget how lucky they are. Elizabeth's friend Charlotte is the one who ends up marrying Mr. Collins and it's the scene where the two friends speak of it that really drives the truth home.
Love was not a prerequisite for marriage in the novel and at the time. Most women had to pick their fates more carefully and in a way, Charlotte's happiness was the most realistic of them. She accepted a good home, a dependable (if not lovable) man and security. Jane and Elizabeth "won", in their way, but perhaps the relationship between love and marriage is best exemplified by Elizabeth's completely stunned reaction to Mr. Darcy's final proposal. Even she couldn't believe a gentlemen would ask one more time, after being humiliated by her refusal before.
The novel still stands as one of the best romances ever written, because when the love is true, people dare and do what they previously considered impossible.
The comparison and contrasting of Jane and Elizabeth helps the reader to see each character with increased depth. Overall, Jane is a bit cooler than Elizabeth, more apt to see the good in someone and not jump immediately to conclusions. Had Darcy not wanted to dance with her, no doubt her response would have been to see that Darcy was shy and uncomfortable, a marked contrast from the anger that these same actions brought out in Elizabeth. Although cooler, Jane is also quicker to love. Her attachment to Bingley, once established, remains strong. It is fairly straightforward when contrasted to Elizabeth’s circuitous route to Darcy through Mr. Collins and Wickham. Throughout the novel, there is no other contender for Jane’s heart. Although certainly keenly aware of their financial disparity, neither Jane nor Bingley seem particularly concerned about the vast differences in their social standings.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, is not as coolheaded as Jane. She is quicker to respond to perceived slights, quick to form an opinion which is then not easily changed. Clearly her pride and prejudice, as much as Darcy’s, lead to the novel’s title. The financial disparity between Elizabeth and Darcy sharply contrasts to that found between Jane and Bingley. It is Darcy who tells Bingley that Jane is not good enough for him and it is Darcy who proposes to Elizabeth against his better judgment. At all times, Elizabeth is acutely aware of the different places she and Darcy occupy in society. Unlike Jane, Elizabeth must struggle to come to terms with those differences and love Darcy in spite of them. Thus, Elizabeth’s love for Darcy leads to her own personal metamorphosis. Her struggle to overcome her pride makes her love for Darcy stronger than that which Jane has for Bingley. The Jane at the end of the novel is, for the most part, the Jane at the beginning while Elizabeth is vastly changed, having struggled to find her happy ending.
The relationship between love and marriage is a major theme Austen develops in Pride and Prejudice.
Austen's novel examines the ways money intersects with love and marriage. In a perfect world, we would simply marry the person we love. In the world of the early nineteenth century that Austen depicts, marriage is also, and perhaps primarily, a financial transaction.
For instance, Elizabeth's close friend Charlotte Lucas marries for practical reasons. She is not in love with the ridiculous Mr. Collins, a man she hardly knows when he proposes to her. She marries him because she is 27, an age considered old for being unmarried in those days. She knows she is not beautiful, and she does not want to be a financial burden on her brothers after her parents die. Mr. Collins offers her a secure home and the status that comes with being a clergyman's wife. She knows as well that he will inherit Elizabeth's father's estate. Charlotte states that marriage is always a gamble, saying that it is impossible to predict who will end up happy. She says:
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least.
At first, Elizabeth is shocked and appalled when she hears of her friend's decision to marry Mr. Collins. However, when she visits Charlotte and sees the sensible way her friend has arranged her life, she becomes less judgmental. Through Charlotte, Austen shows sympathy for the plight of the women of her time, whose only "career option" was to marry well.
Elizabeth must also accept that her initial strong attraction to Wickham can lead to nothing. He has little money and she has no dowry. If Wickham is prudent, he will marry a woman of fortune. In Austen's understanding of the world, it would be foolish for two people, no matter how much in love, to marry without some financial security. To her mind, economic stresses would undermine and possibly destroy true love. Austen depicts Lydia's elopement with Wickham, for example, as an utterly foolish act. This is not only because Wickham would have loved her and then left her, but also because the couple has no money.
Elizabeth watches in distress as Bingley's friends separate him from Jane. They are concerned that the Bennet family is too ridiculous to be married into. This shows how status concerns could separate people in love.
Finally, Elizabeth herself recognizes that she starts to fall in love with Darcy when she visits his beautiful and wealthy Pemberley estate. For all her earlier protestations that she would only marry someone she loved and esteemed, wealth, even for her, sweetens the idea. As she tours Pemberley with her aunt and uncle, she begins to regret turning down Darcy's marriage proposal:
She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!
The thought returns later:
And of this place,” thought she, “I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own, and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt.
Elizabeth does love and esteem Darcy, but Austen never loses sight of the fact that money makes a big difference. The novel ends happily as far as love is concerned, but it also illustrates that for women without money, love alone might not be enough to make a marriage possible.
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