Unmarried and Married in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
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International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Volume 5, Issue 11, November 2017, PP 4-13 ISSN 2347-3126 (Print) & ISSN 2347-3134 (Online) http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2347-3134.0511002 www.arcjournals.org Unmarried and Married in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Eljvira Kica South East European University, Tetovo, R. Macedonia *Corresponding Author: Eljvira Kica, South East European University, Tetovo, R. Macedonia Abstract: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a novel which is based on the authentic situations of the eighteenth-nineteenth century England. The novel shows clearly how life was during this period, how the choice of the partner was made, the discrimination of females and their absence in important and decisive events. In her novel, Austen focuses in marriages based on economical conditions, considering marriage as a business in which most of the families of the eighteenth century were involved. Most of her characters are preoccupied about the harsh reality of the marriage market, most of the marriages take place in a situation where parents decide what is good or bad for young girls or boys, and most of the marriages take place within a young age, especially for girls. This paper relies with the ways how Jane Austen describes the conditions of unmarried and married women in Pride and Prejudice, and their choice of a partner; how Jane Austen compares the married and unmarried couples in her novel with the real situation of the eighteenth century in British society; how Jane Austen describes the people who find a match for their children, friends or relatives and the message that Jane Austen conveys through her novel. Keywords: Marriage, couples, unmarried, money, love, class, interest, society. 1. INTRODUCTION Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a novel which tells the story of Elizabeth Bennet, the main character of the story, and her family in the period of the eighteenth- nineteenth century. The Bennets had five daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia and since these sisters did not possess any valuable property, their only way was a marriage with someone of a great property. In her novel, Jane Austen involved different kinds of marriages, such as matched marriages, romantic love marriages and also elopement of lovers. Since most of the marriages of the eighteenth century were decided by the parents and “women were expected to behave modest, submissive, and, most important: incapable of independent thought” (Strohmeier, 2013). “Austen’s work Pride and Prejudice is a novel that unites the main possibilities of finding happiness through marriage” (Strohmeier, 2013). Not being satisfied with the current situation of marriages happening in the eighteenth century ,Austen does not directly express this dissatisfaction but “she makes use of declarations and behavior of her women characters to assert it” (Dobosiova, 2006). Since most of the novel goes around the marriage of Bennet sisters in order to find the most suitable person to marry, three out of five sisters achieve to get married. Because the aim of this paper is to analyze the situations in which these three sisters went through, to find their match and also to analyze the relationships of the already married couples, the main focus and the more detailed analyses with be based on Elizabeth Bennet and her relationship with Fitzwilliam Darcy, Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley, Lydia Bennet and George Wickham, Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins and also the relationship of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. 2. UNMARRIED IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 2.1. Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins The relationship of Charlotte and Collins represents a relationship typical for the period of the eighteenth century. Their relationship is not based on love, but on finding a partner to spend their life. Charlotte, Elizabeth’s best friend, was at the age of twenty- seven, and she was not lucky enough to be beautiful. Since most of the girls of the eighteenth century attended balls to find husbands, trying to International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Page | 4 Unmarried and Married in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice show their physical beauty, Charlotte knew that she would not be evaluated by her intelligence. Men were considered to be above women, and since women lacked education, they were supposed to depend of their husbands. “The married women became a ‘feme covert’ and performed all of her actions under the ‘wing, protection, and cover’ of her husband” (Lewis, 2016). Mr. Collins, “was a tall, heavy- looking young man of five-and-twenty” (Austen, 1995). Shortly after Elizabeth’s refusal to Mr. Collins’ proposal, he proposed to Charlotte, who accepted him immediately, by believing that “happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance” (Austen, 1995). “Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society; the greatest part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and miserly father; and though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance. The subjection in which his father had brought him up had given him originally great humility of manner; but it was now a good deal counteracted by the self-conceit of a weak head, living in retirement, and the consequential feelings of early and unexpected prosperity… his authority as a clergyman, and his right as e rector, made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self- importance and humility” (Austen, 1995). Collins believed that the upper-class people were superior, had better behavior and were more elegant. He admired Lady Catherine; even though, she acted arrogantly to many people. He considered her superior and believed that she was an extraordinary woman. Whatever Lady Catherine told him, he considered it to be correct. Taking from what Lady Catherine had taught Mr. Collins, Collins considered himself superior to other people, especially the Bennets’ sisters. Being present in his life for a long time, Lady Catherine was the example of perfection in the eyes of Mr. Collins only because she was rich and showed authority. Austen reflects the consequences of being educated by a woman such as Lady Catherine through Mr. Collins. He chose to marry without love and chose a partner only because he had to get married and create a family, only because he was grown enough to have a wife. Charlotte “…had gained her point, and had time to consider it…Mr. Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband. Without thinking highly either of men or matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only provision for well- educated young women of a small fortune…” (Austen, 1995). Although Charlotte respected her friend, Elizabeth, so much, and she knew that Elizabeth was not happy enough for Charlotte to accept Collins’s proposal, immediately after Elizabeth’s refusal, again Charlotte was in need of financial security because she did not have enough materialistic conditions to be supported; as a result, her father did not have good relationships with the landed gentry. “So, in her solitude she suffers and she does not want to prolong her sufferings as she is compelled to observe her painful situation” (Haque, 2013). Charlotte reflects the woman in her society, who had no other profession and considered marriage as the only means of having a stable life. Her marriage was loveless marriage and Charlotte was aware of it, but she was happy to have “made a satisfactory adjustment to her conjugal life” (Haque, 2013). Through this marriage Austen proves to the readers “the consequences of placing practicality before romance which was not uncommon in the eighteenth century England” (Haque, 2013). For Charlotte and Collins “marriage is a market place where they must strive to make the best bargain they can in order to conserve or improve their status of life…through her marriage she achieves what she wants- financial stability, status and independence in becoming a mistress of her own house…her marriage is not ideal but she is able to escape social pressure and humiliation as well as social isolation” (Haque, 2013). “…the fact that Charlotte has weighed her own options and chosen marriage as her ‘pleasantest preservative from want’ suggests at least a degree of taste; although Mr. Collins is no prize, still…Charlotte has sufficient cultural competence to make distinctions among ‘preservatives from want’ “(Lambdin; Lambdin, 2000). Through the pairing, the author is able to comment on the lack of romance and passion found in the economically based marriages like that of Mr. and Mrs. Collins” (Berry, 2014). 2.2. Lydia Bennet and George Wickham The relationship of Lydia Bennet and George Wickham is a relationship based on naivety and a forced marriage. Their character is described as a total contradiction, and her way of acting with her elopement brought a lot of debate in the house. As a girl of sixteen, Lydia was too much involved in gossiping, and her main aim in life was finding a husband. She was “a stout…with a fine complexion International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Page | 5 Unmarried and Married in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and good- humored countenance; a favorite with her mother, whose affection had brought her into public at an early age. She had high animal spirits, and a sort of natural self- consequence, which the attention of the officers, to whom her uncle’s good manners, and her own easy manners recommended her, had increased into assurance” (Austen, 1995).