Examine Austen's presentation of marriage in 'Pride and Prejudice' by discussing three or four relationships. What can we deduce about Austen's attitudes to marriage?

... Examine Austen's presentation of marriage in 'Pride and Prejudice' by discussing three or four relationships. What can we deduce about Austen's attitudes to marriage? "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Ironically, every woman, in general, with or without a fortune, was in want of a husband in the late 1700's into the early 1800's, the time period of Jane Austen's novel. In Jane Austen's time when Pride and Prejudice was created, marriage virtually dominated a woman's purpose in life and was greatly influenced by her family and social class. The leading relationships that I am to approach are Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, Mr Collins & Charlotte Lucas and Lydia Bennet and George Wickham.' I will first discuss the main relationship, which is portrayed in the novel, between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Elizabeth Bennet is

want to read more? →