Explore Austen’s Presentation Of Marriage in Pride & Prejudice Essays

Explore Austen’s Presentation Of Marriage in Pride & Prejudice Marriage forms the basis of the events featured in Pride and Prejudice and is presented in various ways in order to convey to readers the importance of it in society and the expectations which come with it. Throughout the book, Austen clarifies what makes a good marriage and how society views marriage as a unity of equal classes and a way to establish connections. The first aspect of marriage which is revealed is the way a person’s position in society affects the choice of partner. Austen states in the opening line of the book: â€Å"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife† This line both sets out the beliefs that were held by society at the time, but also the tone of the book and the attitudes of the characters featured. From this line, we can learn that society considered marriage to be not only a unity of two people but also a unity of assets and connections in society. The expectations held by people are also revealed in the way that it is expected of men with a sound financial status to succeed in marrying a woman of equal if not higher status in order to maintain the connections previously established. This line stresses the belief that wealth was of great importance in society and that it was a factor that was taken into consideration even before love and was believed to form the basis of a successful marriage. Another aspect portrayed by this line is the extent to which Austen included irony in her writing. The word universal for example indicated that this is a worldwide belief, however, it is the belief of the several characters portrayed throughout th... ...formed due to the upbringing of people in different classes and the fact that women at the time had very few rights and little independence and therefore relied on men much more than in today’s society. Due to the extreme differences between the classes, many views were held in order to keep money in one family; such as the view of arranged marriages between relations. Society had very strict views on what was and was not acceptable behaviour and people such as Lydia who broke these unwritten codes of conduct suffered exclusion from society. Although the storyline speaks about love and marriage, it also reveals to readers other aspects of society which are not as positive, such as a marriage of convenience, and therefore helps readers to understand why many characters acted in the way they did and how society affected behaviour and influenced decisions.