Pride and Prejudice and Beloved -- two, more perfect marital unions

Both the early 19th century novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and the late 20th century novel Beloved by Toni Morrison end with a marriage of two characters whose souls are incommensurate with their societies. It is clear in the 19th century story that the spirited femininity of Elizabeth Bennett is a perfect match for the sardonic, propertied manhood of Mr. Darcy because the two characters are the only individuals who are willing to speak their minds in their society, even though this frequently causes them to have differences with one another and their close friends. For instance, Elizabeth tells her friend Charlotte not to marry a man she does not love, even though he has money, because he is morally inferior to her and socially uncouth -- and Mr. Darcy tells his friend Mr. Bentley not to marry the otherwise irreproachable Jane Bennett because he is unsure, respectively of the good sense and the decent morality of her family such as Mrs. Bennett and Lydia Bennett. The fact that both of their friends defy Elizabeth and Darcy is of no matter -- the fact that the two characters are willing to say such blunt things in a repressed and socially mendacious society and social milieu, where appearance and posturing is all, shows that Elizabeth's wit makes her a match for the manhood of Darcy!

In a much more serious context, Sethe and Paul D. are made for one another. Elizabeth makes her union possible by overcoming her prejudice to Darcy's original comments about her appearance as tolerable, and Darcy redeems his comments about Jane by rehabilitating Lydia's reputation and forcing Wickham to marry the younger Bennett sister. By doing so, he enables himself to marry his perfect emotional match, and for Elizabeth to come into property of even greater wealth than her elder sister. The protagonists of Beloved overcome prejudice, not against one another, but societal prejudice that denies slaves the right to marry. Although the union of former slaves is not highly placed in society like Darcy and Elizabeth's union, the ties between the man and woman of beloved is a marriage of spiritual equals just the same and shows that they now own the most valuable property of all -- themselves.