Pride and Prejudice: Marriage, Class, and Character Growth

Introduction: Austen's Satirical Vision

One of the most valued works of English literature, Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813 by British writer Jane Austen and is considered both a romance and a social satire. An aesthetic reaction to the pressures and constraints of Regency England, the novel attempts to reconcile social status, marriage, and happiness through a love story that overcomes two major faults of character.

Austen opens the novel on a satirical note with the celebrated line: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" (Austen 1). This immediately hints at the moral and social climate of the early nineteenth century, when great emphasis was placed on class, reputation, marriage, and prosperity. From another point of view, the opening may be read as a biased opinion disguised as universal truth. Far from a universal precept, it is a fine example of the author's use of free indirect style — a literary technique that renders one character's subjective view in the form of an external judgment. Should the reader attribute these words to a specific character, it is reasonable to assume they belong to the marriage-conscious Mrs. Bennet: "A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!" (Austen 1).

Marriage, Money, and Social Propriety

Marriage serves many roles in the novel: it stands not only for romantic union, but also for social appropriateness, financial stability, and a means of resolving conflict. The interconnection between money and marriage in Austen's literary world in general, and in Pride and Prejudice in particular, might seem troubling two centuries later.

However, it is worth noting that, even though some characters — such as Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins — treat marriage as a purely commercial transaction, it would have been entirely sensible in that era to give such a step serious consideration. A suitable match had to be respectable in the eyes of society and had to secure the couple's future through a satisfactory financial settlement, since during the Regency period there was no health insurance, unemployment compensation, or retirement pension. Mr. Collins illustrates this preoccupation plainly when he voices his concern at Elizabeth's refusal of his proposal: "…if you take it into your head to go on refusing every offer of marriage in this way, you will never get a husband at all — and I am sure I do not know who is to maintain you when your father is dead" (Austen 87).

Austen's desire to make prosperity and romantic desire congruent materializes in the developing love story between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, two characters of discrepant social rank initially driven apart by pride and prejudice. All the other matches in the novel are secondary in importance and exist to support or modify the issues raised between hero and heroine (Bloom 59).

Elizabeth Bennet: Principle Over Self-Interest

Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice, is the second of the five Bennet sisters and, in her father's words, "has something more of quickness than her sisters" (Austen 2). It is her perspective that Austen covers most frequently throughout the novel. The ongoing dialogue portrays her as a lively, clever, and spirited woman of substance. Her refusal of Collins's marriage proposal indicates that she is unwilling to place self-interest above principle, as a marriage devoid of affection and respect would constitute a sacrifice of "every better feeling to worldly advantage" (Austen 96).

She stands out in the sense that her character and honesty dissociate her from the middle-class predisposition toward mediocrity or lack of education, yet she is equally distinguished by a virtuous pride and a tendency to rush to judgment.