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Pride And Prejudice Theme Of Marriage

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Jane Austen’s novel of Pride and Prejudice is set in the early 19th century with the central themes of the novel being love and marriage. Marriage was viewed very differently in those days and each character in the novel has different views of marriage. According to women, marriage gave status and independence as women could not acquire money on their own without inheriting or marrying into good fortune. Due to this, many girls at that time did not marry for affection or love but for money and status. Jane Austen uses the Bennet family to illustrate different types of marriage and thus reveals her own view on the topic. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” This is the first line of the novel Pride and Prejudice and stands as one of the most famous lines in literature. It explains almost the whole plot of the novel in one simple sentence. The fixation with socially advantageous marriage in nineteenth-century English society reveals itself here, …show more content…

Bingley drastically. The only reason Jane wanted to marry Wickham was for his money. She got so focused on marrying him that she dropped everything and went to Scotland with Wickham. She didn't even realize what she was doing to the people that she left at home. Again, the opening line of Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” seems to reflect mainly on Wickham. He was in possession of a good fortune and all he wanted was a wife. He wanted one so bad he married a woman that he didn't even love and Jane fits into the reversed version of the quote because almost everyone else in the book is getting married but her, the only difference is that the other people get married because they are in love not because they are in need of a

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