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The Institution Of Marriage In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

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The institution of marriage is a chief concern of Jane Austen’s novels, though she never married. This does not necessarily mean that she did not know what love is. This paper discusses about the Institution of Marriage and how this institution affected women, through Pride and Prejudice and Sense and sensibility.
There were so many laws prevailing in Victorian Era, and they had a major impact on women. At that time laws were based on the idea that after Marriage a woman becomes the property of man and now he has to take care of her. Marriages for women at that time were more like a contract, because laws were so rigid. Women were the property of their husbands just like American slaves were of their masters. Marriages were like a business at that time. Monetary security was first and love the second. This is …show more content…

According to this act, the married as well as unmarried women shared the same rights over property. Through this act a married woman had a right to retain possession of property that she might have received as a present from a parent. Before Married women’s Property Act Women had no right over the property she brought into, even after a divorce; a husband had complete legal authority over any financial gain attained by his wife; women weren't allowed to open bank accounts; and married women weren't able to conclude a contract without her husband's legal approval. Owing to these restrictions on the property, it was absolutely troublesome or not possible for a woman to go away a failing marriage, or she cannot show any authority over her finances if her husband was not capable or willing to try and do this on her behalf. The legitimization of the 1893 Married Women's Property Act completed this method .After the passing of this Act married women had full licensed authority over all the property she has in hand before marriage, be it any sort of property or property from an inheritance or the money she

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